American Express Credit Card?

[otc]



thats a function of the issuing bank (e.g. chase, citi, etc), not of the card
ime, from living near london, and this past month's holiday to turkey and greece, visa is overwhelmingly more accepted than amex. true everywhere in america, and the 30+ countries around the world ive visited

Which is why amex kicks ass (by giving you cards directly serviced by them)

not that I have ever had trouble with my visa issuer (us bank)...I've called them from the airport while waiting for a plane to take me off to a bunch of different countries over 3-4 weeks and other than hearing the intercom in the background and saying "you're calling from the airport aren't you" it all went without a hitch.

 

[Trompe le Monde]

^ That is because the merchant rate for Amex is higher than Visa & MC. If I remember correctly, DOJ sued Amex for this. Although I often wonder myself if Visa & MC do charge different for their Visa Signature / World Elite MC

doubtful if every charge is processed based on the card type. its just a flat rate for visa vs dc vs mc , etc

Which is why amex kicks ass (by giving you cards directly serviced by them)
not that I have ever had trouble with my visa issuer (us bank)...I've called them from the airport while waiting for a plane to take me off to a bunch of different countries over 3-4 weeks and other than hearing the intercom in the background and saying "you're calling from the airport aren't you" it all went without a hitch.

extremely anecdotal but the only recent time ive had a charge denied was actually this past week on amex , to a well-established us-based retailer, from whom i've purchased before. the card was suspended and got me denied at a few subsequent places. there was no pro-active call from amex to alert me of the security trip (and i verified all the subsequent charges were valid)... which was actually quite annoying

 

[otc]



doubtful if every charge is processed based on the card type. its just a flat rate for visa vs dc vs mc , etc

as I understand it, amex rates can actually be lower than visa/mc interchange fees. Visa/MC like to nickle and dime you and if most of your customers use rewards cards (especially the higher end rewards cards like visa signature and world mastercard) you can actually pay a lot of fees on a visa. Amex rates tend to be more sane so unless you have a lot of customers with basic cards, the fees end up lower.

Some retailers also give reasons like "amex users are often better customers and buy higher end items" etc although I dunno how true that is

 

[Cary Grant]



doubtful if every charge is processed based on the card type. its just a flat rate for visa vs dc vs mc , etc
extremely anecdotal but the only recent time ive had a charge denied was actually this past week on amex , to a well-established us-based retailer, from whom i've purchased before. the card was suspended and got me denied at a few subsequent places. there was no pro-active call from amex to alert me of the security trip (and i verified all the subsequent charges were valid)... which was actually quite annoying

Merchant rates differe by card... because the total fees are a lugubrious mes of open and hidden and 3rd party charges.

http://www.shift4.com/fees_rates.cfm

^^Some of that is pretty dated but shop-owner friends who do and don't take certain cards at the till tell me that total costs per transaction do vary from card to card.

 

[rollafan]

..Some retailers also give reasons like "amex users are often better customers and buy higher end items" etc although I dunno how true that is

According to Amex, the Platinum & Centurion owners' average household income is $475,970. I'm pretty sure it is a mean, rather than a median. Departures is a magazine for Amex Plat & Cent. holders.

link below:
http://www.departures.com/mediakit/downloads/2010_reader_profile.pdf

 

[TC (Houston)]

I was wondering where that magazine subscription came from, but that's seriously gotta be the dumbest data to publish in a luxury magazine.

 

[rollafan]

They didn't publish the data in an actual magazine as it is only available through its website. I believe it was solely intended for media usage.

Departures is kind of a lame-ish magazine...not really many good articles. About 30% of its content is about Amex

 

[SField]



Despite appearances, this is not an extremely luxurious vibrator, it's a kaleidoscope from AMEX

omfg we had one of those too. Did you get one of those cameras?

Amex has benefits like the concierge for reservations, and they'll deal with merchants very quickly if there's a funny charge.

Neiman's only takes Amex. I just find the general tenor of dealing with them to be very different than when you deal with MC or something through Citibank.

A drawback is that they'll help you with travel but only through their partners, and that sometimes means some pretty outrageous pricing. I don't mind splurging on travel, but when it was for last minute **** that I needed to do for business, it was often cheaper to actually book a lux boutique hotel by myself than go for what they're offering (they love to offer you "villas" and other high flying suites with their partners and the prices can be seriously WTF). The personalized service is great but it's offered under an assumption of an unlimited budget.

 

[rollafan]

omfg we had one of those too. Did you get one of those cameras?
Amex has benefits like the concierge for reservations, and they'll deal with merchants very quickly if there's a funny charge.
Neiman's only takes Amex. I just find the general tenor of dealing with them to be very different than when you deal with MC or something through Citibank.
A drawback is that they'll help you with travel but only through their partners, and that sometimes means some pretty outrageous pricing. I don't mind splurging on travel, but when it was for last minute **** that I needed to do for business, it was often cheaper to actually book a lux boutique hotel by myself than go for what they're offering (they love to offer you "villas" and other high flying suites with their partners and the prices can be seriously WTF). The personalized service is great but it's offered under an assumption of an unlimited budget.

