American express has been baffling me all this years. I had their first blue (basic) credit card about over 10 years ago and was so dissatisfied then cancelled it. About 8 years ago, I gave it another try when I relocated to another country, which presumably things are handled better. I was wrong, I again terminated it. About four years ago, Amex seems to be doing an aggressive campaign and the number of merchant accepting the card has increased, I took one of their platinum card and adequately satisfied within known limitation.
Amex still not universally accepted as Visa or Mastercard. Those who accepted American Express often offer dis-prefferential treatment (read more on next paragraph). In some countries, things have not progressed at all where Amex is virtually close to Diner’s Club i.e. not accepted in almost any store. It has highest fee that merchant usually don’t bother accepting the card.
Recently, I went to one of Apple reseller store in Singapore and purchased an iMac. The store, who is a platinum partner and offers 10 + 10 times rewards, gave me an option – Use Visa/Mastercard/Cash and get free memory upgrade or Use Amex but get no memory upgrades worth S$ 200. After some negotiation, the store managers allows me to use Amex with memory card upgrades but no further discount, which I would get if I have used Visa/Mastercard.
One week later, I came again to purchase a Macbook and the samething happens. Extra S$40 off if I use visa/mastercard and nothing if I use Amex. It just won’t stop. Bear in mind that this is a Platinum partners merchant of American Express, who should be bound by certain contract to promote the use of Amex instead of other cards.
Just now, all of us were travelling overseas and we maxed out our credit limit unknowingly. I called Amex and they didn’t do a proper check that my limit was hit, instead they insist the merchant’s terminal has a problem. Only after few minutes, the customer service officer checked that the limit was hit. This is so incompetent of the officer. I requested a temporary credit limit increase as I need to pay something immediately. With Visa, this process would only take a phone call and be approved within less than 5 minutes due to my excellent credit history and payment worthiness. With Amex, I need to speak with another officer, who asked so many questions that already been asked earlier and I need to wait 3-4 hours for a ‘management review’.
This so called management review hampers any capabilities to pay in urgent situation e.g. medical, hospital admission, etc. Even if it wasn’t emergency and I need to pay something on the store, Would I have to wait 4 hours in store or come back later to pay? How does the cardholders worthiness/credibility looks like in merchant point of view. Not good of course.
The card the I’m holding is Amex Platinum Charge card, the highest tier that is accessible by public. The Centurion is not included in comparison as it is so exclusive. Still, paying S$ 1200/year for annual fee for a limited acceptance and crappy support during travelling is simply not worth it. This incident will be considered before I renew my membership next year.
