American Express Question

DeedsCali

Hey All,

off the hat question regarding Amex accept rate in the UK, is it a difficult card to get accepted for, I know there are numerous different cards but I just wondered what sort of credit you would have to have built up to pass on it, has anybody who has only recently started building a credit rating ever been granted an Amex card?

Any thoughts are welcome

Thanks!

Mikhail

DeedsCali wrote: »

Hey All,

off the hat question regarding Amex accept rate in the UK, is it a difficult card to get accepted for, I know there are numerous different cards but I just wondered what sort of credit you would have to have built up to pass on it, has anybody who has only recently started building a credit rating ever been granted an Amex card?

Any thoughts are welcome

Thanks!

In my experience Amex is very unpredictable, I only lived in the UK for 3 years when I applied for their CC and I've received it even without being on the electoral roll. I have had Barclaycard and Capital One CCs at that time.

reclusive46

Try applying for the Basic charge card. My eldest son applied for it when he was 18 and he got accepted for it with no previous credit history. Acceptance wise its accepted anywhere major. Normally just the little shops that don't take it.

JohalaReewi

Sometimes they like you to have a large salary and decent credit history, othertimes they are not fussy.
I was turned down for a few credit cards, then tried Amex and was accepted.

Buzby

I have to say Amex is very much the poor relation, with many Merchants refusing to accept ther card (usually due to their high commission rates). I gave up with the card for this reason.

yesican

My neighbour got rid of hers because not many people accept it.

chattychappy

JohalaReewi wrote: »

Sometimes they like you to have a large salary and decent credit history, othertimes they are not fussy.
I was turned down for a few credit cards, then tried Amex and was accepted.

What they really like is to get as many cards out there as possible, whilst at the same time pretending it is very exclusive.

Acceptance is patchy. You really can't get by on Amex without a Mastercard/Visa card also.

bobthedambuilder

Most supermarkets and petrol stations now accept them, and in my experience most restaurants. Very few problems with acceptance for online purchases (esp. Amazon, Ebay etc).

No, I don't work for Amex, but I do get a substantial chunk of cashback for using their card :T.

thegoodman

bobthedambuilder wrote: »

Most supermarkets and petrol stations now accept them, and in my experience most restaurants. Very few problems with acceptance for online purchases (esp. Amazon, Ebay etc).

No, I don't work for Amex, but I do get a substantial chunk of cashback for using their card :T.

For cash back the best card is capital one with 1.25% and it is a master card so you can use it every where and no fee. Amex charge £25 a year.

zagfles

thegoodman wrote: »

For cash back the best card is capital one with 1.25% and it is a master card so you can use it every where and no fee. Amex charge £25 a year.

Mine doesn't have a fee. Cashback goes up in stages to 1.5% max I think.

xavisxavis

thegoodman wrote: »

For cash back the best card is capital one with 1.25% and it is a master card so you can use it every where and no fee. Amex charge £25 a year.

That is not entirely true - Capital One only gives 1.25% on purchases from 10,000GBP+. You get 0.5% for the first 6,000, and 1.0% for 6000 - 10000.

Doing simple math, we can see that if you spend more than 3,333.33GBP per year, then the American Express card will always beat out the Capital One card - even factoring in the 25GBP fee.

However, you are correct in saying that AMEX is less widely accepted.