Benefits of having an AMEX card?

[distantarray]

their customer service is amazing, and Amex will ALWAYS stand behind you, even if it pisses off the merchants even when your right or wrong. My friend runs a hotel and they rented out a conference room for a few thousand dollars over the weekend, they made frivilous disputes 3 times and Amex gives them a short time to send proof and documentation, within this time many people can get their charge refunded. Not that it's a great thing to do and it's ethically wrong if you did get a good service, but it shows you how strong Amex supports it's customers.

Also I went to NY with a friend and he had a Platinum card, the restaurant we wanted to go to didn't have any reservations, Amex has merchant agreements with certain top restaurants where you can get a table within few days of a place that's booked for months.

Advance ticket purchases,

Cross rewards are nice (like Starwood and Delta partnership where you get Starwood AND Delta points for using their cards at eachother) -Delta sucks btw.  

Cross reward if you have Starwood + Amex Platinum you automatically get Starwood Gold status with 4pm checkouts (you have to call Platinum department to get it - not many people know this)

Best hotel card hands down - Starwood 1 point can be redeemed for upto 10 cents value, Hilton points are worth less than 0.5 after devaluation (before was only valued at 0.5)

Itemized billing statements are a nice touch, where if you add your kids or spouse you don't have to wonder what they charged since they get their own statement as well.

Prestige - Amex is still considered the pinnicle of the credit world, sometimes I flash my Amex just to get a point across when I don't get any service and it seems to work at upper end places.

Also remember not all Amex has annual fees

There's also many other benefits but Amex is the pioneer of credit cards, the Green card was the first card in the market.

backdating

Generous credit limits and increases

great web interface for banking online

allows me to pay rent for about 1 penny a point   (amex gift cards through bigcrumbs.com pushed through williamspaid lol)  $3000 gift card and get 1.4% cash back (big crumbs) then pay 2.9% at williams paid.    = 2.9% - 1.4% = 1.5% and my mileage plus is a 1.4 point card (for spending $25,000 annually easy with rent/mortgage) 

[WarJar101]

Guys, since we're on the topic of AMEX. I would just like to know if it's possible to PC the Delta Skymiles into a BCE after 6 months or so? Has anyone had or seen someone with some luck in doing that?

[navigatethis12]

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@distantarray wrote:

their customer service is amazing, and Amex will ALWAYS stand behind you, even if it pisses off the merchants even when your right or wrong. My friend runs a hotel and they rented out a conference room for a few thousand dollars over the weekend, they made frivilous disputes 3 times and Amex gives them a short time to send proof and documentation, within this time many people can get their charge refunded. Not that it's a great thing to do and it's ethically wrong if you did get a good service, but it shows you how strong Amex supports it's customers.

Prestige - Amex is still considered the pinnicle of the credit world, sometimes I flash my Amex just to get a point across when I don't get any service and it seems to work at upper end places.

 

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I am sure your opinion will change if you end up ont he receiving end of a frivolous dispute. I am not sure how you could see that as a positive thing for an issuer to do. What it really shows is that American Express doesn't care about their most important customers, the merchants. Without merchants, the cardholders are useless.

I always thought that people getting treated better because of a credit card was wrong. Someone who has a Capital One or Orchard card can spend just as much or more than someone with an American Express card. I wouldn't do business with an establishment if I saw that kind of nonsense happening.

[VegasKyle]

Having extensive dealings with credit card companies from the merchant side I can say that AMEX does WAY more for their customers with regard to charge backs and disputes than the others. 

I can think of several situations where the AMEX card holder got their money back but a Visa/MC/Disc card holder didin't. 

[Open123]

Right, which is why for large purchases, I always use Amex. There are times where I won't purchase certain items unless the merchant accepts Amex.

[ACsteel]

I guess webhopper was not the only one who didn't realize from page 2 that this is a 2011 thread lol.

[LS2982]

Yet another reason why old threads need to be read only. Annoys me so bad replying to these!!!

[Revelate]

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@angelnyc wrote:

I guess webhopper was not the only one who didn't realize from page 2 that this is a 2011 thread lol.

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Well a new user necro'd it probably off a Google search.  Merchant account question, not sure how Google failed him that badly .

Leaving the necro'd topic open as there's a few questions and it's a timeless discussion as it's debated every other month seemingly .

[LS2982]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@angelnyc wrote:

I guess webhopper was not the only one who didn't realize from page 2 that this is a 2011 thread lol.

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Well a new user necro'd it probably off a Google search.  Merchant account question, not sure how Google failed him that badly .

Leaving the necro'd topic open as there's a few questions and it's a timeless discussion as it's debated every other month seemingly .

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What does "necro'd" mean?

[Open123]

Also, Amex seems to bring out the strongest views (good and bad) in most credit forum members.