In my experience, their concierge can be hit or miss. I do know that they just use the Ticketmaster for the ticket purchase.. Fischer Travel is significantly better than Amex Cent. concierge.

Absolutely agree about their air travel. BTW, I'm not happy at all that Amex ended its partnership with Continental Airlines. WTF? Result of that leads me to just have Priority Pass Select.

Their Fine Hotels & Resorts is alright. Virtuoso & Four Seasons Preferred Partner is usually better. Although I gotta say Amex Cent was useful for booking Mansion @ MGM in Vegas.

 

[TC (Houston)]



They didn't publish the data in an actual magazine as it is only available through its website. I believe it was solely intended for media usage.

Departures is kind of a lame-ish magazine...not really many good articles. About 30% of its content is about Amex

Yeah flipping through it, looked mostly like travel advertisements so I chucked it.

 

[Matto ELITE]

Currently using a AMEX Blue Cash (which I love) and an AMEX Zync. I opted for the Zync because I rarely travel and I'd rather have cash back vs pts. Any benefits to upgrading to Green/Gold? I'm not paying $500/year for Plat

 

[rollafan]

Currently using a AMEX Blue Cash (which I love) and an AMEX Zync. I opted for the Zync because I rarely travel and I'd rather have cash back vs pts. Any benefits to upgrading to Green/Gold? I'm not paying $500/year for Plat

There are really no benefits per se with the exclusion of one possibly getting 3x points when you book air travles using Premier Rewards gold. One time, I applied for both Plat & Premier Rewards Gold because of amazing offers. For Platinum, I received 100,000 Membership Rewards Points, and for Premier Rewards Gold, I received 75,000 points with one yearly fee waived. The worst scenario for MR points is to get gift cards as most members transfer their points to airlines so that they can use it for long-haul business & first class. True Earnings from Costco is worth it too in my opinion as it gives you 3% cash back on gas, free membership to Costco & no annual fee, where as Blue gives you 2% on gas.

Both Green & standard Gold do not have benefits. True benefits start from Premier Rewards Gold and up.

 

[Matto ELITE]

There are really no benefits per se with the exclusion of one possibly getting 3x points when you book air travles using Premier Rewards gold. One time, I applied for both Plat & Premier Rewards Gold because of amazing offers. For Platinum, I received 100,000 Membership Rewards Points, and for Premier Rewards Gold, I received 75,000 points with one yearly fee waived. The worst scenario for MR points is to get gift cards as most members transfer their points to airlines so that they can use it for long-haul business & first class. True Earnings from Costco is worth it too in my opinion as it gives you 3% cash back on gas, free membership to Costco & no annual fee, where as Blue gives you 2% on gas.

Both Green & standard Gold do not have benefits. True benefits start from Premier Rewards Gold and up.

Thanks for the detailed response. I use the Amex Blue Cash almost exclusively now due to getting 5% cash back on everyday items and 1% on everything else. Wonder if I'd be able to upgrade my Zync to Gold (doubtful as I'd imagine it'd be a new account number/credit check. Hmmm.

 

[rollafan]

Thanks for the detailed response. I use the Amex Blue Cash almost exclusively now due to getting 5% cash back on everyday items and 1% on everything else. Wonder if I'd be able to upgrade my Zync to Gold (doubtful as I'd imagine it'd be a new account number/credit check. Hmmm.

Wow, 5% is a fantastic offer.

You can upgrade the Zync to Gold as they are both charge cards. I'm pretty sure you knew that Zync participates in Membership Rewards Express, where as Gold participates in Membership Rewards. If you do upgrade it, your points will be transferred. Yes, Amex will likely check your credit. However, if you wish to cancel/upgrade Zync and get a Gold card, simply ask them to just use the same Zync account number for your Gold card. They should be able to do it. In addition, look for sign-up offers because their current sign-up is just mediocre.

 

[Matto ELITE]

Wow, 5% is a fantastic offer.

You can upgrade the Zync to Gold as they are both charge cards. I'm pretty sure you knew that Zync participates in Membership Rewards Express, where as Gold participates in Membership Rewards. If you do upgrade it, your points will be transferred. Yes, Amex will likely check your credit. However, if you wish to cancel/upgrade Zync and get a Gold card, simply ask them to just use the same Zync account number for your Gold card. They should be able to do it. In addition, look for sign-up offers because their current sign-up is just mediocre.

Thanks rollafan. Whats the diff between MRE and regular MR? Thanks for going out of your way to answer my pleb questions....

BTW, 5% cash back on the everyday items on the Amex Blue is after 6500/yr