Holiday Spending with American Express Credit Card

Murphy_The_Cat

kazwookie wrote: »

Pays to have travellers cheques as well when overseas.

oooh no thanks. I'll always use CC's or cash. I find TC's to be a pain !

James1715

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?

Yes with regards to your last point I think this is correct. You are effectively double charged for currency conversions relating to foreign transactions which are non USD - not wise if you want to maximise your 5%.

This appears to be a relatively new AMEX gimmick - the charge details are printed in all AMEX literature. A set of modified terms and conditions were sent out to MBNA Amex cardholders a few weeks ago. These also stipulate that all non GBP / USD transactions are converted into USD first and then converted into GBP, although I havent purchased anything myself so I cant confirm whether this has been implemented yet.

tbott

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

Thanks for the tip. I'll be travelling abroad in about 10 days. I have egg & Virgin credit cards & a Yorkshire Bank debit card. Any ideas which might be my best option for spending on purchases & cash withdrawals ? Thanks for your help.

skintlass

I've been thinking about using an AmEx card over in the USA when I go over there to live for a year to pay for a years car lease and the hefty insurance premium I will pay for being a none-US driver. By my calculations that should come to about £4k if I pay it all in one go.My question is could I pay that with the AmEx then pay off the Amex using a balance transfer to a 0% UK credit card which would in effect give me a year to pay off the total amount at 0% (the balance transfer and loading fees would cancel out the 5% cashback) from my UK bank account?