What's the point of having an American Express card in 2016?

i have blue cash from amex card

they literally pay me when i buy usual stuff

its great

what's the point of having a point in 2016?

can never get declined and there is no limit.

free hotels and flights.

free or discounted rental cars depending on what you get.

free global travelers insurance

the ability to get laid by taking it out in a tourist spot

3% cashback on groceries

BCP=Amex Blue Cash Preferred, it gets 6% on groceries (up to $6,000 per year, then 1% thereafter), 3% on gas (no limit), 3% on select department stores (no limit), and 1% on everything else. It has a $75 per year annual fee, soon to be $95 per year

BCE=Amex Blue Cash Everyday, it gets 3% on groceries (up to $6,000 per year, then 1% thereafter), 2% on gas (no limit), and 1% on everything else. It has no annual fee

There's only one credit card that's better for groceries than the above two cards, I have it, but the application links were pulled last year so you can't get it anymore, but people who got it before still have it. Like I said before, there are better credit cards for gas than the BCP, but they're mainly from smaller banks which I personally don't prefer, or there are some cards from wholesale clubs that have better gas rewards but obviously require you to be a member of those clubs

I can't even begin to explain the Amex Membership Rewards program (MR), it's pretty complicated and only really useful for people who travel or wish to travel often, do some research yourself if you're interested

Meh, it seems these special cashback cards don't exist in Europe. We just have Green, Gold and Platinum. No cashback, and big annual fee of course.

Yeah if you're in Europe them Amex is useless to you and you're much better off sticking to Visa or MasterCard

Ok basically what everybody is trying to say is that
A. Niggers don't carry Amex
B. Everybody (including niggers) qualifies for some kind of Visa/MasterCard.

all of that is worth less than $8000 fampai

whats the point of having debit/credit cards and their stocks when more and more companies are rejecting business with visa due to fees?

For many of their premium cards they will hand deliver a new card to you by courier within a few hours. I've been skimmed when traveling before. They detected the fraud, called me, disabled the card, and I had someone give me a replacement within 2 hours. I was in the middle of a village in bumfuck nowhere scotland while I lingered around a restaurant for a little longer than I initially planned.

They often don't have THE best cashback incentives, but if I ever have a problem, or a question, I call them, and am speaking to a representative that speaks fluent English in seconds. The other bonuses like automatic upgrades at certain hotels, rental cars, etc are flat out superior to anything else.

>Are you sometimes annoyed because you can't pay with Amex in certain places?

It doesn't bother me. I have half a dozen cards I use for various purposes, in addition to several cards I use for my business. Many places don't accept amex because amex has higher fees. Usually it's a small difference, but it adds up, and for some types of businesses that are more fraud prone the differences are substantial.

I make it a point to run any large purchases through amex if a supplier for my business pisses me off. On a 100,000 order, that can easily be 3-5 thousand dollars flushed down the drain, and god help them if the product isn't absolutely pristine. Amex is fucking barbaric when it comes to shitting on merchants. Been on the receiving end of that a few times.

Centurion is 2500, not 8000, at least in the US. I wouldn't benefit from having one, though I get offers for them, but more than a few of the people I work with and around in my field find them worthwhile.

Even if you aren't getting all of the cash "value" out of the card, it's worth it for many reasons. The dedicated concierge and travel agent are extremely useful. Free companion tickets on international flights. Hotel benefits out the ass. For someone who travels a lot, for work or otherwise, the card is easily worth it.

On top of that, there's a certain prestige with the card. It's not as exclusive as it was years ago, but that card opens doors in a lot of high end locations. Someone with a black card simply doesn't need to follow the rules. A good friend and colleague of mine gave an 18 year old intern one of his black cards, and we went to a really high end strip club that was obviously 21+. We walked up to the VIP entrance and they didn't even look at the kid when they saw the thing in his hand, and we got access to a special table. All of this done with no reservation, or forethought. Kid got liquor, had all sorts of fun, and nobody said anything about it to anyone. Luxury car dealerships? Want a test drive? Wave your black card. Filling out paperwork for that sort of thing is suddenly beneath you.

Bear in mind that the target demographic of a card like the centurion is extremely affluent people. To them 2500, or 25000 is trivial. It's specifically catered to people for whom that expense is the equivalent of a few dollars to the general population. Even if they don't care about the perks, it's useful for bragging purposes. It's the credit card equivalent of custom tailored designer clothes.

i have a mastercard that does that

To piss off merchants.

