AMEX Letter

aris

Deleted_User said:

The cashback ones were dropped because of the cap on interchange fees (at 0.3%) from the EU not because people were paying in full - they were previously as high as 1.5% in some transactions. Once the cap came in place in 2015 multiple lenders did it - RBS scrapped "Your Points", Capital One cut / removed cashback and Avios/Nectar both reduced benefits etc.

Amex charge higher fees (hence why some people don't accept them) and aren't capped like Mastercard and Visa

My Aqua card still offers cashback (I think they've withdrawn this card for new customers).  0.25% - but better than nothing.  Barclaycard Rewards seems to offer 0.25% too and this appears to be open to everyone.

As for Tandem - I read a quote from the CEO at the time where is said (and i'm paraphrasing - but it was as rude as this), that all his credit card customers were crap because they weren't buying anything.  Of course - Tandem was cards were overwhelmingly being taken out by people like me who pay in full at the end of each month and were chasing the cashback.

funkycredit

dazzaofdagenham said:

I received a similar letter about increasing my interest rates….just had a small calculation and worked out I’ve paid 24.36 in interest and foreign fees in the last 36 months.

so am I to assume they are increasing my interest rate because there may be a possibility I may be unable to pay in the future?….if so…I get and understand that.

however not a week later I also get a letter from Amex increasing my credit limit by about 40%…

are they encouraging me into debt ?

I've not had a letter but on my last statement on one of my accounts (I've got 4 Amex cards) was increased by a staggering 700%! My highest spend on that card is under a grand... 

madness! 

[Deleted User]

aris said:

Deleted_User said:

The cashback ones were dropped because of the cap on interchange fees (at 0.3%) from the EU not because people were paying in full - they were previously as high as 1.5% in some transactions. Once the cap came in place in 2015 multiple lenders did it - RBS scrapped "Your Points", Capital One cut / removed cashback and Avios/Nectar both reduced benefits etc.

Amex charge higher fees (hence why some people don't accept them) and aren't capped like Mastercard and Visa

My Aqua card still offers cashback (I think they've withdrawn this card for new customers).  0.25% - but better than nothing.  Barclaycard Rewards seems to offer 0.25% too and this appears to be open to everyone.

As for Tandem - I read a quote from the CEO at the time where is said (and i'm paraphrasing - but it was as rude as this), that all his credit card customers were crap because they weren't buying anything.  Of course - Tandem was cards were overwhelmingly being taken out by people like me who pay in full at the end of each month and were chasing the cashback.

Yeah that's what I mean, cuts too. I have a very old (talking 21 years) Halifax one with 0.25% cashback, last few years it's been tweaked a bit so there is a minimum spend you reach to qualify and it's rounded but has been a £20 or so bonus every year, will be £30 this year. Looking at an expensive purchase this year so will probably apply for an Amex and see what I get, no harm in a 5% bonus 

With Tandom - if he said they're not buying anything, yes I would agree, no fees for them, but they won't offer cashback without ways of making money, I am surprised they launched it in 2018 knowing the caps in interchange fees

MoJoeGo

Farfetch - You may know this already, but if you do go for the Amex, make sure you get someone to refer you as there are some chunky referral bonuses to be had on top of the 5% intro cashback.

Not sure if it's the new standard, but my Amex app is offering £50 to anyone I refer, so I guess they are on a recruitment drive again!

Jasonh2015

I think they might be suffering a bit, I pay my balance on all 3 Amex’s in full and got a letter. I think the pandemic hit them because lots of ppl were not spending and paying off balances. I know for about 6 months I spent/charged nothing as I was working from home. No merchant charges etc. They’ll probably write to us next month increasing our limits 🥴

wiseonesomeofthetime

Got the letter today. 22.2% to 26.1%

I pay IN FULL every month via DD, so just read and then binned.

Not relevant to me.

kaMelo

Just to throw another one into the mix, I too received a lette from AmEx.
Opening it I assumed it would be about the interest rate however interest rates are not mentioned,  it was about them doubling my credit limit.  I can only assume they are working their way through them all and making adjustments accordingly.

[Deleted User]

MoJoeGo said:

Farfetch - You may know this already, but if you do go for the Amex, make sure you get someone to refer you as there are some chunky referral bonuses to be had on top of the 5% intro cashback.

Not sure if it's the new standard, but my Amex app is offering £50 to anyone I refer, so I guess they are on a recruitment drive again!

I'll probably ask on the forum if anyone wants to pair up for it, it's a bike likely to be upwards of £6k, probably 25% deposit and payment after frame is made in a month or two, so timed right I could easily get the full spend on the card, cash back and BT off the balances assuming they don't get funny with cashback if you do that?

I have previously had a Sainsbury's AmEx before they changed to Mastercard so I switched card but that was years ago (think I had it in late 2000s) so shouldn't be an issue?

MoJoeGo

Farfetch - If you've not had an Amex for a couple of years then getting an intro and referral bonus won't be a problem. 

Although I'd be asking whether the bike dealer (are we talking motorised or not?) would take Amex in the first place? And then if they do, could you haggle a bigger discount out of them by putting most of it on a debit card (with a few quid on any CC to get you S75 protection) - on a £6k bike the dealer will be paying a fair bit to Amex in fees...

Anyway, if Amex is the way to go for you, I think the referrals board was demised but happy to help if you wanted to PM me. Hope it works out whatever you do.

[Deleted User]

MoJoeGo said:

Farfetch - If you've not had an Amex for a couple of years then getting an intro and referral bonus won't be a problem. 

Although I'd be asking whether the bike dealer (are we talking motorised or not?) would take Amex in the first place? And then if they do, could you haggle a bigger discount out of them by putting most of it on a debit card (with a few quid on any CC to get you S75 protection) - on a £6k bike the dealer will be paying a fair bit to Amex in fees...

Anyway, if Amex is the way to go for you, I think the referrals board was demised but happy to help if you wanted to PM me. Hope it works out whatever you do.

Bicycle, custom built carbon one as a treat to myself, yes they do take AmEx - because it's a custom build to your body I doubt they would agree a discount and they already include the bike fitting and building the bike from components (plus paying import duty for the frame from Italy) for "free".

The reason I want it on card is to then BT it and pay off over a while, I have enough credit free on my BT card which is currently doing 2 years 0% at 2.49% fee and I'd rather have that money going into savings (S&S ISA which is doing rather nicely at around average 20% annual growth at the moment, not a piddly regular saver, rather than taking out 2/3 of the money now to pay by debit). 

Not sorting anything for a couple of months yet but if I time it right I could hopefully put the full cost onto the card (limit/acceptance depending of course), I plan it all carefully to ensure everything is paid at 0% and not a penny in interest.

I will ping a message if I decide to go down this route and can get a code.