Barclaycard Cashback vs. American Express

InsideInsurance

lisyloo wrote: »

I'm suprised there's so much backlash/suspicion when it's only my (true and proven) experience.

I guess as many people perpetuate urban myths when they have no personal experience.

Amex acceptance rate used to be low outside of large chains or things aimed at the richer end of the market. Since they introduced credit cards and started doing deals with the likes of Lloyds their acceptance has become much more wide spread but there are without doubt stores that still dont.

In the years that I;ve had an amex card I;ve not once had a different charge applied compared to other credit cards. I believe it would be against their T&Cs to do so but wouldnt want to be quoted on it as I havent seen them for a good few years.

In some other countries the acceptance of Amex has gone down recently due to all the legislation that the US has been passing over recent years which applies to amex in many countries due to the parent company being US based but that doesnt seem to have made any waves in the UK

lisyloo

I guess as many people perpetuate urban myths when they have no personal experience.

Well that's not the case here.
I've put up all the proof, some of which is easier to find than others.

http://carolenashuk.epticahosting.com/selfcarolenashuk/template.do?id=201&name=What+payment+methods+do+you+accept%3f

Unfortunately we do not accept American Express, Diner's Club or Paypal payments.

I fully accept your (and others) experience may be different.
And it's also possible that some firms are acting outside of their merchant agreement.
Just because there not supposed to do it doesn't mean it's not happening in real life.

I'm still trying to get te £100 Amazon voucher for £2000 spend but I'm not totally confident I can do it because of the number of times I can't use the card (6 I've listed recently). If I don't get the quota then I will have lost cashback I could have got on another card so it will result in an actual loss. This does mean I'm actually motivated towards using the card as much as possible, not motivated towards picking as many holes as possible - quite the opposite - I want to use it to get the 20,000 points/£100 Amazon voucher.

reclusive46

lisyloo wrote: »

I just purchased some card from
https://www.goodprint.co.uk (from grabbit section)
Paypal did not offer me my Amex card and said "some payment methods are not available for this transaction".

Perhaps I'm very unlucky.

Don't do it that way. I get that as well. Click Paypal but don't sign in. Check out as a guest, then select Amex and type it in manually.

reclusive46

PollyOnAMission wrote: »

Weirdly there are some big high street stores that don't accept Amex, such as B&Q.

Actually B&Q used to accept it but there was a disagreement with Amex and how they were paid. Amex take the fees straight out and then pay the remainder where as most acquirers give you all the money and take the fees out of your account at the end of month. B&Q wanted to have all the money first then pay them back the fees, Amex didn't allow this.

reclusive46

InsideInsurance wrote: »

In some other countries the acceptance of Amex has gone down recently due to all the legislation that the US has been passing over recent years which applies to amex in many countries due to the parent company being US based but that doesnt seem to have made any waves in the UK

Yeah, that was in the Caribbean mainly where they were charging in US dollars. For the most part, this has been resolved now. Still the US making it awkward though because of a tax form.

planteria

ic wrote: »

Note the barclaycard is no longer available to new customers, if you leave you can't go back. You'll be qualifying for 4% on your top five spends for the anniversary of the card

agreed, and that could be well worth having if managed right.

aronmatt3

If this is the situation I would like to have two cards and will use both wherever possible to make sure that I am getting maximum benefit.

InsideInsurance

aronmatt3 wrote: »

If this is the situation I would like to have two cards and will use both wherever possible to make sure that I am getting maximum benefit.

Most that play the points game that I know have an AmEx to use most the time and then the now stopped Capital One cashback card for those that dont accept Amex

planteria

i did exactly that II...but CapOne were tight limit-wise, and i like Barclaycard's 2(or4)% on top 5 transactions. Barclaycard can be persuaded to move limits between cards, so some proper cashback damage can be done:A

lisyloo

No-one got Aqua then at 3%?