American Express Green Card

Jcts

Hi all

I applied for an American Express Green Card on 19/08/13 and was quite surprised to be instantly accepted. I received an email telling me to expect my card and pin within 10 working days.

Has anyone ever had this email, only to be rejected later? I'm just a little shocked I was accepted. Is this card easy to get?

Also, has anyone had any experience of the time frames from acceptance to receiving the card?

And finally, does this mean i'm in with a shout for their Platinum credit card?

I know it's a lot of questions and many thanks in advance

pingles

time frames from acceptance to receiving the card?

I opened the Preferred Rewards charge card and I think it was about 5-7 working days from being accepted to receiving the card. You don't need to wait for the PIN letter as they let you view it online once you've activated your card.

does this mean i'm in with a shout for their Platinum credit card?

Difficult to say. In the US there seems to be a belief that revolvers are trickier for acceptance than charge cards (people argue that in contrast charge cards give Amex more control over their credit exposure). Having said that, I'm pretty sure Amex are supposed to be better at letting you open other products once you have a bit of history with them.

I opened the Plat Cashback card at the beginning of the year, in the last 2 months I decided to switch my spend to their Gold charge card and the BA Premium Plus card- I'll close my Platinum card once I've had my cashback paid. When I spoke to them after opening the plat card about opening the gold card they suggested waiting 6 months before applying.

On my experience I would suggest using your charge card as much as you can to establish a regular set of spend and repayment, wait 6 months and then go for something else.

Jcts

Thank you for the reply and info! That's very helpful. Hopefully the card will come before the bank holiday. Good about being able to view the pin online, I like that.

That was my plan, to build up a bit of a history with them first. Thanks a lot!

zerog

For charge cards they seem to be accepting anybody who declares they have sufficient income and no adverse payment history. They have been advertising the gold card quite a lot recently, so they seem to be wanting new customers (and ditching previously loyal customers by raising platinum fees etc)

Green card has a fee of £60 (and I think a separate fee for MR) and very little benefits apart from extra warranties on your purchases, so they should be quite happy to accept most people

The PIN comes from the US and mine took 2 months to arrive... wasn't even expecting it since I checked online as soon as I got the card.

Jcts

Hmmm I see. It's not bad protection and has a good reward programme but i'm just happy to get my foot in the door at Amex.

Wow, 2 months? Why the heck would they send it from the US?

[Deleted User]

Why did you apply for the Green Card?!

It has the exact same application requirements as the Gold Card but you have to pay the £60 fee while you could have had the Gold for free for the first year... And you would have got the 20,000 MR point intro bonus (if you would have made the required spend). Even if you couldn't make the required spend for the bonus, you'd get double points on travel/supermarket spend and wouldn't have to pay a fee.

If I were you I'd be calling Amex up and asking if you can switch to the Gold...

chattychappy

Jcts wrote: »

but i'm just happy to get my foot in the door at Amex.

Why do you see it that way? Don't buy into the privilege/prestige/exclusivity nonsense. As noted, Amex is relatively easy to get.

It is just a product like any other - for which you are paying.

Jcts

Lazyloki wrote: »

Why did you apply for the Green Card?!

It has the exact same application requirements as the Gold Card but you have to pay the £60 fee while you could have had the Gold for free for the first year... And you would have got the 20,000 MR point intro bonus (if you would have made the required spend). Even if you couldn't make the required spend for the bonus, you'd get double points on travel/supermarket spend and wouldn't have to pay a fee.

If I were you I'd be calling Amex up and asking if you can switch to the Gold...

Yes, I have noted this. I received the card today and asked to upgrade, which I will be doing.

Jcts

chattychappy wrote: »

Why do you see it that way? Don't buy into the privilege/prestige/exclusivity nonsense. As noted, Amex is relatively easy to get.

It is just a product like any other - for which you are paying.

Well I was not aware of it being an easy product to get. As far as i'm aware, they don't give their products out really easily. I have known of a few people who I would consider more creditworthy than myself who have been turned down. It is of course, down to Amex's internal scoring system however.

To be fair, I think the product does have some prestige and good rewards/benefits. Maybe Amex aren't what they used to be but there are many pros for being a customer. I also don't mind paying for the card as the rewards/protection will more than cover that nominal cost

Maestro.

chattychappy wrote: »

Why do you see it that way? Don't buy into the privilege/prestige/exclusivity nonsense. As noted, Amex is relatively easy to get.

Please don't think that I am calling you a liar, but can you say for sure that AmEx is an easy card to get? I ask because I've never seen one out in the wild, ever, and have never known anyone with an AmEx card, so the theory of them being easy to acquire isn't borne out for me. In fact most of the time when I catch someone putting a card into a POS terminal, it's just your usual Visa debit card.

Jcts wrote: »

To be fair, I think the product does have some prestige and good rewards/benefits. Maybe Amex aren't what they used to be but there are many pros for being a customer. I also don't mind paying for the card as the rewards/protection will more than cover that nominal cost

There is a barclaycard that comes with a lot of the same benefits as some of the AmEx cards, even including the whole doctor that speaks your language thing and extended warranty, and costs a grand total of £24 per year and also offers excellent cashback rates. There are also World MasterCards who offer similar and are free!

Don't get me wrong I'd love to have an AmEx card in my wallet too but from the sums I've done unless you're a fairly big spender you just won't see any return long term, which is probably why I've never seen anyone else use one either!

reclusive46

Maestro. wrote: »

Don't get me wrong I'd love to have an AmEx card in my wallet too but from the sums I've done unless you're a fairly big spender you just won't see any return long term, which is probably why I've never seen anyone else use one either!

I think it depends on where you are in the country. Here in Norwich I see people paying with Amex all the time, especially in Sainsbury's but I probably notice it more there because I'm bored waiting at the checkout so look around more. I also see a lot when I'm in London.

New York is crazy as well, I know its America but every person seems to pay with an Amex, very different from the rest of the country (Only about 10% of card payments in the US are done via Amex, 65% Visa, 20% MasterCard and 5% Discover) . There are always hotspot areas.

Amex normally works out better than than the World MasterCards (The every day cashback card is even free) and you have to remember the extra benefits like purchase protection (Which isn't on the Capital One card) and foursquare/shop small offers.

Amex is pretty good these days, with cards for all different sorts of people. There are also the Amex cards issued by Lloyds, MBNA and Barclaycard (Soon).