Holiday Spending with American Express Credit Card

Murphy_The_Cat

Within the site there are reams and reams of virtual paper being used to talk up the merits of different credit cards, debit cards, travellers cheques, cash etc, etc as being the best & cheapest way to spend money whilst abroard.

Unless I'm missing a trick, surely the American Express Platinum Moneyback card, that pays 5% cashback kicks every single one of them into touch * - without poncing about with complicated schemes/methods.



* assuming you fit the AmEx CC criteria

dzug

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Within the site there are reams and reams of virtual paper being used to talk up the merits of different credit cards, debit cards, travellers cheques, cash etc, etc as being the best & cheapest way to spend money whilst abroard.

Unless I'm missing a trick, surely the American Express Platinum Moneyback card, that pays 5% cashback kicks every single one of them into touch * - without poncing about with complicated schemes/methods.



* assuming you fit the AmEx CC criteria

And assuming your downmarket holiday hotel/shop/restaurant etc takes AMEX in the first place.

genfink

Hello,
I'm really pleased you just posted that, I've just booked some flights to the USA departing at the end of May, and I have an AE Platinum Cash Back card.
I'm a bit ignorant about these things, is it the best card to use when I'm over there? Will there be any weird charges incurred? Will i have to tell them I'm going to the US, I remember trying to pay with a VISA once and it got rejected because I had forgotten to ring them up and tell them I was going abroad.
I assume I can't take cash out on it over there? I mean I pay the balance by DD every month but I've always thought that taking cash out on a CC is a big no-no?
Any answers to my questions would be great.
thanks

Murphy_The_Cat

dzug wrote: »

And assuming your downmarket holiday hotel/shop/restaurant etc takes AMEX in the first place.

fair comment. I've only been on a downmarket holiday, to a downmarket hotel, with down market shops & downmarket restaurants, and I'll never return to Malta again :rotfl:
But it IS a fair comment that you make..
I'm off to the US later this month and its accepted everywhere/nearly everywhere.

genfink wrote:

Hello,
I'm really pleased you just posted that, I've just booked some flights to the USA departing at the end of May, and I have an AE Platinum Cash Back card.
I'm a bit ignorant about these things, is it the best card to use when I'm over there? Will there be any weird charges incurred? Will i have to tell them I'm going to the US, I remember trying to pay with a VISA once and it got rejected because I had forgotten to ring them up and tell them I was going abroad.
I assume I can't take cash out on it over there? I mean I pay the balance by DD every month but I've always thought that taking cash out on a CC is a big no-no?
Any answers to my questions would be great.
thanks

I hope that you paid for your flight with it, as you're 5% up already :j.
Is it the best card to use over there ? IMO, yes, because even though you are going to pay a 'loading' 2.73% as against the Nationwide CC that will charge you nothing, you are then going to get 5% cashback at a lter date, so you'll be quids in.
As for telling them before you go, it doesn't do any harm as it stops your purchases being flagged up as being 'suspicious'.
You CAN take money out on it abroard, but you'll be charged a lot for the privilidge. I'm sure that someone else can tell you the ins & outs of using ATM's abroard.
Personally, I take a sizeable amount of cash with me when I go to the US, use my CC for absolutely everything for the first part of my holiday and then start using my cash when I've a better idea of how much money I'm going to spend in the remaining days.

genfink

Thanks Murphy, your advice is much appreciated.
I certainly did pay for my flights with the card and the accomodation too so far, I'm planning to use it as much as I can and only use cash for the incidentals. I have a look around the site for advice on getting the best foreign currency. Thanks again!

mad_rich

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

even though you are going to pay a 'loading' 2.73% as against the Nationwide CC that will charge you nothing, you are then going to get 5% cashback at a lter date, so you'll be quids in.

Well yes and no.

Remember that the 5% cashback on the Amex is 'rationed' to a £4000 spend in the first three months; after that the rate drops to 1.5%. If you are likely to spend that £4k in the UK (or even if you can possibly engineer things so that you do spend £4k), then using the Amex abroad is not a wise use of your resources. It would be far better to keep it for UK spending and use the Nationwide abroad.

Only if you're not going to hit the £4k spend target does it make sense to take the hit on a poor exchange rate in order to get your full allotment of the 5% cashback.

Finally, I have heard it mentioned (but never tested it) that all foreign transactions at Amex are converted via US$. So if you use it to pay in any other country - be it € or Mongolian Togrogs - you pay double the loading fee. Perhaps someone could confirm?

genfink

oh right, well i will definitely have had it for more than three months by the time we go away. Although I only spend about 400 a month on it so I wouldn't have gone over the spending limit.
maybe I should get the other card, is that better than the post office one?

Murphy_The_Cat

mad_rich wrote: »

Well yes and no.

Remember that the 5% cashback on the Amex is 'rationed' to a £4000 spend in the first three months; after that the rate drops to 1.5%. If you are likely to spend that £4k in the UK (or even if you can possibly engineer things so that you do spend £4k), then using the Amex abroad is not a wise use of your resources. It would be far better to keep it for UK spending and use the Nationwide abroad.

Only if you're not going to hit the £4k spend target does it make sense to take the hit on a poor exchange rate in order to get your full allotment of the 5% cashback.

Finally, I have heard it mentioned (but never tested it) that all foreign transactions at Amex are converted via US$. So if you use it to pay in any other country - be it € or Mongolian Togrogs - you pay double the loading fee. Perhaps someone could confirm?

oohhh, isn't that splitting hairs to the nth degree ?

Regarding the £4000 spend limit, is that operated to the same degree that Capital One operated a £3000 spend limit ? I hope so, as I rung up about £16000 on Capital One !!!! They said that even though the £3000 limit was there, as long as you spent underneath the credit limit each month AND obeyed the T&C's. they would give you cashback on the spend. I did rather well on that one -- and then I opened another one with Mrs Cat as the first name and me as the joint :beer:;).

mad_rich

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

oohhh, isn't that splitting hairs to the nth degree ?

Not at all.

If there's any chance that you can hit the £4k target with UK spend, then choosing to pay a forex fee by using your Amex abroad is throwing money away.

To put it another way, imagine you walk into a shop here in the UK and ask to pay with your Amex. They say 'we charge 2.5% for using Amex, but you can use a debit card for free if you like'. Would you use the Amex just to get the cashback, or would you use your debit card and then wander off and save the Amex for a better opportunity?

To answer your second question - I haven't got the card yet, so I can't say, but I imagine if they say that the 5% is on a maximum spend of £4k then it probably is. They wouldn't lie about that would they

Murphy_The_Cat

mad_rich wrote: »

To answer your second question - I haven't got the card yet, so I can't say, but I imagine if they say that the 5% is on a maximum spend of £4k then it probably is. They wouldn't lie about that would they

I thought that about Capital One as well, until I skinned them for several hundred quid :j

As regards your credit card/debit card analogy, I'd have a pretty good idea of my spending plans for the next 3 months, so I'd spend on it. & then in about 10 weeks time, I'd apply for a second AMEX card in my wifes name, with me as the 2nd holder.

In all honesty, opening a Nationwide account and having to shuffle money backwards and forewards (OR changing to Nationwide properly) just seems a complete faff TO ME, whereas using the AMEX is a completely hassle free way of making some 'free' money.

kazwookie

I have a blue AE card, but have discovered that it is not accepted widely overseas.

It even got refused in the local post office today here in the UK!!

It has some thing to go with the rates AE charge the retailers for being allowed to accept AE! if AE didn't charge so much, i amsure more retailers would accept it.

Pays to have travellers cheques as well when overseas.