They dont see one for ages, go to take it off their merchant account then BOOM someone with AMEX comes in

That plus the much higher fees they have to pay to amex.

What companies are actually doing this?

I'll be fucked before I give any random company my checking account information, and I sure as shit am not going to carry around a damn checkbook so I can buy groceries ever again.

walmart among other major top number one dogs

They won't stop taking cards any time soon. They don't like the fees on them, but they aren't in a position to argue until a method with superior convenience comes along.

about 18 points on your credit score.

except they are doing this in an increasing number of stores...

Once they abolish physical cash the governments of the world will nationalize payment processing.

Don't you have the same "status benefits" with the Visa black card (Visa Infinite) for example?

It's certainly easier to have, but it's only handled to a "rich enough" clientele.

Not in the US. In Canada they are in a pissing contest with Visa at the moment. Credit cards bring in business. Until someone comes along with a superior alternative to credit cards, all major retailers are forced to accept them. Walmart is still accepting everything but Visa in Canada.

Maybe some of the merchant agreements will change to allow for trasnactional fees to be passed onto the customer in a transparent fashion.

Waste of a card. It's a slightly shittier amex platinum card. I mean, it's visa, so it's useful in more locations, but the perks are basically the same. It's marketed to people who want to pretend to have centurion cards. Total bullshit for a card with such a significant yearly fee. You can definitely fool some dipshits into giving you special treatment with it, but any place that really offers special treatment to centurion holders will know the difference and will frequently treat you like shit if you try to pass it off as a centurion or "black card."

Maybe it's just the area I work in, but I've witnessed managers laughing when some moron says "I'll just use my black card" while pulling one of these out. I've heard of people being thrown out of clubs for trying that. It's a sure sign that someone is trying to act rich. There's no other reason to have it other than pretending to have a centurion. There was even a trademark lawsuit over it. Google American Express vs. Black Card LLC.

>treating Visa Infinite holders like shit
>laughing at them, then throwing them out of the club

You sound like a pleasure to do business with.

Maybe the people who have this card don't care, don't know, or are unconvinced about American Express cards.

infinite means no limit?
where is that user that wanted to pay the us debt with a credit card and default on it?

There's a lot of people who have it and try to pretend like they have a centurion when they use the visa black. Places that know the difference tend not to like that. That's all I said. I never claimed that all of the cardholders, or even the majority were like that. I personally don't care too much one way or the other if someone wants to pretend to be extremely affluent. There's pretentious shitheads everywhere. This is just one particular group of them.

It's still objectively an overpriced card for what you get. There's a reason for that. It's trying to pretend to be highly exclusive. The simple truth of the matter is that it's not.

Pretty much the only part I care about is how the people that go "Oh I'll just put that on my black card" tend to treat everyone else like shit. Doesn't matter if it's the infinite or the centurion. They are annoying to work with. Either because they constantly try to put on a show, or they legitimately believe they are special, and deserve to get favors or some other form of special treatment.

It's similar to someone who screams and yells at waiters and customer service workers.

Honestly, the biggest thing for me personally is the Centurion Lounges.

I travel a lot for work, and I'll be damned if it isn't the best thing to be able to just go and relax for a bit, then do some work at a nice desk over a good drink.

This weekend, I pregamed for Evo after flying into LAS. Totally worth the fees.

Yeah, I have a plat card, and you can access the lounges with them. There's some drinks you can't buy, but I don't drink much, and nothing when traveling.

Sitting in a nice comfy padded leather chair with an outlet nearby the rare occasion I fly is a cheap luxury worth having. The lounges are usually quiet and somewhat out of the way, and there's always someone there who knows exactly where stuff is, so you can get up and leave at the right time to arrive at your gate exactly when you need to.

>some fancy lounge is worth $8000 a year
good goy

It's not 8000 a year. It's 2500.

Cashback, plenty of nice rewards, they're very helpful when travelling, and will find competent, english speaking, persons to satisfy your requirements.

If you have their invitational cards the rewards can be very good. They also have a bunch of first class lounges that are quite nice.

In addition, they're also nice if you want to get your kids a card - my Father simply had to ask them to give me an amex credit card, and they were happy to. This was early on in my student days, when I didn't have the credit rating to obtain one via typical means. Certainly helped my credit rating.

Does the Amex have anything else you find worthwhile other than the Centurion lounges?

I've been debating getting one for the past few months to churn and burn, I also have two confirmed trips to Miami and Los Angeles coming up, and a pending trip to Las Vegas, so I was thinking of getting one to also try the lounges there on my way back

I wouldn't get rid of a card unless it had an annual fee. I just keep a bunch of cards with high rewards, and use them appropriately. If you want a general purpose card with no bullshit, get a citi doublecash. 2% back on everything, no annual fee.

