American Express

I have a Gold Charge Card. I took it out just under a year go for the 20,000 MR point bonus at signup. That worked well - got me 3 nights at a Sheraton in Canada which I'd otherwise have had to pay 300 quid for.

I'll be cancelling it later this month because although it's reasonably useful and I like the customer service, the way the statements are presented etc etc it simply isn't really worth the annual fee for me. So, I've used the free year and that'll be that.

Frustratingly I often have issues with acceptance. Most big name places are fine but most smaller places refuse to take it - at least, when I've tried to use it. This includes some BMW dealers, tyre depots, etc etc - it the sort of places you are likely to make reasonably large spends.

Ah well.

Looks pretty, too.

Can't hurt for a year as its free.
 
I've had a Platinum for a few years. Useful perks have been Eurostar lounge access (but they check your card from a distance - somebody else's 10 year expired Platinum would get you in), and the Oneworld Sapphire membership as I travel around Europe a lot for work but never quite get to BA Silver. In general they have very good service and lots of nice touches. The concierge is pretty good but nothing 'amazing'.

Interesting moments have included a barmaid saying "nice card" as I handed it over. She was probably a whore.
 
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I've got a Premium Plus card. The companion vouchers make it worthwhile since it's effectively doubly your air miles. Whether it's worth the annual fee really depends on how much money you spend on the card. And remember that not everywhere takes American Express.

I don't know if it has a concierge service but I've never used it if it has. However, I once did some work for Vertu and heard all kinds of stories about their concierge service. The company who runs their concierge service also runs the service used by a lot of people like American Express. Great if you've got a specific need like you want to book a table a restaurant that's fully booked or avoid the queue at a popular club.
 
Tunney said:
I've got a Premium Plus card. The companion vouchers make it worthwhile since it's effectively doubly your air miles. Whether it's worth the annual fee really depends on how much money you spend on the card. And remember that not everywhere takes American Express.

I don't know if it has a concierge service but I've never used it if it has. However, I once did some work for Vertu and heard all kinds of stories about their concierge service. The company who runs their concierge service also runs the service used by a lot of people like American Express. Great if you've got a specific need like you want to book a table a restaurant that's fully booked or avoid the queue at a popular club.
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I don't think the Premium Plus has the concierge. I think the PP is only £150 a year to cover the deal that gives such good Avios conversion and companion voucher - a really good way to get two first-class BA flights worth like £20k for peanuts!

I've had some good experiences with the concierge, like being told by restaurants they're full, only for AmEx to get a semi-private area opened. I'm not sure what they say to do it.
 
LOAM said:
We have one cause of the avios points you get
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You don't get Avios with the cards he's mentioned. You get American Express Membership Rewards. Ok, you can transfer them to Avios but if you want Avios you are better with a different product.
 
I had a Gold charge card for just over a year. Collected enough points to get me a few upgrades and such then cancelled. I share the same criticisms - big ticket retailers and small shops/restaurants/bars didn't accept it usually due to the higher fees amex charge. I'm now on another amex/visa credit card scheme which alleviates that concern as if you can't use the amex (2 points per £1) then you can still use the visa (1 point per £1).

I plan on signing back up to the gold card once I become a "new" customer again for the starting bonus!
 
I've got an AMEX card through another provider (MBNA), and as Fox has mentioned there are retailers who don't accept it unfortunately. I think it has to do with the charges AMEX charge for use of the card.
 
I don't very much understand the AmEx acceptability thing, certainly in the UK. The only person I can remember refusing it is B&Q, but that's a pretty well known thing and by far the exception rather than the norm. If you were talking about Germany or something I'd agree, but they seem to hate cards there anyway.
 
Same - Gold card here. Used for first year (Double points on shopping/fuel etc) - keeping it going for the 2nd year - £125 charge.

Got 70k points at the moment, have used the airport lounge stuff twice for me and the missus, concierge service twice for tickets for gigs that had sold out and they got me them both times.

So for me £125 yearly fee in the 2nd year is worth it just for those things alone. Will see what the next year brings - might keep it going or spend the points on some flights.

AS above - a lot of smaller places don't take it but a lot more are starting to take it. Even notice a bit sign in primark the other day saying "welcome to american express"

All the supermarkets take it/amazon/halfords/argos etc
 
Mines an Amex platinum everyday so no fee

It was the 5pc for 3 months then 1pc cashback

They are down right the best credit card/bank account I have
Phone service is exemplary
Fraud service is exactly how it should be
When I lost my card they were by far best company to deal with posted one day arrived the next
Santander said up to 11 days!

Halifax, dire
Tesco. Poor
Santander poor

Also. If you can pay by PayPal places that don't accept it can be utilised theway

Only places iI don't use it are small shops/pubs etc

It's obviously just a credit card but it's the service why I use it for my main card
Personally I wouldn't use any of the rewards of proper cards
 
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I have the platinum as well but wondering if i should get the gold one! what do you guys thing ? i just use it for general spending, probably £5000 a year looking at what i have being getting in cash back.

I got it for the 5% initially but now its dropped down to 1% or whatever it barely seems to add up to anything!

My only negative experience of them was that they marketed the my essentials gadget protection to me at £7.99, never asked me for my card number when setting it up, i then canceled the card i had at the time and they sent me a new one, turns out they can carry on charging an old Amex card number for up to a year and after that year when they couldn't charge the card (all this unknown to me at the time) they canceled the cover via a letter with no notice. When i got to the bottom of what had happened they wanted £12.99 a month to take it up again.. apparently its run by a company separate to Amex but the initial set up can be done directly by Amex..

I did complain and they did write to me to be fair but they said they couldn't do anything
 
Both AMEX and Barclaycard are gagging for my custom - it's in my post every other week. Not sure if I'm the right demographic though - I'm only an admin monkey on £12.5k and I go abroad (France) about once every 5 years. Have got an MBNA credit card though as mentioned by one of you already but it's currently all paid off - nowt on it.
 
[TW]Fox;26398728 said:
You don't get Avios with the cards he's mentioned. You get American Express Membership Rewards. Ok, you can transfer them to Avios but if you want Avios you are better with a different product.
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Our Lloyds amex card has avios written on it (but yes it not gold/plat). The issue is about 30% of places wont take it, the account comes with a MC card as well for such reasons but you dont get as many avios from it.
 
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