Which American Express card?

[MotherOfRatios]

Hi
I'm looking to travel more next year and I've been told to get an American Express.

I'm looking at the Amex gold as it offers more airlines than just the BA one.

What have people's experiences been?

Why are you looking at Amex specifically? I have found that they are expensive for the benefits that you get from them.

the Halifax clarity credit card may not get you points but it is free to use world wide (including cash withdrawals) and gets you the best exchange rates.

Get something with Mastercard or visa.
Work card was Amex, and it wasn't as widely accepted as the other two.

For the points you can get for flights

So the deals aren't that great at the moment. We did the following:

I got the Barclays black BA card (£20pcm) and got 70,000 Avios sign on. 1.5 point per pound spend.

A few months later, Amex did a deal on their premium BA card that did 50,000 points. This also has 1.5 points per £ but costs £250 annual fee upfront. DH did this and I immediately downgraded the Barclays card to the free Avios card to save money, but still gets 1 point per £ for when Amex isn't accepted. I've been pleasantly surprised how widely accepted Amex is these days (can circumnavigate via PayPal too). Critically this card gives a companion voucher after £10,000 spend which essentially means buy one get one free.

There is a new offer with Gold Amex at the moment that gives 25,000 points that can be converted to Avios, fee free for a year and 4 airport lounge passes, I am doing this as a new Amex customer.

Within a year, with the companion voucher, we have enough points to buy 2 business class return flights to the US for £450pp taxes. I would have liked more flexibility with airlines, but Avios is much easier to rack up in my experience (can do it via Nectar and Topcashback too) and BA goes to all the places I want to go.

But yes for the actually travelling abroad part you'll need other cards, we use Halifax Clarity where we need to use a credit card, but Chase debit is my favourite as it gives 1% cash back and free cash withdrawals.

I currently switch between my Monzo and chase abroad to avoid charges

I have a gold AMEX and find I more than get the cost of it back. I pay for most of my flights in Avios now, with just a little bit of cash to make it up (eg £90 return flight to Athens, £20 return flight to Paris). Plus the first year is free.

By the way, don't forget you can collect as many points or sometimes even more using the BA rewards app. Check before you buy anything online to see if you can get rewards points by shopping through it - I just got 4000 for buying pet insurance, for example. You don't even need an Amex to collect these!

Oh and my Amex is accepted almost everywhere!

We’ve got a black Flying Blue Amex so Air France and KLM.

We use it for everything and pay the balance at the end of the month. It’s €30 a month but worth it with the air miles we clock up.

I have a standard (free) Amex which is accepted in 90% of the places I shop. I get a lot of perks from it eg Shop Small (£5 off local purchase in December), cashback at certain restaurants, plus 0.5% cashback on all spend which you can spend at the majority of shops when you make online purchase (it comes up with a prompt to pay with points). I think I get £50+/year of actual cash benefits from it.

I went with the gold in the end hoping to build up points to potentially do New York December 2024/jan 2025

Amex is better than others if you need to claim against retailers etc, too as they're the bank and the card rather than two separate entities. I speak from recent experience of their exemplary customer service
I have a free platinum cashback card and a Halifax clarity for when Amex not accepted or travelling abroad

I'll have a look at Halifax as I'm wanting to put a holiday on a credit card (found a bargain on Expedia but no option to spread)

@MotherOfRatios if you're paying in £s in the UK you don't need to pay on a card for foreign transactions, you can pay for Expedia in the UK, Halifax is handy for travelling but you'll get no point perks.

Yes, I'd book the holiday with the Amex and then use Halifax clarity when I was there!

The APR is too high on Amex too book a holiday and spread it out

@MotherOfRatios if you're not able to pay for the holiday upfront then you need to look for a completely different card, one with an interest free period, I doubt any of the big players in travelling points will do that, it's usually a perk for the bigger spenders who pay off in full. I doubt Halifax Clarity has a big interest free period either?

Does the holiday need to be paid in full at point of booking? Most package holidays require a deposit and the balance paying nearer the time, can you pay the deposit and final balance on Amex and save for the balance in the period between? I can't remember how Expedia works, if it's deposit based.

Have a look at the site Head for Points, they give you a really good run down of which cards are best depending on your situation.
I have the regular BA Amex and use it for most day to day spending but I pay it in full each month.

Paid in full. As I said above I'll use a different card for booking

My Amex arrived today and I started using it!

My Amex arrived today

Crikey that's fast work. I applied for my Amex Gold on Thursday and haven't even had an application result...

It was pretty instant I applied and was approved within 30 minutes it was dispatched yesterday

@MotherOfRatios mostly impressed with Royal Mail in that case, time of year and all that.