Why such the hatred?
I will go with you on this one. AmEx is the only card “that has no present spending limit”. What they don;t say is that it is arbitrarily set based on some undisclosed internal set of rules & you don’t find out until you need to use the damn card! I have been stranded by them twice - each time standing in a hotel lobby in the middle of the night in some place far from my home - because they determined that my spending pattern had changed. Umm - YEAH - my job function changed causing me to have to travel that week and this was my company card for TRAVEL. I now always carry a personal Visa card on business trips as my emergency backup for my AmEx. How is THAT for an AmEx endorsement? :eek:
The simple solution (which I use for both my Visa and my Amex) is to call the companies when I’m traveling abroad to let them know where I’ll be (just the city, and for how long, nothing more than that). It takes just a couple of minutes (and, it should be noted, it’s quicker with AmEx). Never had them shut off my card while I was traveling.
Should you have to notify your credit card companies where you are at all times? That seems pretty crappy and counter-intuitive.
Not at all times. Just when your spending pattern is going to experience a sudden, drastic change for a couple days, so they don’t freak out.
FWIW, I’ve never had this problem, though, as I don’t travel often.
I had my card shut off when I was overseas once and now I make a point to notify them of travel. It’s usually in the terms on the back of the bill that you are supposed to do this.
This reminds me that I need to cancel my Amex account. I got a free Amex card a little over a year ago when I opened an investment account, but a few months ago I was notified that due to a change in corporate structure the Amex card is no longer one of the perks of my account. The first year’s membership fee of $150 (!!) is being waived but I can’t see paying that kind of money just for the privilege of having the account. I get just as good bonuses with my other credit cards without having to pay for them.
From the 2-for-1 flight coupons to SkyMiles to Starwood Points, I’ve gotten over $8k worth of flights and hotel stays since 2001 in exchange for about $1k in annual fees. (I don’t carry a balance so I don’t pay service fees or interest.) So while I don’t think AMEX is more prestigious than other cards, I do use my AMEX cards more often than not because I like the rewards.
I noticed that recently a lot of small businesses have recently quit accepting AMEX cards. The lady at my tennis club said that the service fees were too high to justify it. So the gravy train might be drying up.
When I had AmEx cards the only drawback I noticed was that they were accepted in far fewer places than other cards, although that might have changed since then (mid 1980s).