AMEX Gold vs Platinum Cashback Vs BA Amex?

Kamran

Hi all, hope you're well!

I have had an amex platinum cashback card for many years and have used it to spend on instead of my debit card to rack up cashback over the years. I'm an average spender, nothing for business or anything excessive, just personal use.

I have read the MSE articles, but am a little confused as to which of the 3 big amex cards are the "best" - ie which gives you the highest value rewards?

1) The Gold card is has no fee in year 1 but then charges £125pa, it has airport lounge access (my work involves some but not a whole ton of travel) and one "point" per pound spent - but my question is how valuable is one point?

2) The platinum cashback card is fee-free for me, presumably because I've had it for a number of years. It's definitely not the platinum cashback everyday (called them to confirm). I like the 1% cashback, it's welcome but if something more "valuable" is available with one of the other cards, I'm game.

3) The BA Amex gives you 1.5 avios for every £1. Similarly, how valuable is an Avios? Downside is the mandatory £150pa fee, presumably I would need to be a fairly high spender to balance out the benefit?

Also it must be said that I plan to apply for the Santander 123 cashback card to do my shopping in department, petrol, supermarkets. Presumably one amex and the santander card is a good set up?

Lastly, I note that the Santander card has 0% on purchases for the first 18 months. I usually pay off my credit card in full each month via direct debit - would it be wiser for me to let the credit card balance build up for 18 months and then pay it off in a lump sum (meanwhile having invested the money I would have used to pay into a high interest account)? Would that harm my credit score in any way?

Sorry for all the questions! Thanks very much! :T

planteria

in terms of Customer Service, Amex are way ahead of Santander ime

but you might find that some merchants will not accept Amex

i use the Amex Cashback card, and have never had anything comparable to that, service-wise

considering the points available on alternative Amex cards is a good idea, but when i have done so i have come round to thinking 'No Fee & Hard Cash: i'll stick where i am'.

Lucky_Lincoln

The biggest issue for me with AMEX is that not everyone will take the cards. Frequently have to resort to a debit card when I would rather use the Amex. I think the chose of cards depends upon which makes best sense for you and how each purchase is rewarded. I suspect that at the end of the day they are all much of a muchness.

Kamran

planteria wrote: »

considering the points available on alternative Amex cards is a good idea, but when i have done so i have come round to thinking 'No Fee & Hard Cash: i'll stick where i am'.

Sure, what you're saying makes sense, but the amount of cashback I earn on the Platinum AMEX in a year is hardly enormous. Definitely less than £100, more like £50-£100. Roughly speaking.

My question is really whether the amex gold points or avios points earned are more "valuable" than £50-£100 cashback I'm likely to earn in a 12 month period, say.

Essentially, if the platinum gives me £50 cashback, but the Amex Gold points gives me £60 worth of amazon/boots vouchers or whatever, I'd rather have the latter.

simongregson

One Amex point is basically worth 0.5p for vouchers however they can be worth more when exchanged for airline points. The gold card is fee free for the first year and there are some spending categories that attract double points. The 20000 point bonus is worth 100 pounds minimum if you make the required spend but could be worth more redeemed for flights.

Kamran

simongregson wrote: »

One Amex point is basically worth 0.5p for vouchers however they can be worth more when exchanged for airline points. The gold card is fee free for the first year and there are some spending categories that attract double points. The 20000 point bonus is worth 100 pounds minimum if you make the required spend but could be worth more redeemed for flights.

So if on average the amex platinum cashback gets me 1% on everything, I'm better off getting the Amex Gold (for year 1 at least) and use it for vouchers and points (given the 20000 points bonus)?

Plus in the mean time use the Santander 123 card for petrol/supermarkets/department stores which constitutes a fair bit of my spending.

vns

Kamran wrote: »

So if on average the amex platinum cashback gets me 1% on everything, I'm better off getting the Amex Gold (for year 1 at least) and use it for vouchers and points (given the 20000 points bonus)?

Plus in the mean time use the Santander 123 card for petrol/supermarkets/department stores which constitutes a fair bit of my spending.

*My mate got 22k bonus on top of how much he spent when I referred him...

I use the Amex gold for the bonus then switch to a different card before the year is up. Makes the most of the bonus points and means I don't have to spend £125 on plastic!

My secondary card is my Amazon MBNA card (though I think it is now discontinued). It equates to 1pc cashback on a Mastercard.

Hope that helps.

💳

Kamran

vns wrote: »

*My mate got 22k bonus on top of how much he spent when I referred him...

I use the Amex gold for the bonus then switch to a different card before the year is up. Makes the most of the bonus points and means I don't have to spend £125 on plastic!

My secondary card is my Amazon MBNA card (though I think it is now discontinued). It equates to 1pc cashback on a Mastercard.

Hope that helps.

💳

Just out of interest, why not consider the Santander 123 account and credit card? Looks to me like the account gives cashback on bills, and the card gives a deceent amount of cashback on groceries/petrol/travel/department stores. Anything leftover could be for the Amex no?

Kamran

simongregson wrote: »

One Amex point is basically worth 0.5p for vouchers however they can be worth more when exchanged for airline points. The gold card is fee free for the first year and there are some spending categories that attract double points. The 20000 point bonus is worth 100 pounds minimum if you make the required spend but could be worth more redeemed for flights.

So really what you're saying is that I should get the Amex Gold for the bonus, use the points for airline points, use it only if it gives me "double points" or "flight points". But otherwise stick with the Amex Platinum cashback?

0.5p = 1 point = £1 of spend on the gold = 0.5% equivalent
£1 spend on the platinum cashback = 1% cashback.

Does that sound fair? Like I mentioned, I'm keen to get good savings from Santander on my bills and grocery/petrol spending.

vns

Kamran wrote: »

So really what you're saying is that I should get the Amex Gold for the bonus, use the points for airline points, use it only if it gives me "double points" or "flight points". But otherwise stick with the Amex Platinum cashback?

0.5p = 1 point = £1 of spend on the gold = 0.5% equivalent
£1 spend on the platinum cashback = 1% cashback.

Does that sound fair? Like I mentioned, I'm keen to get good savings from Santander on my bills and grocery/petrol spending.

If you're able to spend the £2k in the first three months, then I would agree with what you said.

Got any big purchases coming up?
-Holidays would be the biggest expense that comes to my mind, but I don't know your situation.

Otherwise it might not be as worth it for you...

Your 123 card is a good card to keep long term.

planteria

with that spending level, the airmiles won't amount to much. cashback is useful, even in small slices.