Why American Express?

Anonymous · ‎09-27-2015

Why did you choose American Express? How does it benefit you? Which type of card do you have? Do you use the benefits enough so that the yearly fee is worth it?

Anonymous · ‎09-27-2015

Travel, Delta airlines, and making sure I have cards with multiple banks.

B335is · ‎09-27-2015

At the time they still backdated, so 1998 MSD was a big appeal for me. Once you're in, subsequent applications are SP if denied and HP if approved. They're generally known for good CLI if you take care of your accts and credit profile. Amex has also been good to me when I travel domestically and have moved and forgotten to update my address. When other cards have frozen, Amex always came to the rescue in those circumstances. Finally, they almost always stand behind the customer when fraud or disputes occur.

I currently have Platinum, SPG, JetBlue, Hilton Surpass and Gold Business.

Anonymous · ‎09-27-2015

Why did you choose American Express? - Diversity
How does it benefit you? - 10k credit line is nice, backs up SM for 3% groceries, 2000 backdate was an unexpected but welcome perk.
Which type of card do you have? - BCE
Do you use the benefits enough so that the yearly fee is worth it? - N/A. Not all Amex cards come with an AF.

Anonymous · ‎09-27-2015

Why did you choose American Express? - they mailed me with a good bonus deal, I app'd thinking they wouldn't accept a college student but they did. a lot of good benefits that come with being an Amex customer

How does it benefit you? - I have BCE for cashback on groceries, gas, dept stores. My ED also earns me Membership Rewards points on groceries and if I use the card 20x I get 20% more MR points that I use on flights and nice hotels. Both cards come with purchase/return protection and assistance for when you're traveling, and also known for siding with customer in disputes.

Do you use the benefits enough so that the yearly fee is worth it? - Neither of my cards have AF

Hope this helps!

Anonymous · ‎09-27-2015

I have the EveryDay.

At first, I got the card because I royally screwed them and wanted to see if they'd forgiven me after settling. They did.

I ended up, however, making the card my everyday card because the bonus category (grocery) and the MR points are actually useful to me. Don't do a lot of eating out, mostly do grocery shopping, and Delta's a decent airline transfer partner (or was). I've already taken two round trips on Delta this year... one of which was paid for with MRs.

Thinking about dropping my PRG (got for signup bonus) next spring and upgrading the ED to the EDP, to cover the gas category. Though, I'm only loyal to programs that have value... there's no sentiment here for me. If the MR gets less useful over the next year or two, there will be no hesitation in switching to something else (UR or TY) if it's valuable.

Anonymous · ‎09-27-2015

I have the EveryDay... no AF, so yes, the rewards have been more valuable to me than $0.

At first, I got the card because I royally screwed them and wanted to see if they'd forgiven me after settling. They did.

I ended up, however, making the card my everyday card because the bonus category (grocery) and the MR points are actually useful to me. Don't do a lot of eating out, mostly do grocery shopping, and Delta's a decent airline transfer partner (or was). I've already taken two round trips on Delta this year... one of which was paid for with MRs.

Thinking about dropping my PRG (got for signup bonus) next spring and upgrading the ED to the EDP, to cover the gas category. Though, I'm only loyal to programs that have value... there's no sentiment here for me. If the MR gets less useful over the next year or two, there will be no hesitation in switching to something else (UR or TY) if it's valuable.

EDIT: Sorry for the duplicate. Have no idea how that happened.

yfan · ‎09-27-2015

Originally, I got an Amex - the Costco TE - for.. Costco. But now I also have the BCE. There are a couple of things beyond the cashbac that I really enjoy with Amex:

Cheap primary car rental CDW coverage. I rent cards maybe twice a year, but when I do, it's really useful to have primary CDW for $17.95 for up to 42 days (I'm a Californian).
Amex Offers. I find useful ones quite often.
No hassle fraud and extended warranty claim process.

I have also found that businesses that take Amex tend to treat me better as a customer (in general), whether or not I am actually using my Amex for a given purchase.

Anonymous · ‎09-27-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Why did you choose American Express? How does it benefit you? Which type of card do you have? Do you use the benefits enough so that the yearly fee is worth it?

Initially I chose Costco, which resulted in an AmEx. I'd had cards in a former life, so that one's backdated to 1987 which I'm sure has benefitted me imensely. That one has no fee.

I then chose the BCP for the grocery category. I'd have easily benefitted enough for the AF from groceries alone as we'd more than max that in a year. I have a great CL with it after a 3x CLI when I got the card and I've been pretty happy with it.

I got multiple mailers for the 50k PRG and DH for the 100k Plat, so I looked more closely at MR. I decided it's a good fit for us, so we've recently switched nearly everything over to MR cards.

Chose to go for the Plat for the 100k bonus and will use some of the perks. Since I think I made a poor airline choice for this year, I likely won't be able to (almost) cancel the AF by travel credit x2 over the first year, but between what we will use in perks and the bonus, it's definitely worth it for the first year. We'll see after that.

Then I got an EDP to 'replace' the BCP. I would have happily converted it, but that's not possible, so I've got a new TL. I need to chat them up to downgrade the BCP to BC to get prorated AF back (I appreciate that they do that). The AF will still be covered with grocery spend but we'll use it for gas and most general spend for the 1.5 MR min with the 50% bonus. It allows me to make DH juggle less cards and keeps rewards less spread out.

And I also got a PRG. As I mentioned, it came with the 50k, which is nice. It'll otherwise mostly be used for restaurants. Nice that it came with the first year's fee waived. Again, we'll evaluate next year and see if it's worth it.

I've been very happy with their service up until I started trying to do something about the low SL on the EDP. I had to go round and round with chat, phones, chat, phones. But in the end, I think we came up with a servicable solution for now.

ETA: ooh, yeah. And Amex offers have been good too.

Sharingan · ‎09-27-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Why did you choose American Express? How does it benefit you? Which type of card do you have? Do you use the benefits enough so that the yearly fee is worth it?

American Express was my very first break into the big banks when I was 19. I knew as soon as I started on my credit that I had to have a card with them, and sure enough, it happened unexpectedly. 5 years later, I am still as satisfied of a customer now as I was back then, and I rank them higher than many other banks I do business with (especially Capital One and Barclays).

That that being said, I currently have 6 cards with them: Zync, BCE, Platinum, ED, Hilton HHonors, and SimplyCash Business. I'd say that my BCE, Platinum, and SimplyCash are the most useful to me. The Platinum's benefits have more than defrayed the cost of the AF for me, and the BCE serves as a very useful grocery backup. My SimplyCash is simply amazing for what it does best. Lastly, the AmEx offers are a fantastic value, although this month is loaded with stores I've never even heard of across all 6 cards .