Amex increasing their annual membership fee by 30%

michael1234

Hi

I'm wondering if this is just me or if anyone else with an American Express BA "premium plus" card has just been told their annual fee is to increase by 30% to £195 ?

I also think this is interesting because they recently (around 2 months ago) offered to reduce their APR to just 3% for new purchases. I wonder if they were thinking people might take advantage of that and build up some debt for them to slam this 30% increase in the fee knowing that those who have built up a balance would be even more likely to pay it.

Also am I right in thinking the annual fee is for service paid in advance? i.e. I could wait until this newly increased fee falls due and cancel the card then? (Assuming I can pay off the balance!)

guesswho2000

michael1234 wrote: »

Hi

I'm wondering if this is just me or if anyone else with an American Express BA "premium plus" card has just been told their annual fee is to increase by 30% to £195 ?

I also think this is interesting because they recently (around 2 months ago) offered to reduce their APR to just 3% for new purchases. I wonder if they were thinking people might take advantage of that and build up some debt for them to slam this 30% increase in the fee knowing that those who have built up a balance would be even more likely to pay it.

Also am I right in thinking the annual fee is for service paid in advance? i.e. I could wait until this newly increased fee falls due and cancel the card then? (Assuming I can pay off the balance!)

Everyone is subject to the new fee afaik, it's been that way for new customers for a few weeks/months now, and will presumably apply to existing cardholders when the fee becomes due. Those with a reduced or no fee, because they have grandfathered terms from holding Amex Platinum or other cards retain them, I believe.

The annual fee is for service in advance, and is refunded pro-rata when the card is cancelled. This also applied where there is an outstanding balance.

There's no Amex card I'd consider carrying a balance on, the APRs are all high and they're mostly rewards cards, holders of which generally pay their balances off in full each month. As far as I was aware, Amex increased the standard APRs for new cardholders last year, though my free BA Amex is still 15.9%, so they're not yet applying it to existing cardholders.

bengalknights

Yes this is due to the fact that Amex derivatives issued by barclays. mbna etc are now subject to lower interbank rates