Amex does let people convert cards into different types of cards to keep average age of credit up. I'm sure I get some degree of preferential treatment in that regard because I roll a solid amount of money through them. I don't have any annual fee on my plat card for example (though it's quasi legacy and tied to my business, so the rules on it are a bit of a clustefuck), but even if you aren't getting preferential treatment, their support is as has already been mentioned, the best of all card companies.

I think you need amex plat or better to get into the centurion lounges.

Amex gives me the fattest fuckin credit limit compared to anyone else. Bofa and Citi are the stingiest

How come my Amex limit is so much lower than my fucking Chase Visa.

Call them and ask about raising it? The worst that will happen is they say no. As long as your history with them is good, they shouldn't have any problems authorizing it.

>Bofa and Citi are the stingiest
Bank of America is just a fucking awful company that will go out of their way to try and fuck you at any opportunity. I've filed about 10 FTC complaints in my life, and all but one of them were over the couple of accounts with bofa that I used to speed up payments with a couple of vendors. Wound up deciding that it wasn't beneficial to touch them. I will never deal with them again, even tangentially. Some of my vendor contracts actually expressly prohibit dealing with them because they've tried to pull funny shit with ACH transfers.

Citi will increase their limits very quickly if you always pay on time and are utilizing the card, but yeah, their initial offers are frugal as fuck. The doublecash card is a good general purpose card, but there are better cards if you move a lot of money through them, and they come with high limits to start off with.

I should have been more clear, I was referring to the Amex Platinum and I know it has a $450 yearly fee

I was just asking if you feel it's worth it to churn and burn if they increase the sign up bonus temporarily and if I use the lounge access 3 times minimum in the next year

Maybe. Sorry, best answer I can give. If you're traveling with a close relationship for vacation, I'd say definitely do it. Grab a drink at the bar. Instead of suffering in the airport, you get to at least have a decent time relaxing in comfy chairs enjoying a minor buzz. You don't fly for a vacation to save money, so make the airport as minimally painful as possible.

Down the road they might let you 'downgrade' the card without opening a new line of credit. I've more or less exclusively upgraded cards, so that's outside my realm of experience.

>is only a filthy Platinum peasant
>Pay $500 a year for a card that declines you at over $30k.

fucking worthless

>Pay $500 a year for a card that declines you at over $30k.

What? Several times a year I move 6 figures through my plat card. Why some vendors prefer credit cards instead of ACH transfers I don't pretend to understand, but it happens.

American Express is great for your credit score. I charge everything to a 2% VISA card and pay it off every month tho.

I have a 740+ credit score, combined limit of around $33,000, perfect record, etc etc and the fucking assholes at BofA still won't approve me for the Better Balance Rewards card, the one that pays you $25 per quarter that you pay your balance in full every month. I think they're still pissy that I got the Cash Rewards card back in 2015, used it for the $100 bonus, and stopped.

So now I'm putting everything (except 10% purchases) through the Cash Rewards card for a few months until I "repair" my relationship with them, then getting their fucking $100 (paid to me) card. Fuck you, BofA.

My Visa has 10cent cashback on every charge here in germay. Yeah i am gonna be rich soon.

DESU just cut your losses and stop working with bofa at all. They don't even have any cards that are that good. Woo, you get 100 dollars a year. With a good cashback or rewards card, you'll get far more.

Unless you are poor and don't move much money obviously. But being poor and using anything bofa is one of the worst financial decisions you can make because you don't have any power to stop bofa from fucking you, and they will gleefully take advantage of that fact. Maybe I'm just bitter that I've had to actually sue them once, and filed for something else to get them to settle.

Holy fuck that's awful. You really don't get any percentage incentives?

>DESU
>To be honest is filtered now.

Well, they let me increase the limit, but only if I paid half of the bill, which is bullshit. Keep in mind I'm an Amex nub and only been with them for less than a year and only use them for the free points.

Still better than 0% cashback here in France. Hope you'll get rich soon!

Were you in jail recently? Because t.b.h. is desu since last September (since that Jap owns Veeky Forums). Also f.a.m. is senpai, etc.

BofA is retarded

I hear in order for them to consider giving you a credit card, you need to establish a relationship with them by basically opening up a checking or savings account

I'd say fuck that with all the horror stories I hear about people banking with them, unless you want something like Alaskan airline miles that badly, I'd ignore the Better Balance Rewards cards and completely ignore BofA in general

>in order for them to consider giving you a credit card, you need to establish a relationship with them by basically opening up a checking or savings account

It's the same thing with 100% of banks in Europe senpai.

