Amex - Preferred Rewards Gold vs Platinum Cashback

[Deleted User]

And I will just add (because it took me a while to notice it). If you go to your PR Gold Card page on your Amex online account and click on 'view & redeem rewards' it takes you to another page. On that page up towards the top on the blue bar, click on 'My Points' and it will show you a statement giving details of each transaction, how many base points you received and also how many bonus/travel etc for each transaction.

Maybe it's just me but I thought this seemed a little tucked away.

Penelopa.Pitstop

thesaver79 wrote: »

Lazyloki,
1) I made a transaction today to buy a monthly Travelcard with TFL. It shows up in the Finance category rather than travel. I've sent an email to check if they can correct that manually. Any experience on this?

Usually this transaction was getting me triple points as mentioned in other answer. If it wasn't categorised as travel automatically you have to send message to customer service and they will correct it.

thesaver79

Penelopa.Pitstop wrote: »

Usually this transaction was getting me triple points as mentioned in other answer. If it wasn't categorised as travel automatically you have to send message to customer service and they will correct it.

Thanks. I emailed them and they said they'll do it as soon as the transaction is confirmed and appears in the statement.

Any other miscategorisations to watch out for?

michaels

OK - I use each card for its introductory offer when spending is generally worth 5x then switch to a new one, AMEX gold is very good as you get the points straight away rather than cashback where you have to wait for a year so you can close and be a new customer much sooner. Eg compare to capital 1, spend 2k in first 3 months, cap 1 gets you £100, amex gold gets you 24000 rewards which can be transfered to £120 at Sains or M&S, capital one wait 12 months to get paid then close the card and wait 6(?) months to be a new customer whereas Amex gold cash in points as soon as you get the bonus, close account and reapply in 6 months. Avoids the fee as well.

1 credit search per quarter is also manageable. Good intro cards at the moment are capital one, Amex, aquacard, barclaycard cashback etc.

jelajelavic

The TFL oyster card automatically updates to travel if you wait a while. Ive been periodically checking mine and I always get the travel bonus for oyster card top ups and travel cards, despite it saying finance as a category. I would wait a little while then double check and email them if it hasn't updated after a couple of weeks. Customer service usually very good.

thesaver79

michaels wrote: »

wait 12 months to get paid then close the card and wait 6(?) months to be a new customer whereas Amex gold cash in points as soon as you get the bonus, close account and reapply in 6 months. Avoids the fee as well.

Has anyone actually done this? Would they actually accept you again for the same card? It sounds like a very blunt way of avoiding annual fees...

reclusive46

thesaver79 wrote: »

Has anyone actually done this? Would they actually accept you again for the same card? It sounds like a very blunt way of avoiding annual fees...

If you spend enough Rententions will often credit back a significant part of the annual fee or give your membership reward points worth more than the annual fee.

thesaver79

reclusive46 wrote: »

If you spend enough Rententions will often credit back a significant part of the annual fee or give your membership reward points worth more than the annual fee.

That IS interesting to know! I wonder how much "enough" is?

Penelopa.Pitstop

reclusive46 wrote: »

If you spend enough Rententions will often credit back a significant part of the annual fee or give your membership reward points worth more than the annual fee.

I tried negotiating last year and they were willing to give me some bonus points but not waive the annual fee. I was told that they are not allowed to do this now. In past my annual fee was reduced with no problem.

It was not worth keeping the card as I was getting better return from BMI Credit Card (introductory 20K miles on £500 spend in 3 months.)

I plan to reapply for Gold card again this year, assuming that first year will be free.