topic Re: Discover Vs. AMEX in Credit Cards

Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:29:23 GMT

I keep getting American Express offerers in the mail but I dont understand the big deal about them. I have a Discover More card right now and love it, but what is the advantage, if any, of having an American Express card over Discover. If there was no annual feee, I could understand, but what makes this card so great? Also does the annual fee divide into 12 months or do you have to pay it all at once.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:34:45 GMT

This is just my opinion, but the reason why I use AMEX over Discover is that I find in my state that AMEX is accepted far, FAR more than Discover. In addition, AMEX has decades of a reputation for being a premium brand with strong customer service and membership rewards. Lastly, since I'm a business owner, AMEX has some of the best card technology and account management software to manage my expenses and spending, whereas Discover does not.

With regards to the fee, you pay the annual fee up front at the end of the year, but AMEX usually gives you the first year free to "try them out." You can always cancel before the fee hits you if you're unhappy with them. I would imagine that the reason why AMEX has an annual fee is to pay for their higher overhead (they have 100% American call centers to handle your issues, and these CSRs have superior customer service training than other call centers I've used) and also to pay for their membership rewards program and high cash back cards (definitely better than many card companies, though not perfect). I find the annual fee on my Zync card to be well worth it.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:11:45 GMT

^ yeah I just applied for the AMEX Zync and got approved. We'll see how it goes . So far I my Discover has been a good card to me so lets see how AMEX does.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

PRILEY — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:06:16 GMT

I think It's good just to have a mixture. I have both and both are excellent cards with great customer service. The other day I spoke with Discover and they told me that 12k is the limit they are giving right now yet I apped for an AMEX Blue today and was approved for 20k. But let me say again they are both good cards as long as you don't abuse them but I think all ccc's can go nuts in a second.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:17:31 GMT

Im just confused on when to use the AMEX and when to use the Discover. I mean the 5% cashback throughout the year is nice, plus cashover feature is awesome too. Pretty much my question is what is the advantage of AMEX over Discover?

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:22:33 GMT

I don't have personal experience with Discover, but if I had a Disc card and an AMEX, I'd use the AMEX more because their fraud protection and customer service is a proven deal in the finance industry. If I have a problem, I don't have any doubt AMEX will take care of it quickly over the phone. All purchases made on your AMEX card (most of them) have additional insurance and warranty automatically extended to them by AMEX - does Discover do this?

5% cashback is killer on the Discover card, though. AMEX has their Membership Rewards program, which I find to be pretty weak from my research on it using this board and on the web.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:26:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Im just confused on when to use the AMEX and when to use the Discover. I mean the 5% cashback throughout the year is nice, plus cashover feature is awesome too. Pretty much my question is what is the advantage of AMEX over Discover?

I don't know that there is one, in terms of the classic charge cards, unless you're doing George Clooney in "Up in the Air" and traveling a lot.

I prefer cashback any day. The only reason I have a Blue instead of a Costco is because there isn't a Costco store within a couple hundred miles of my hometown. (Yes, I know that I could order online, but I wanted a brick-and-mortar store, with a gas station.)

The Costco card looks like the cream of the crop to me. Blue Cash would take WAY too much usage to generate significant rewards, and unless I suddenly find a dozen children moving in with me, it isn't useful.

The problem with Discover is that those moving 5% categories don't always fall in areas where you actually spend, and I believe that they're capped pretty low as well.

The way that the rewards cards are cutting back, I think the best bet is to get maybe 4 or 5 that pretty much cover the board, without expecting any one card to do it all.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

vanillabean — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:47:40 GMT

I can't find anything here to disagree with you about. That's highly annoying.

When an appealing quarterly Discover category is not available, we default to the Costco Amex for its 3% year-round categories and sometimes the 2% as well. The rest goes on our travel cards, primary the one aimed for redeeming our next international vacation.

This feels intuitively right to us. I have yet to calculate whether it's better to put the 2% cash back purchases on the travel cards.

DW has a semi-distant branch of the family in Michigan. They happened to mention their nearest Costco is 100 miles away and that they were considering getting a bigger car to justify the trip. Their excuse was there was this particular brand of something they liked. Still didn't make sense. But I say, get the card even if you go only one a year!

Of course our problem is that no matter which card we get next, it'll take away money spent on the others. The Chase Freedom's quarterly system may work because it doesn't fully overlap with that of Discover, but I'd rather not get a card that doesn't report its credit limit. And of course by now there has to be no annual fee.

Or maybe I could benefit from seeing Up in the Air again.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:13:32 GMT

Thanks for everyones opinions. I will just rotate the cards for different things, but mostly use the the AMEX card unless its in the 5% cashback category, Ill use the Discover.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:21:55 GMT

@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:

I can't find anything here to disagree with you about. That's highly annoying. ...

Cheer up, our troll over on General Credit Issues has found plenty!

Trying to keep multiple rewards cards happy can wear you out. But it sounds like you've got a plan that works for you.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

ngerasimatos — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:29:03 GMT

I like AMEX purely for the level of customer service and their online activity and statement feature. I have yet to see anyone offer a better set of online tools for account review and management. I also like that they protect me, the consumer, far more than the actual merchant.

