Now we know why Barclaycard recently signed a deal to issue Amex cards...

Maestro.

reclusive46 wrote: »

One tip I would give though is to not ask if places take American Express as usually staff are clueless and say no when they actually do. If they don't take it, the machine will just say something like Card not accepted or Card application error. This has improved though, most merchants will now know they accept it, mainly because of increased popularity.

I made that mistake with a local restaurant who always said no when I asked but when I forgot about it and tried to use it, it worked!

I was just looking, I have a backup mastercard for when Amex is not taken and this month I had 41 transactions on Amex and 2 on my MasterCard and one of them was only because they just got a new card terminal and they hadn't called Amex to activate it yet on the Amex network yet.

Of course, I'd feel like a right tit asking if someone takes an Amex ...

Edit: I also did a bit of rudimentary number crunching and worked out that for me the new card would earn me roughly the same amount of cashback - just over 50 quid. If it had an annual fee it would be less, so it actually means that the current card technically does a slightly better job. Now I know this, I won't be that bothered if bc do change my card, but since the above number would only be true if every spend went on the Amex, it's likely myself and customers in a similar situation might be a smidge WORSE off.

FWIW I put about £450 through a card each month, about £160 of this is shopping, 40 fuel and the rest things like meter topups, train tickets and leisure. Small transactions with a few large ones.

reclusive46

Maestro. wrote: »

Of course, I'd feel like a right tit asking if someone takes an Amex ...

Edit: I also did a bit of rudimentary number crunching and worked out that for me the new card would earn me roughly the same amount of cashback - just over 50 quid. If it had an annual fee it would be less, so it actually means that the current card technically does a slightly better job. Now I know this, I won't be that bothered if bc do change my card, but since the above number would only be true if every spend went on the Amex, it's likely myself and customers in a similar situation might be a smidge WORSE off.

FWIW I put about £450 through a card each month, about £160 of this is shopping, 40 fuel and the rest things like meter topups, train tickets and leisure. Small transactions with a few large ones.

It does say there will no annual fee atleast. You should in theory end up a little better as the foursquare offers and the shop small offers every summer should atleast net you £10 or £20 at a minimum, even if you only use the supermarket ones.