Is it worth getting an Amex card? Post Reply

[sconesplease]

Interested to hear others thought on the Amex card, it is pricey (the most expensive being £650 pa) we do a fair bit of international travel

[VitMac]

That's very hard for anyone to tell for your specific case. You need to figure out how much would you actually use it, if you'd use the benefits and how much would they be worth to you.

In our specific case, we do one very specific and very expensive air flight every year, so the British Airways premium Amex card made sense as one of the benefits would allow us to once a year buy two flights at the price of one. This benefit alone would be worth to pay the yearly value.

But this card doesn't offer lounges or some other benefits the platinum offers. So again, you need to figure out what you really need and how much they are worth to you. Some Amex cards also have less benefits, but also have no annual fees.

[Garbo]

So long as you follow the golden rule of always paying off the full statement balance each month, I'd say it's a good move.

There are a few different types of Amex, some of which have zero annual fee - so no, they're not necessarily pricey.

We use ours to collect airmiles, and have both the black BA Premium Plus Amex (has a fee) and the blue BA Amex (free).  You can also get the gold Preferred Rewards card which (last time I had one) had no fee until the end of the first year, so you could cancel before then.  The gold card collects amex points, not airmiles, but you can transfer these points into BA miles ('avios'), into other airline loyalty schemes or even shop vouchers.

Ideally, get a friend who already has an Amex to refer you, as you both get referral bonuses.  Then there's a whole world of referring your partner for a card, them referring you, etc!

I'd recommend the website HeadForPoints to help see which card if any suits your needs.  Don't let the fee, or lack of one, be the main driver of your decision.  And remember you'll probably still need to have a visa/mastercard for those places which don't accept Amex, though that's less common than it used to be.

[muddyboots]

As mentioned above there are several different types of cards.

In my case, the Amex platinum means your travel insurance is included if you pay for holidays with the card.
You have a very useful consierge service and if using affiliated hotels got can get automatic later check out, upgrade on arrival , breakfast included for example.
If staying in a hotel, breakfast free of charge falls adds up as a perk .
You can collect avios points .
Also , they have some things automatically included when renting cars , think the extra insurance payment …

Can’t think of all now, but it all depends on how luck you use the cars to work out if it’s worth it for you

[Abricotine]

It’s useful for day to day expenses at home. We also have the BA Avios version and have had lots of good flights (business and also peak times/routes) for the whole family as a consequence.
A downside is it’s a rip off to use abroad in terms of exchange rate and foreign currency fees so we never do any more.
I recently got my own after years of being a secondary card holder because there is some small print that only the main cardholder is generally protected for purchases. Worth reading up.

[ACA]

Yes! We have a black British Airways Amex, which gives you a huge amount of Avios points and companion vouchers for your international travel. We also purchase all our monthly outgoings (that we can) with the Amex and then pay it off monthly, and that too adds to our Avios balance. I’d highly recommend it. The interest is high but it’s not an issue if you pay it off monthly. The yearly fee is £190 I think, but given how much free or almost free travel we do because of it, it’s well worth it. I wouldn’t go for the £650 one though.

[falconmum]

We have had BA Amex Blue for 10 years and it was worth it for the companion voucher etc. However, recently they have increased the qualifying spend on both the Blue and Premium BA Amex cards so that is a bummer and also the amount of Avios you receive and spend has become quite expensive. 
We are now moving to the Preferred Gold rewards card which is free for the first year and you have the flexibility of transferring the points to different uses. Oh yeah, with the Gold rewards, you get lounge access as well for up to 4 uses etc... a fair number of perks...you can use the points to book via Amex Travel as well! 

Happy to refer you as that will get both of us a good deal. You will get an immediate 22000 points . Let me know if you are interested 
https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/refer ... =999999554 

Amex is rarely worth using overseas for spend because the exchange rate is terrible and interest rates are high. I would suggest a Monzo charge card for that. 

[DearKitty]

Take a look at the article on www.headforpoints.com/2024/02/01/benefi ... t-card-uk/ which has good analysis