Platinum Card, what will I get for $900

[k3nnis]

ok thanks not too far away

 

[vitagen]

I am keeping all 3 LOL. I might be the only one

I got approved for the reserve today, so will have plat charge, plat reserve and plat edge!

Vitagen: what CC's will you get after you dump the affinity reserve card?

They let me keep the affinity card until its up for renewal, im probably going edge or just stay with my commbank diamond cards. Im really liking the burn rates on krisflyer so i might switch to westpac. Only need to decide later im going to miss the card, just purely on aesthetic value

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[11sjw]

Will be dumping this soon, just have a small Travel Insurance claim to get out of the way (travel booked last year so old Ts & Cs applied). The reduction in the TI plus the "enhanced" point earning rates have seen this drop off for me. Might have a look at the Qantas Ultimate Card. $450/yr including a free QF flight and maintaining the 1.5pts/$ earn rate make it worthwhile.

 

[simonsyd]

Spoke to Amex about something unrelated the other day and ended up having the I'm going to dump the card discussion. The particular agent I spoke to is very good, I have spoken to her on a number of occasions. Basically I said I will be dumping the charge and probably downgrading reserve to edge cc. I figure with a large family and 2 gas guzzlers, the supermarket and petrol spend will make good use of this card with a free flight thrown in.
Agent was going to have a word with manager and get back to me, she has not done so yet.

Really being a long time TG frequent flyer Amex MR is good for me so I don't want to pull the pin totally. I will apply for citi select as apart from TG my other international flying / redemptions are with SQ. as a consequence Amex will loose a significant yearly spend, if many similar customers do the same surely Amex will hurt.

For the first time in years I may end up with no ability to transfer cc points to qantas if I go with the edge and citi select combo.

I too will miss the card however no way can I justify the 900 fee especially as I have just now had to buy a corporate travel insurance policy.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Given the type of customers Amex Plat is aimed at, and the benefits being aligned with travel... seems rather silly to go degrading the card value so much as to turn away your core target audience, no?

 

[greenfrog86]

Given the type of customers Amex Plat is aimed at, and the benefits being aligned with travel... seems rather silly to go degrading the card value so much as to turn away your core target audience, no?

I agree regarding the travel insurance changes, however the points for travel are actually better now (if you direct your spend here - obviously a QF direct earn card that offers 2.5 points is better) given that before there was no bonus at all for travel spend...

Amex is also big with dining out expenses and thus the increase in points there...

 

[aschmid]

While I don't like the fact of the diminished travel insurance I could accept that if they'd to reduce the $900 annual fee to let's say $450.

What I seriously not get is that AMEX does somehow believe they can take away significant benefits and still charge the same fee. I think they haven't quiet caught on to the fact that there are other premium cards available in Australia now that offer similar benefits for less.

Hey I am even going so far to say remove the Reserve Credit Card from the mix and give me the AMEX Plat Charge for $450!

 

[uproared]

Citibank Select arrived in the mail today... Goodbye Plat Charge & Reserve. I'll keep the Edge.

I'm also looking forward to earning MORE points on my international payments.

 

[k3nnis]

I wonder if I'm allowed to create a new thread to see who is keeping their plat charge??? Or should we discuss it here?

 

[cove]

We switched from Platinum to Amex Ultimate xx_xx_x points ago. It did not hurt a bit and we use Chubb for the best travel insurance even though there is some insurance thru the Ultimate card. 2.5 points a dollar on Qantas purchases would be nice but I don't buy tickets other than for staff.
11sjw it did not hurt me a bit and yes you get a free flight PER-SYD return if you want the highest value out of Perth.

 

[benhadi]

Ive heard so much abt Chubb travel insurance, but where does one get it from?

 

[cove]

We get it from an insurance broker. Quite a satisfactory policy for our needs but I cannot tell you about a claims experience as nothing has caused me to have to claim.

 

[aschmid]

Citibank Select arrived in the mail today... Goodbye Plat Charge & Reserve. I'll keep the Edge.

I'm also looking forward to earning MORE points on my international payments.

Right there with you. Last monthly payment went to AMEX today. Should be zero next week and we move to cancellation.

Citi Select has been going strong for about a month in this household and despite some small glitches with Citi to get this going it's all good now.

Also keeping Edge but won't be using it just as a backup card.

