Who benefits from an American Express card?

Sandtree

lr1277 said:

Again, this is gleaned from Head for Points. I read the daily chat threads. Every so often I have seen the advice it is better to speak to the CS staff at Brighton as opposed to anywhere else. This is because the staff at Brighton are more likely to accomodate unusual/infrequent requests. However I don't know how you talk to the staff at Brighton as opposed to anywhere else.

I should add I am not an Amex holder. Take my suggestion as you wish.

They have three UK sites, London, Brighton and Burgess Hill. Cannot say I;ve ever spoken to anyone that sounds like they are based overseas. 

London is more head office type people with all the current job ads being in IT or Marketing and Burgess Hill are all IT jobs at the moment. All the customer service roles listed at the moment are in Brighton, though I thought I had seen Centurion ones in London before.

The teams do appear to be tiered depending on if they deal with Centurion, Platinum or Other and it may well be call routing is based on your card type too so lower cards more likely to be offered to the less skilled teams etc.

lisyloo

You can get through to them on the phone without waiting for long times and in the past I’ve spoken to people with English accents. More recently they’ve had American accents but speak as though English is their first language,
if you use the chat in the app you will speak to people who sound like English is not their first language - for example they may say “I will do the needful”. 

It is good to have the option of phoning people without a huge wait and even better to speak to people whose first language is the same as yours.

I have also found Amex superior when dealing with chargebacks.
They have a much lower appeal time e.g. 20 days and tend to side more with the consumer.

username

I would say the client certainly benefits from having the card, since it offers points/cashback/avios depending on which one you choose.

The service I have found is very good. The card delivery had a good first impression, arriving Tuesday after applying on Saturday.and actually sent by 1st class post, not some second-rate other postal operator that takes 5-7 working days for the card to arrive at your door, which seems to be the case for other banks. They could all learn a little bit from Amex.

Sandtree

username said:
The card delivery had a good first impression, arriving Tuesday after applying on Saturday.and actually sent by 1st class post, not some second-rate other postal operator that takes 5-7 working days for the card to arrive at your door, which seems to be the case for other banks. They could all learn a little bit from Amex.

The differential also came to light to us when Mrs lost her purse overseas...

AmEx - new card delivered to her overseas in 2 days with an apology that it was to be a plastic card rather than the normal metal one
Starling - offered to send a new card abroad for £60 within 2 weeks
Natwest - said to do a change of address to the hotel, request a new card, wait 2 weeks and then do a change of address back to home
Barclays - send it to home address and get someone else to send it on to you overseas.

JES_F1

I've got the Platinum Cashback Everyday Amex.  It's my main card, used for just normal day-to-day stuff, such as Amazon, supermarkets, assorted online shopping, my local Co-op, restaurants, and buying a coffee.  I'm not a big spender by any means but still have managed to get a decent amount of cashback each year.

The offers can get you some great additional cashback too.  Mine have included getting £100 on a Dell laptop - I was going to buy it anyway, the offer was just excellent timing! - and decent percentages (usually between 10% and 20% but occasionally higher) on purchases at Boots, Molton Brown, Cath Kidston, Holland and Barrett, Morrisons, Fortnum and Mason's, Papa John's, and Brasserie Blanc.

I've had to call their customer services twice, the most recent being when I got a notification of a £45 dodgy transaction on Amazon.  The call was answered quickly, the member of staff was really helpful, and it was all sorted out very quickly.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention their Shop Small campaign.  It's running again in December will earn you £5 on a minimum £15 spend at up to five different retailers.

MallyGirl

what JES_F1 said!
I certainly get a couple of hundred pounds a year through cashback/offers/shop small. I use Amex first and only drop to another card if they don't take Amex - getting rarer these days.

sleepyjones

Am Ex used to have higher fees for business', We're talking years ago, so I dunno if it's changed but when I had a shop the AmEx charges were a fair bit more than Visa or Mastercard.  
My have just been my card terminal provider but AmEx definitely cost me more as a business accepting it (per transaction).

This doesn't really affect the customer though except that AmEx is, or was, less frequently accepted because (presumably) the fees were too high (again, we're talking years ago, possibly not the case anymore).

lisyloo

It still is the case for small business like hairdressers or restaurants. However I have noticed at many markets the traders using a service that comes up as iz* and the traders have white keypads, and this service does take Amex (I guess this is akin to payapal).
So things have changed in some ways but not others.

chanz4

has since 2013 the none fee one, get about £80 free cash a year for paying in full

A_Lert

A while back I was buying concert tickets and there were some that were Amex-only.

Just yesterday I was accepted for the Platinum Cashback Everyday. I noticed there's some insurance included for if I return an item and the retailer fails to refund (which I think isn't covered by normal S75?) or if it's stolen within the first few months. Though how likely said insurance is to pay out I've no idea.

Provided I can pay it off in full I think it's the best of the cards I've got, but the APR's higher than my other cards, so it's not one to use for major borrowing.