I recently purchased an electronic item and was one day late on returning it past the 30 day return policy, the item had actually broke 10 days after purchasing it but I was traveling for work so it made getting access to a store to complete the return very difficult.

When I finally got to the store to complete the return, I discussed with the store manager and he agreed to accept the item, but only as store credit as I was 1 day passed the return policy and he stated there was "nothing he could do". He was firm and would not change his mind. I told him I bought it with my AMEX and I could just call them and they would most likely side with me as I tried to the best of my ability to return the item in good faith and they refused to accept it.

After hearing I used AMEX as my payment option, and me requesting him to sign a paper saying he refused to honor the return. He changed his tone and agreed to refund the item 100% back to my AMEX.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:24:04 GMT

^ wow thats really cool, seems AMEX really does take care of its customers.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:54:51 GMT

@ngerasimatos wrote:

After hearing I used AMEX as my payment option, and me requesting him to sign a paper saying he refused to honor the return. He changed his tone and agreed to refund the item 100% back to my AMEX.

Ah, its good to know merchants fear our AMEXs just as much as we do! jk

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:00:13 GMT

American Express definitely takes care of its customers. I purchased a Macbook laptop from the online apple store using my American Express. I declined the extended warranty from Apple because American Express will match the manufacture's warranty for an additional year.

Sure enough 1 year and and 1 month later my disc drive stopped working. The drive would not rip CDs. So I called American Express and they suggested I get it repaired at the apple store. So I did and I used my American Express to pay for the repair then I faxed all my receipts to them and I got a prompt statement credit before the statement cut.

I continue to use my American Express card for large purchases.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:40:04 GMT

^Thats awesome. AMEX is awesome

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Cory — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:31:21 GMT

I'm kinda starting to like more of my Discover More Card rather the American Express Zync card for my personal finances. I have learned what's best in my situation, that with the Discover More Card I can get cash over my purchase at the register. This is after I'm done shopping for a ton of grocery. I'm kinda bored of the AMEX Zync card already, and futhermore confused as to why I have not received any member rewards points yet.

I like the whole set-up for picture of Shop Discover, which I will be using heavenly during the holidays.

Maybe the AMEX Zync card has a certain spending criteria to receive points? I don't know. I thought any type of purchase, candy or shoes will reward me points. I've had the card since July. Does that make a difference?

Cory

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

cashnocredit — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:48:08 GMT

I paid off my mortgage and stopped using CCs over 10 years ago and my last (unused) card was canceled 8 years ago. I had only used a debit card for most of the last 15 years until I was getting increased hassles renting cars and hotels. Then I discovered the world of credit reports and what they recorded - and don't record. A few issues with utilities I failed to cancel when I moved and I found I was about as uncredit worthy as someone with zero credit history. Effectively that's what what I had.

Since, because of increasing car/hotel hassles, I decided a CC was needed so I investigated what was available and ran across a few sites (this is one) with knowledgeable denizens who steered me towards secured cards. I then picked up and WF and Citi card with the max allowed (10k and 25k). This is all background for why I'm very happy with the CSRs:

Earlier this year I had an emergency need to transport my mother, who was coming out of a stroke ward from one coast to the other so I could provide home care. I only had a few hours notice as other options evaporated. I called an air ambulance service, essentially a small jet with medical staff. I gave them the Citi CC info for a 20k fee and it was promptly declined, apparently due to the very large charge. I called the Citi CSRs, asked why the card was declined as the available credit was presumably 24k. I was almost instantly transfered to someone who really knew what was going on (Citi had recently changed it's secured max to 5k and apparently automatically limited single charges on the whole secured user base to 5k). He immediately offered to manually authorize the charge but the charter company's card servicer couldn't figure out how to do it so he had the account somehow changed to accept the charge in the automated system.

1. I understand how glitches like that can occur.

2. I thought Citi's employees handled the glitch professionally and competently..

3. I love their online payment options and clear web interface.

4. I love and use their virtual CC for vendors I don't do regular business with. Lowering my fraud CC risk lowers their costs as well.

As my credit has come back fairly well and I have gone, in 18 months, from not even having a FICO score to being in the 700s, preapps have been arriving, Discover, Visa, Amex, etc.. Me, I'm happy with Citi and WF. I recently added a CitiGold checking acct for the $500 cash back even though my main account is WF. The only thing I would like now is a secured 100k card. Especially if it paid the 4.07%APR of the CD that secures my current Citi card.

Amex certainly has good bennies but with the Citi secured card I have zero worries I'll try to use it somewhere and find the account closed.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:20:39 GMT

Great story, cashnocredit! A very interesting and very intelligent way to get back in the credit world.

I hope your mother is recovering. An air ambulance service is amazing.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

cashnocredit — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:26:54 GMT

Thanks haulingthescoreup,

She's been doing much better having recovered her speaking ability but still a long road to go I'm afraid.

I'm sure glad I found out about credit and had those cards as none of the banks I had accounts with had local branches where she was and it would have taken at least a day to get funds wired and I didn't have the time.

Re: Discover Vs. AMEX

Cory — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:58:53 GMT

Wow!

What an awesome story of your success! You could be a credit counselor.

Cory