 

[Stephen65]

I was waiting till I got back to Australia (trip was covered under the old plat charge travel insurance) but now I am back I have today made a payment sufficient to zero out my plat charge account and once that registers I will be ringing to cancel all my Amex issued cards. I'll be switching all my spend to the Citibusiness Gold and CBA Diamond Amex but I'll also look at the Citi Select card.

 

[Stephen65]

Amex and I parted ways this morning. It was quite a process. I rang up the Plat charge number yesterday and told them I wanted to cancel all my cards. I got put through to a "cancellation specialist" who asked me a few questions as to why I was cancelling and I indicated the downgrades to insurance and to points earn. She tried to sell the Qantas Ultimate card to me but I declined. She then indicated that because my account was being individually managed another person would need to ring me to process the cancellation and asked for a convenient time.

That person rang me this morning and we had a pleasant chat. I explained the two reasons for cancelling and he was quite concerned to confirm that these were the only reasons I was unhappy and otherwise would have kept the card. He also made a half-hearted attempt to sell me on the Qantas Ultimate card but I pointed out I could get the same result via my CBA Diamond Amex for free and it seemed odd to me that Amex were resorting to trying to sell me a co-branded card because their plat charge card, supposedly a superior product, was not competitive with either bank issued cards or Citibank's products. I specifically pointed to the poor travel insurance and the downgrade to ATO expenditure point earn.

He explained the changes to points earn on the basis that they had received feedback from members that they wanted more points for restaurant and overseas spend. I said I could understand that but it didn't explain why the earn for other categories such as ATO bills were being slashed. He couldn't explain that but queried whether other cards would award points for ATO expenditure and I noted that both the CBA and Citibank did and that Citibank had personally confirmed to me that ATO expenditure would earn points. He was somewhat apologetic about the changes to points earn and said they had received a lot of negative feedback about it but that it was a decision that had been made by another part of Amex and nothing could be done about it. My point to him was that I was not interested in a card that was only worthwhile for particular categories of spend and otherwise gave an earn rate lower than a mediocre Visa or Mastercard. I said it was fine for Amex to want to capture my travel and luxury spend but the only reason I could afford such spending was because I was earning enough to pay a lot of tax and I felt let down that Amex would not recognise necessary spending on items like tax with a decent points earn. I told him I could not justify a $900 fee for a card that was only useful for certain spend types when there were competing products offering a similar level of points earn on all of my spend.

He did try to sell me on Amex's concierge and quick card replacement services but I pointed out that it didnt justify a $900 fee and I could get similar service from Citibank. For good measure I mentioned that I was investigating taking up Citibank's Select card as a replacement for Amex. I did float the possibility I would keep the plat charge card if the annual fee was reduced to zero but he didn't bite.

 

[moa999]

Hope all these $900 losses are hurting Amex,

 

[kamiao]

It's interesting to read this thread.

I got frustrated about Amex Plat Charge dropping the insurance content too. But most of my purchases on the Charge Card is overseas/restaurant - the structure change of reward point earning was not particularly upsetting me at the moment.

AUD900 is too high for the benefits that this card offers - as it doesn't even offer a comprehensive travel insurance. Amex Plat in HK, Singapore, Japan, US, Canada and UK all charge a lower annual fee with more benefits, particularly travel insurance. Canadian ones even offers $200 credit of travel expense credit as a benefit.

The whole point for me personally to keep this card is because both my parents (supplementary card holders) and myself travel a lot every year and although we have never made any claim on travel insurance in life it's good to know that we are protected... guess it's no longer the case.

After reading all your feedback - I guess I should reconsider whether I shall keep it or not when it's subject to renewal in October.

 

[k3nnis]

Australia always gets overcharged I've been here 22 years and hasn't changed....

 

[cove]

The plunge out of Amex Platinum may seem very large but many members will not change due to not bothering to read mailings. The same thing occurred when the Big Four Banks played around with their Visa earning rates.
Amex can maximize returns by sending out "fine print" changes that most do not read nor action for cancellation.

 

[k3nnis]

Very true. Not everyone is AFF savvy

My colleague is renewing his centurion. I said it's $5000 or some sort, he said it's only $5000...

The plunge out of Amex Platinum may seem very large but many members will not change due to not bothering to read mailings. The same thing occurred when the Big Four Banks played around with their Visa earning rates.
Amex can maximize returns by sending out "fine print" changes that most do not read nor action for cancellation.