Citi customer support vs Amex customer support

[bergrides]

Hi all,

I want to get a second credit card and I am down to the Citi Double Cash and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred.  I have the LL Bean Mastercard that was recently transferred from Barclay to Citi, but the transfer was not smooth for multiple reasons.  This is what is leading to my question.  The cash back on both cards will be close since I spend alot on groceries with 3 to 4 adults living in the house (about 8400-8500 a year).  The main things I am looking for is good customer service and alerts with in a few minutes of the card being used, and able to see pending transactions - the cash back is an added bonus.  Both of these features are suppossedly available with both of the cards I am looking at, but the Bean card does offer either.    It comes down to customer service and Amex has been great when I have called, and Citi has been hit or miss.  Opinions??

Thanks

[NRB525]

I know that for each of the AMEX cards I have set up in Apple Pay, I get an alert on my phone every time a charge goes through those cards, whether from a phone payment or not. I am not certain of the exact setup required, but you can set up the alerts with AMEX to send those out.

I haven't used my Citi cards as often, but there is a mobile app for those as well, and I think those will also give alerts with each transaction, regardless of who initiated the transaction (phone, on line, swipe).

Where do you buy most of your groceries? For the AMEX, it matters. Not all the places you go to get "groceries" code as groceries with AMEX, where they do code Groceries with VISA or MC or Discover when those categories come up.

[Anonymous]

I can only speak about my experience with Amex charge cards.  I love Amex for their customer service.  We have two companies with multiple employees who have cards (all charge cards) and put a fairly substantial spend through each.  We have never had any issues in 20 plus years.  Fraud is corrected immediately, replacement cards are expedited, they have flexibility with payment dates, and no high $ charges have ever been questioned.  My only hesitation with going all in on Amex is abroad travel.

I think I am going to lose American status this year so I will probably apply for one if the Citi AA cards after January so curious to hear other weigh in.

[wasCB14]

Amex and Citi both offer a lot in the way of alerts. Both show pending transactions with one exception: Amex makes it a little trickier to track pending purchases in a foreign currency (tracking only becomes easy when they actually post). However, since both charge a foreign transaction fee, it sounds like you're not looking for an international travel card.

Amex's bottom CS tier (not Platinum or Centurion) is probably a little better than Citi for general customer service. Neither are amazing. Both have good benefits departments. Amex is better as far as fraud and dispute resolution.

[longtimelurker]

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@NRB525 wrote:

Where do you buy most of your groceries? For the AMEX, it matters. Not all the places you go to get "groceries" code as groceries with AMEX, where they do code Groceries with VISA or MC or Discover when those categories come up.

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Right.   Assuming (which is a big assumption!) all $8500 does count for the BCP:

 On groceries of $8500, BCP earms $360 (6000*.06) + $25 (2500*..01) - $95 (AF) = $290.   DC earns $170.    So you would need $12K of other spend for the DC to catch up (and any gas spend increases the calculation towards the BCP).  

[SouthJamaica]

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@bergrides wrote:

Hi all,

I want to get a second credit card and I am down to the Citi Double Cash and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred.  I have the LL Bean Mastercard that was recently transferred from Barclay to Citi, but the transfer was not smooth for multiple reasons.  This is what is leading to my question.  The cash back on both cards will be close since I spend alot on groceries with 3 to 4 adults living in the house (about 8400-8500 a year).  The main things I am looking for is good customer service and alerts with in a few minutes of the card being used, and able to see pending transactions - the cash back is an added bonus.  Both of these features are suppossedly available with both of the cards I am looking at, but the Bean card does offer either.    It comes down to customer service and Amex has been great when I have called, and Citi has been hit or miss.  Opinions??

Thanks

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1. Citi's alerts are much better. E.g., you could set it for any purchase over $9, and you would get almost instant notification if anyone used your card for a $10 purchase.

2.  Amex's telephone customer service is better; but it's nothing great.

[Anonymous]

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@bergrides wrote:

Hi all,

I want to get a second credit card and I am down to the Citi Double Cash and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred.

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Citi Double Cash and Amex Blue Cash Preferred serve completely different purposes and do not compete with each other.  Everybody should have a 2% card and anybody, who spends as much as you do  on groceries, should have  grocery card.  So I think you should get both. 

[wasCB14]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@bergrides wrote:

Hi all,

I want to get a second credit card and I am down to the Citi Double Cash and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred.  I have the LL Bean Mastercard that was recently transferred from Barclay to Citi, but the transfer was not smooth for multiple reasons.  This is what is leading to my question.  The cash back on both cards will be close since I spend alot on groceries with 3 to 4 adults living in the house (about 8400-8500 a year).  The main things I am looking for is good customer service and alerts with in a few minutes of the card being used, and able to see pending transactions - the cash back is an added bonus.  Both of these features are suppossedly available with both of the cards I am looking at, but the Bean card does offer either.    It comes down to customer service and Amex has been great when I have called, and Citi has been hit or miss.  Opinions??

Thanks

---

1. Citi's alerts are much better. E.g., you could set it for any purchase over $9, and you would get almost instant notification if anyone used your card for a $10 purchase.

2.  Amex's telephone customer service is better; but it's nothing great.

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Amex offers this. From a recent email alert:

Dear <wasCB14>
There was a large purchase on your Card
As you requested, we're letting you know that this purchase was more than $250.00.
You can change the dollar amount of these large purchase notifications online.

The timestamp is within a minute of the merchant's transaction confirmation email.

[Anonymous]

Haven't been using alerts much, but have some personal experiences with CSRs:

Citi CSR is hard to get to (they may or may not allow you to send any online message) so you need to call. If you call you might have to spend 10min fighting their automated system then another 20min answering questions ranging from SSN to where did you get your lunch 6 weeks ago before getting to anyone remotely useful (be prepared for more pop-up quizs about every fine detail of your life every 1 or 2 minutes while talking to that person).

AMEX has an online chat where you can usually get to chat with someone or a fraction of the attention of someone in a min or two and they have resolved 70 or 80% of my issues. If chat didn't work you can call them and you do get to speak with a real person in a min or so as well.

[bergrides]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bergrides wrote:

Hi all,

I want to get a second credit card and I am down to the Citi Double Cash and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred.

---

Citi Double Cash and Amex Blue Cash Preferred serve completely different purposes and do not compete with each other.  Everybody should have a 2% card and anybody, who spends as much as you do  on groceries, should have  grocery card.  So I think you should get both. 

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For now I am only looking at one card.  Unfortunately I don't get to travel, but in a couple of years my son may be studying abroad for a bit, so at that time I would probably get the Capital One Quicksilver or something else that doesn't have a foreign transaction fee in case I have to pay for something while he is there.