Amex Gold "Big Ticket Item"

Stephen_C.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

You cant change the algorithm but certainly past spending, your income and history with the company will drive what they are willing to allow you to spend. Arguably where you are spending the money and in what class of shops may also impact things, is certainly what they use to flag you up as a candidate for Centurion

Assuming you have a good income then you dont really have to be that slowly slowly. Whilst it was in the first few weeks that they declined a 5k transaction within 3 months the balance went up to over 10k with a few 3/4k transactions with no problems and a few months after that a single over 10k transaction went through fine.

Since then never hit those levels nor any buffers with only one transaction being blocked and that was due to fraud concerns (ends up it wasnt fraud but didnt help that I didnt know the name of the company in question because I had bought from a site under a trading name and the company does a vast array of different things)

The only income they know of is what I put on the initial application form, so any changes in income would only be through applications for future cards?

It's interesting that you mention the places you use the card make an impact. I would have thought there was some privacy law protecting that kind of thing?! Or is it down to categories rather than individual merchants?

reclusive46

Stephen_C. wrote: »

The only income they know of is what I put on the initial application form, so any changes in income would only be through applications for future cards?

It's interesting that you mention the places you use the card make an impact. I would have thought there was some privacy law protecting that kind of thing?! Or is it down to categories rather than individual merchants?

Its down to categories rather than individual merchants. It makes sense really, I know they won't generally decline restaurant or petrol station transactions as that would obviously be quite embarrassing.

Your meant to tell them if your income changes by telephone.

InsideInsurance

Stephen_C. wrote: »

The only income they know of is what I put on the initial application form, so any changes in income would only be through applications for future cards?

It's interesting that you mention the places you use the card make an impact. I would have thought there was some privacy law protecting that kind of thing?! Or is it down to categories rather than individual merchants?

You can always tell them when you get a promotion etc. Historically you were supposed to with some lenders, dont know if thats the case any more.

What privacy law? They arent sharing data with anyone and you are the one telling them that you spend a few thousand a month in Harrods by handing over your AmEx card to the cashier each time. If you dont want them to know you've got a gambling addiction, dont pay by your AmEx card.

Now they wont know if you are buying wine or clothes etc there as the merchant doesnt share that type of information but as a brand that looks to promote itself at the upper end of the market they are probably more interested in someone making monthly payments to British Airways than someone who makes a once a year payment to RyanAir

Stephen_C.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

You can always tell them when you get a promotion etc. Historically you were supposed to with some lenders, dont know if thats the case any more.

What privacy law? They arent sharing data with anyone and you are the one telling them that you spend a few thousand a month in Harrods by handing over your AmEx card to the cashier each time. If you dont want them to know you've got a gambling addiction, dont pay by your AmEx card.

Now they wont know if you are buying wine or clothes etc there as the merchant doesnt share that type of information but as a brand that looks to promote itself at the upper end of the market they are probably more interested in someone making monthly payments to British Airways than someone who makes a once a year payment to RyanAir

I wonder what happens if you use your Amex in McDonald's, Lidl and Poundland?

InsideInsurance

Stephen_C. wrote: »

I wonder what happens if you use your Amex in McDonald's, Lidl and Poundland?

If they accept them, then nothing. Unless you are balancing it with a high level of travel and staying at top end hotels etc then you probably just dont find yourself on the Centurion invite list but then do you really want a card that costs £2,500 to get and £1,800 a year (inc the first year)?

Stephen_C.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If they accept them, then nothing. Unless you are balancing it with a high level of travel and staying at top end hotels etc then you probably just dont find yourself on the Centurion invite list but then do you really want a card that costs £2,500 to get and £1,800 a year (in the first year)?

Certainly not at this point in time, but in the future I would consider it!

InsideInsurance

Stephen_C. wrote: »

Certainly not at this point in time, but in the future I would consider it!

Then in the future consider going up to the Platinum card as this is also a requirement, spending enough (most suggest its a minimum of £120k-£150k a year for the UK £ one) and that a good proportion of that spend be on luxury travel and/or general high end merchants then maintain all of this for a couple of years.

Alternatively buy a mocked up one from eBay and save yourself a fortune

Stephen_C.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Then in the future consider going up to the Platinum card as this is also a requirement, spending enough (most suggest its a minimum of £120k-£150k a year for the UK £ one) and that a good proportion of that spend be on luxury travel and/or general high end merchants then maintain all of this for a couple of years.

Alternatively buy a mocked up one from eBay and save yourself a fortune

Presumably hard to do £150k of manufactured spend through these high end merchants!

InsideInsurance

Stephen_C. wrote: »

Presumably hard to do £150k of manufactured spend through these high end merchants!

The two guys I know with them do a lot of travel for work and they're allowed to put their business travel on their personal cards with much of it being booked fairly last minute so high priced.

They can easily do £10k-£15k on business expense and when we are working together they love it as one or the other has to pick up my costs so it close to doubles that.

If you look on forums about credit card rewards again most that have them do a lot of business travel. Have no way to validate of cause if any of them actually have one or not though.