Amex Charge Card

Sandtree

Malkytheheed said:

Do the charge cards truly have "no limit"? If I go and try and swipe £400k for a house on it what happens? Or even £60k on a car? 

They have no preset limit but that doesn't mean you can go spend whatever you want.

Once you log into your card there is a tool that enables you to see if a particular transaction would be approved; in my experience they are certainly more generous that credit card providers... I have 6 credit cards with 5 being in the £6-£9k range and one being £14k. On the other hand I have used the online tool for my AmEx card and they said they would approve a £60k transaction but wouldn't approve a £70k one (I didn't test further to find the actual tipping point).

A couple of years earlier I was booking a "holiday of a life time" and an error happened with the booking agent that meant the transaction was authorised 3 times (so money was reserved but not taken) which took the potential balance up to just over £45,000 at which point AmEx called me and asked if I could pay the balance down... obv explained the situation and they said it was ok but until the two spurious authorisations had dropped off then anything under £1,000 would go through but anything over £1,000 may be declined.

Highland76

bonkersbonkers1 said:

I can't think of any reason why I would want a charge card over a credit card.

A charge card doesn't come with any pre-set limit (like a CC does). That's potentially a massive benefit.
However that doesn't guarantee you can literally buy anything, there's a spending calculator on my Amex green card online account where you can enter a purchase amount to see if you will be approved. According the the calculator i can buy stuff up to £80k in a single transaction even though my usual monthly spend on the Green card is around £2k.

dr_adidas01

Malkytheheed said:

Do the charge cards truly have "no limit"? If I go and try and swipe £400k for a house on it what happens? Or even £60k on a car? 

Amex have a checker for there charge cards which you can check when you log into your account, simply go to Account Manager, click on Check Spending Power and follow the instructions on the screen.

jay1804

The only benefit I can see for the Green card is 1 year extended warranty.

EvaaWilli

definitely Amex Gold

Dr_Crypto

Allegedly AMEX do charge cards for the super-rich which allow millions to be spent. I don't move in such circles but it makes sense as someone has to cater for the 1%!

D3xt3r5L4b

Dr_Crypto said:

Allegedly AMEX do charge cards for the super-rich which allow millions to be spent. I don't move in such circles but it makes sense as someone has to cater for the 1%!

Yes - the Centurion Card

Sandtree

Dr_Crypto said:

Allegedly AMEX do charge cards for the super-rich which allow millions to be spent. I don't move in such circles but it makes sense as someone has to cater for the 1%!

Its not really "allegedly" given until recently there was a public access website for it and if even now if you ever look at some of their emails it will state "Platinum Benefits" and "Centurion Benefits".... go on eBay and you can even get a fake card to put in your wallet to make it look like you're rich.

To qualify for one you don't have to be "super rich" (though very well off) but have to spend a very large amount and on the right sorts of things (travel being key). After doing that for long enough on a Platinum card you can be invited to upgrade. I know two chaps who had the card but that's because they travel extensively for work (business class) and often last minute and put it all through their personal AmEx card (and expensed it back).

You need to value what it offers a lot, or really care what the till assistant in Waitrose thinks about you, to pay the annual fee being around £4,700 in year one and £2,200 for each subsequent year (subject obv to review/inflation)… it won't be offered to me but I doubt I'd be accept it even if it was (I think the extra year 1 fee is to get rid of the "I'll do it just for a year to see" types)

adamp87

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Malkytheheed said:

What is the advantage of the green card over this one? https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/charge-cards/basic-card/

Paying £60 per annum purely to earn reward points that can be done for free with the cards given above ^

But as was stated we weren’t talking about Credit Cards it was the Charge Cards. And only the 1 charge card offered rewards.

D3xt3r5L4b

adamp87 said:

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Malkytheheed said:

What is the advantage of the green card over this one? https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/charge-cards/basic-card/

Paying £60 per annum purely to earn reward points that can be done for free with the cards given above ^

But as was stated we weren’t talking about Credit Cards it was the Charge Cards. And only the 1 charge card offered rewards.

Indeed.
But to make it worthwhile, assuming you use the 1 point equals 1p equation you need to spend £6000 per annum to break even on the fee.
Thats assuming you convert to Avios.

Converting to vouchers etc. works out less and you need to spend 2 or 3 times that amount to get to break even. 

And the Platinum charge card also offers rewards albeit for the much higher annual fee.