Martin - Amex MoneyBack - Breach of T&Cs

mike.magill

Martin,

Thank you for all you do. You’ve certainly saved me some money!

I have been having a long standing battle with American Express over fraudulent charges on my account and now they are trying to rip me off (and all their customers) regarding their cashback. I would like your opinion and possibly your help.

I believe you are aware that Amex originally offered 0.5% on the first £2,000 followed by 1% on the next £3,000 and 2% thereafter. They then changed their terms and conditions 7 months through my first year to 0.5% on the first £3,000 followed by 1% on the next £4,500 and 2% thereafter. The letter stated the following:

“These changes to MoneyBack will be effective from the day your October account charges are calculated. These changes will not apply to MoneyBack earned prior to this date.”

I knew at the time that this was going to cause problems at the end of the year and I was right. Amex have just calculated my annual rebate and they have used the new rates for the whole year. I have personally only lost out by £17.50 but this will affect all their customers, some by a significant amount.

In my opinion the only equitable way to calculate the rebate is to apply the old rate to the points earned and then take 7/12 of that and add that to 5/12 of the rebate using the points earned at the new rates. That’s how I got my difference of £17.50.


Please tell me I’m not wrong. To give an extreme example of what Amex could have done – Amex could have changed their T&Cs on the last day of the year to offer say 0.1% on all spend in the year and then, using the approach they’ve used with me, I would have lost out by c.£200. Just because the amount is smaller doesn’t make it right, does it?