Forward to Blue. (American Express)

Member Name: ADBoyce

Product:	American Express
Date:	14/05/02 (981 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 1% Cashback, Online Statements, Security is good.

Disadvantages: Interest rates aren't the best.

Everyone in life has ambitions, but for some strange reason, throughout my teenage years, all I ever wanted was to have a credit card. It seemed to be the ultimate goal – a status symbol and seemingly it gave you money you never had before. I think we’re all naïve at some point in our teenage years, but nonetheless it didn’t stop me sending off application after application. By the time I turned 19 I had achieved my ambition and lo and behold this trendy new card had landed through the letterbox. It was called ‘Blue’, had a trendy, minimalist design and looked the bee’s knees.

By chance I had picked up the application form in Tesco, filled it in and sent off all the necessary details (copy of bank statement, bill etc). They wrote back to say I had been accepted and the card would arrive within a few days by recorded delivery. I was shocked to be honest because American Express, I thought, was something only people with money had – businessmen and the likes. Here was me with no credit history but for the Freeman’s catalogue I possessed, having received a fancy new Amex Blue card! To begin with they gave me a £600 credit limit, which was great and of course seemed a fortune to a 19 year old.

Naïve as I was, I had no idea what I had signed up for and only when I read the welcome pack did it become apparent that American Express was offering a pretty good deal. There were no incentives to sign up – no low transfer rates (although that was back in 1999) and no free goodies. However, that’s not to say the card was useless as I discovered later to my favour. Perhaps the greatest benefit to me was that of refund protection – if you buy something and for whatever reason aren’t able to get a refund, American Express will refund it for you. Provided of course it was purchased with your card and you had paid it off. There are exclusions namely tickets, jewellery and anything over £200. In
general, this is a fast and efficient service and one that I am very thankful for, as I shall explain later.

The Blue card also offers what they call ‘Moneyback’ – or cash back to you and me. Since taking up the card in 1999 the rate has remained unchanged at a reasonable 1% and occasionally they offer 2% on purchases, usually around Christmas and the January sales. I think they also offer extra when you purchase from certain ‘partners’ although I have yet to partake of any of these. In the year or so I have been with Amex I have received something in the region of £12 in cash back which, you might argue, is better than nothing. I certainly haven’t said no to it! If you want to keep check on how much you are earning in cash back there’s a handy section on your monthly statement that allows you to do so. The only downside is that it’s only paid annually – on the anniversary of your account – which might not be such a bad thing if you want to let it accumulate.

Interest rates are something that appear to have changed only once in the 15 months that I have been using my Blue card. At the time of writing they average around 17.9% APR on good and cash advances, and 9.9% APR on balance transfers. In comparison Marbles currently offers a variable rate of 12.9% APR on all three and Barclaycard 17.9% for purchases. So, as you can see, there are better and worse deals than American Express. If you are tempted with offers of low balance transfer rates on some cards all well and good. Once the introductory period is over however, you may find yourself with a hefty rate of interest that may make the offer seem somewhat unfavourable. I have used the balance transfer facility once with Amex and found it incredibly easy. You can transfer it over the phone by calling Customer Services (open 24 hours a day) or using the online account facility, which I shall explain in more detail in a moment. Remarkably th
ough transferring a balance from my Smile Visa card was impossible as Amex informed me that they aren’t able to transfer from every single card.

As I have mentioned there is the opportunity to check your balance online, which is good but with American Express Blue having the trendy image it does, I wonder if you could do a lot more online. Pay your balance for example? Apart from checking statements, recent transactions and transferring balances the online facility doesn’t offer much else and the website is pretty cluttered so its not particularly easy to navigate around. Security doesn’t appear that great as you simply choose a username and password to access your statements. It does use secure servers but frankly that’s something you’d expect from a financial service anyway.

Back to the additional perks and in particular their refund protection scheme. I happened to be in Scotland visiting some friends and decided to buy some goods in a sale – namely a shirt and some trainers. I couldn’t be bothered trying them on (you will see why in my op on Extremepie.com! – sorry!) and when I got back home to Northern Ireland found that neither fitted properly. Luckily I had purchased them with my Blue card and was able to have them refunded by Amex. The procedure was simple – you call up Customer Services and explain the situation. You then have to write off to their insurers giving an explanation as to why you aren’t able to get a refund from the retailer (in my case it was the physical distance) and proof that they were purchased with your card (usually the shop receipt). After that they will write back and let you know if they are willing to refund the goods and will ask that you send them off. They will even pay the cost of postage, all of which is refunded back to your card.

Other perks include purchase protection and repayment protection although these, you might argue, are standard
with most cards these days. They do however; offer travel insurance free with all flights booked using your card. Other insurance is available in the form of motor and personal accident policies but you do have to pay for these. They also offer Independent Financial Planning details of which can be found in your welcome pack. Cash advances are available although the limit is £200 per seven days, which isn’t that competitive considering my Bank of Scotland card allows me to withdraw £500 per day. They also don’t provide you with a cheque facility.

I began by pointing out how, in my naivety, I saw credit cards as a status symbol and it’s something which you might not accuse Amex Blue of being. The card isn’t accepted everywhere despite what they tell you and you may find that most smaller retailers wont accept it. A considerable number of chain stores do so it’s great for making large purchases. Also, they do seem quite cautious about lending as I have found out – my credit limit is rarely changed and has increased to £900 since I first took out the card. That’s not such a bad thing when you consider the level of debt today.

Card security is something that is important these days and it’s certainly something that Amex takes seriously. The card itself has a smart chip embedded into it and this means that it can’t be copied in any way. Likewise, they offer online fraud protection for shopping online although I must admit I’m not sure what that means. I expect they guarantee against purchases that have been made online without your consent and it’s reassuring to know that they will insure against this. As I mentioned earlier I’m a bit apprehensive about their website security although I think they plan to improve it soon.

In general Amex Blue is a useful card and to be honest is one that I tend to use most often. Cash back is very competitive and considering I pay the bala
nce in full each month it means I can make some money with my card. There’s also no annual fee, which is a bonus albeit standard with most cards these days. And so, next time you opt for a change of credit card think again when it comes to seeing Blue!

www.americanexpress.co.uk
01273 576 576

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