AMEX cards

[bobk]

It is good, but you can do better. I still have a Tesco credit card but never use it other than as a clubcard - by some quirk that gets me the enhanced earning rate on fuel anyway. Then I pay with a Barclaycard for about 1% back.

Isn't the 1% cashback limited to £20 a month ?

 

[Highland Mule]

Every little helps ..... of course you can cash the points if you so wish

That extra fiver helps a lot, multiplied up across the year. Last transaction of that size was last month and got me 4000 Avios and 26,000 Nectar, so roughly £180 back. That’s because I’d referred Mrs HM for the Nectar Amex from my Amex and she used the transaction to trigger her joining bonus. I expect to cancel that card before Christmas and start her on the next one.

Isn't the 1% cashback limited to £20 a month ?

It’s pseudo-cash in the form of hotel points on a historic Barclaycard. If I wanted real cash back I’d use Mrs HM’s Amex for 1%, no limit (spent against my shopping so no hassle).

 

[BigBarl]

I’ve had an AMEX for a couple of years now and whilst the rewards to very attractive it is a right pain that a lot of places only accept visa or Mastercard and this only seems to increase the more rural you get so not ideal for our sector. Generally speaking you’re fine in the big chains and fuel stations etc but not the independent and regional business’. Even some places don’t accept Amex online either for spare parts etc. overall I would say AMEX is great in theory but for a small, rural based business not the most flexible option.

 

[oldoaktree]

Anybody use AMEX for a business card? Currently we've got 4 cards through our bank which are mainly used for fuel purchases and then things like sim cards for house alarms, GPS annual subscription and if we are buying spare parts where we don't have an account. Across the 4 cards the monthly bill is anything from £1500-£2000/month and then we will claim VAT back where we can. We don't get any points from this card and I was wondering if AMEX would be better as it accumulates air miles which can be useful? Repayment is 54 days instead of 30 days also. However you have to pay for the AMEX which I think for us would be the gold card at £175 per year. I am not sure whether that is per card or whether its just one payment then all other cards are free as the website isn't clear. From what I understand with our present spend we would be looking at accumulating 18,000 - 24,000 point per year. I have not looked into what that equates to air miles wise yet but just thinking at least we would be getting something back from the annual spend.

The Amex card I use has the option of a free companion flight if you spend 12-15k can’t remember the exact amount off hand and by the time you have spent that much you’ll have plenty of air miles to so 2 virtually free flights

 

[Highland Mule]

The Amex card I use has the option of a free companion flight if you spend 12-15k can’t remember the exact amount off hand and by the time you have spent that much you’ll have plenty of air miles to so 2 virtually free flights

My last two “virtually free” flights had taxes and fees of a shade over £650/ person and that was with some clever route choices to minimise the cost. You have to be canny when and what you use them for as the likes of Ryanair and EasyJet are often as cheap without miles as BA would be with them. No point spending £36/head plus miles when you could spend £20/head without.

 

[D14]

The Amex card I use has the option of a free companion flight if you spend 12-15k can’t remember the exact amount off hand and by the time you have spent that much you’ll have plenty of air miles to so 2 virtually free flights

Apparently 24,000 points is about £200 in monetary terms so you must have a special deal there but thats the sort of thing I would swap for.

 

[Highland Mule]

Apparently 24,000 points is about £200 in monetary terms so you must have a special deal there but thats the sort of thing I would swap for.

It’s the BA Amex so no special deal and available for anyone, discussed at length on the link I gave you before.

 

[D14]

It’s the BA Amex so no special deal and available for anyone, discussed at length on the link I gave you before.

Just seen it and basically its a 10.7% return and the example on the website is that for every £10,000 spend you get £1200 back in the form of flights. So my question is that if I signed up for 4 of those cards today will that deal stay in place for the duration I have the cards or can they remove that deal?

 

[Highland Mule]

Just seen it and basically its a 10.7% return and the example on the website is that for every £10,000 spend you get £1200 back in the form of flights. So my question is that if I signed up for 4 of those cards today will that deal stay in place for the duration I have the cards or can they remove that deal?

The companion voucher is a long term thing, but you would struggle to get that much value out of it without earning a lot of miles elsewhere - they value the voucher on the basis of long haul premium seats (as do I) which means earning maybe 150k Avios elsewhere. My latest voucher saved 147,500 Avios buy that means it also needed the same number too

And you wouldn’t want to sign up for four of those straight away - best to get one of the others and then refer/ cross refer to build up the points from the bonuses. There’s a strategy that gets almost 200k by optimising the order of application and that’s worth finding.

Also worth noting that the cards referred to here are personal ones and you’re looking for a company card, so that won’t work anyway.

Unless you already do spend serious multiple thousand ££) money on premium air travel, you’re not really saving anything. My advice - get a Capital On Tap company card and enjoy the 1% or whatever cash back.

 

[oldoaktree]

Apparently 24,000 points is about £200 in monetary terms so you must have a special deal there but thats the sort of thing I would swap for.

It’s a BA card I’ve had it for years . Last free trip was to Budapest club class . On that route the plane seats aren’t much different but you get to use the club class lounge early boarding etc . The money saved meant we could get a real good hotel and room

 

[oldoaktree]

My last two “virtually free” flights had taxes and fees of a shade over £650/ person and that was with some clever route choices to minimise the cost. You have to be canny when and what you use them for as the likes of Ryanair and EasyJet are often as cheap without miles as BA would be with them. No point spending £36/head plus miles when you could spend £20/head without.

Often use the free flights to go to the USA,Boston New York San Francisco Dallas and meet friends from over there

 

[Highland Mule]

Often use the free flights to go to the USA,Boston New York San Francisco Dallas and meet friends from over there

Please tell me you don't go in economy. And don't call them free - they most certainly are not. If nothing else, the Avios are at least 0.8p each in opportunity cost.