American Express Platinum - being treated unfairly and what to do about it

tomreid10

Hi all,

Many of you will be having your old Blue Cards transferred to the new Platinum cards at the moment.

Seems Amex have put themselves in the ridiculous situation of not offering the 3 months 5% cashback on people getting these cards as replacements, but they do offer the 5% of you cancel the card you just got and re-apply "as a new customer".

I've copied and pasted an e-mail I just sent to their UK Chief Exec (I verified he was the right guy on two different websites).

I'll post their response if I get one.


cheers

Mail to: {Edited by MSE Team}

Good evening Mr {Edited by MSE Team}, I wanted to bring something to your attention.

I have been an American Express customer in the UK for over 10 years. I was very
fond of my Blue Card and was quite put out when I got the letter saying American
Express were removing them and replacing them all with Platinum cards.

I did some research on and saw that you do offer an
interesting range of alternative cards and I was attracted to the 5% initial
cashack offer for the first three months on the Platinum card. I thought about
applying for the Platinum card ahead of time, to take advantage of this offer,
however I called American Express customer services and the person I spoke to
told me that, as I was getting the Platinum card to replace the blue card I
would be "treated as a new customer" and get the 5% initial cashback.

I just activated the Platinum card I received yesterday and the checked the
American Express website and it still stated that the cashback rate was 1%.

I therefore called American Express customer services and spoke to {Edited by MSE Team}

He told me that what I had been previously told was incorrect and that, as
there were thousands of transfers to the Platinum cards, that it would be
impossible to offer the 5% initial cashback to customers transferring from the
blue card. I was being treated as a transfer, not a new customer. When I asked
him if I simply cancelled my card there and then and applied for a new one, he
confirmed that I would then be treated as a new customer and get the 5%. He also
stated that there was a risk my application would not be successful (I can't
imagine why) and I may be left without a credit card. I told him that I had
plenty of other cards and that if I was turned down I would simply walk away
from American Express for good.

What seemed ludicrous though is that it would obviously cost American Express
money to cancel a card they had just issued me and process an application for me
as a new customer and send me another platinum card the same as the one I have
now (but with 5% cashback for three months) and I told him it would be a lot
simpler (and cheaper) for American Express to just give me the 5% on the card I
have now. He told me they couldn't do that, he also checked with his manager and
I was told again that they couldn't do that.

Before I waste your money cancelling this card and re-applying for the same
card, I wanted to give you the chance to correct this situation.

[Deleted User]

I take your point, but from their point of view, it will be more commercially viable not to offer 5% cashback for everyone, and just give it the couple of percent who cancel and reapply and take the risk of being rejected - which will be reasonably high, given the criteria is probably stricter today, compared to when the Blue card was being handed out hand over fist a few years back.

Hopefully you'll get lucky and they'll give you the 5% offer.

tomreid10

I see where you are coming from. From my point of view though I could have applied for the Platinum card a few months ago whilst I still had the Blue Card. If they had turned me down for the Platinum then I'd still have my Blue card. As I trusted what they told me (that transferees from the Blue to the Platinum would get the 5%), I didn't apply for an additional card and just waited for the new one. Now they tell me that what they told me before was wrong.

cheers

catflea

Doesn't seem likely in the slightest to me that they would have set the new cards up with the 5% rate. And I doubt very much indeed that anyone within Amex would have promised it to you. The whole point of it is to attract NEW people not butter up the existing ones. Plus, on the platinum you get the 1.25% tier that the blue never had.

tomreid10

However unlikely, that's what I was told.

tomreid10

As an update to this, it had a happy outcome, American Express gave me 50 pounds compensation. So if anyone else has been misled by Amex in this way, as ever, it pays to comlain. cheers

catflea

well, not really. the bonus 5% would have resulted in an extra £90 of cashback.... (above the standard rate)

Well done for getting something though