And they don't open you an account like that, even if you have money.

Thanks Amex for your stupidity.
Now I can use my Visa at Costco.

Lmao that's silly

My credit cards are with different banks, but I would never split my cash up into different bank accounts for that, I have 2 bank accounts and I don't have credit cards with either bank

I don't use abbreviations very often. Really only hang out on biz and occasionally shitpost on Veeky Forums. Neither of which are 'traditional' meme boards. Never noticed, or forgot if I did.

Even as a business with large amounts of money flowing through them, they screw you. I honestly don't know how much of it is malice, and how much of it is pure incompetence. The time I sued them was because they got phished and refused to do anything about it. They gave a guy my account information over the phone, and he drained my account to the tune of about 50,000. Never mind that that account exclusively existed to move money to another account outside of bofa, and I had the account 'locked' down so that transfers anywhere else should have been rejected.

They fucking admitted to doing it, and I had a recording of the manager saying so. Then when I filed an FTC complaint they claimed I had personally authorized it. Then they claimed that I was the one who had gotten phished. At that point the feds weren't moving fast enough, so I sued them. When all was said and done they wound up paying me in the low six figures for lawyer, court fees, and damages. Then they tried to file a lawsuit against me a year later for something entirely made up involving one of my vendors, so I filed a counter motion and they settled out of court within 3 days of being served.

The only way bofa will ever take you seriously is if they have the feds breathing down their neck, or you take them to court. Even that isn't always enough. There was a couple that bought a house outright with cash in 2009 and had bofa try to foreclose on it in 2010/11. They fought off the foreclosure, and bofa just stiffed on the judgement for attorney's fees until they showed up with a writ and the sheriffs and threatened to walk out with all the furniture and computer equipment.

Add on their numerous online security vulnerabilities over the years and there is zero reason why anyone should ever touch bofa.

Out of curiosity, which banks deliver the best service for you?

you're thinking of an episode of south park

If you are military, or married to military, I highly recommend USAA. I'm not, but I've never heard anything but good from them. I personally work with a relatively local credit union almost exclusively.

The reason I went with them was because at the time they were aggressively working on online banking and had systems that let me give them very complex rule sets and send me automated reports that followed certain style guidelines. Most banks don't have the level of control I had in the 90s today. I have dozens of accounts for various purposes, since keeping things separate on paper makes my accountants life trivial compared to the clusterfuck that it would otherwise be. It also has to do with asset protection since my business is compartmentalized into hundreds of LLCs, and joint accounts can compromise that. On paper I have an organized mess. Functionally I effectively have a super account, so if I need a massive haul, I can automatically consolidate everything and write the check without thinking about it.

I have limited redundant accounts set up elsewhere with enough operating expenses to function for a while, should the worst happen, but my credit union has never so much as given me a problem with a cent. They froze one account briefly for perfectly legitimate reasons due to a pending lawsuit that got thrown out. Annoying, but they had no choice in complying with a bullshit court order from an overzealous judge, and actually went out of their way to defend me, and simply credited me the difference after a few days while things were pending.

>cont

The other thing is credit unions know you. Yeah, I'm a 'big shot' but credit unions are almost always more personal relationships. Say I want to try something, and take out a loan to leverage it and test the waters. I call them up, give them the general details, and then by the time I drive there they have a broker ready to meet me at the door and walk me in and go over the details. Spur of the moment idea and I can walk out in an hour or two with a brand new account with the funds already available set up under an LLC that doesn't technically exist yet, and they take care of 90% of the paperwork for me once they receive the paperwork from the state to move it under the LLC.

Working relationships like that are something you simply cannot buy. Credit unions are far more likely to treat you like a person, and actually work with you instead of looking for excuses to shit on you.

Best reason - niggers don't carry Black Amex - they just don't.

Girlfriend and I share a standard blue card for all shared purchases- Groceries, eating out, etc. It is nice.

When places don't take AMEX, we just use our own cards. I use a quicksilver mastercard for errything, 1.5% back on everything. Paying cable/insurance bills with the fucker and getting a few bucks back is funny, then just pay it all off each month.

I'd call up Capital One and have them convert that Quicksilver MasterCard to a Quicksilver Visa

The MasterCard version is the same exact thing as the Visa version except it has a $39 per year fee while the Visa has no annual fee