American Express Membership Rewards - Any restrictions on business expenses charged to your German Centurion card?

I’m doing some contract work for a company based in Germany and I’m actually good friends with the director of the company. He’s got an AMEX Business Gold card that he uses to charge all sorts of company related costs such as purchases, freight charges, hotel bills etc, and once a year I attend a conference for them and my flights are paid for using their cc. So far so good, but last week AMEX has apparently contacted my boss to let him know that if he uses his AMEX Business card to pay for flights/car rentals/hotels for employees or if he uses it to purchase products that are meant for resale it would be “a higher risk purchase” and therefore the card cannot be used for such expenses as it would only be for his personal business expenses and consumables.

I’m not sure what this is all about as I would think that the main reason for a Business card is to use it to charge all your business expenses to the card. I’ve been telling him for years to try and get an AMEX Centurion card as he probably puts more than EUR 200k through his AMEX every year, but he always felt that the Business card would be more suitable for his purpose and apparently AMEX in Germany told him that the Centurion card is only a personal card and can’t be used for business expenses.

However, reading through the Centurion page on the German AMEX website I think that you even get separate cards to separate personal and business expenses, so I was wondering why they told him that you can’t get a Cent card if you charge business expenses to the card. I would assume that most Cent card holders do not only charge personal expenses such as supermarket, clothing and petrol cost to their cards but also use it for their business expenses. Have you heard of any “high risk” restrictions at all?

My boss was wondering whether his high membership rewards balance has anything to do with this and whether they simply try to get rid of him. He had an AMEX card for over 25 years and he always pays off his full balance by the due date, so I think the “high risk” excuse from AMEX is not the real reason behind this, is it?

They offered him a new product called “Small business card” that would apparently cover all costs for employee’s travel but it still wouldn’t be suitable to pay for products he has to import from the US and sells to customers in Germany. And it wasn’t clear whether this new card offers MR program at all (no information on the German website on this product).

I was hoping that you guys might be able to help. First of all, I know he can’t get a Cent card right away and probably has to go for Plat first, but would they even allow him to use the card for such purchases? Any restrictions on what kind of purchases you can use your card for? Any suggestions?

As a Centurion holder I would tell AMEX that it is none of their business what I use my card for ! Either the vendor accepts Amex as a payment method or not. Furthermore, AMEX gets the sales commission from any payment made with the card.

Perhaps they are worried about their credit exposure / your boss's credit scoring ??

In Germany you can get a Centurion card for your personal expenditure (refueling the jet, etc. :) ) and a Centurion Plus card e.g. for business costs. The Plus card can be paid from a different bank account.

Perhaps they are worried about their credit exposure / your boss's credit scoring ??

In Germany you can get a Centurion card for your personal expenditure (refueling the jet, etc. :) ) and a Centurion Plus card e.g. for business costs. The Plus card can be paid from a different bank account.

If you pay off your EUR15k+ balance in full every month, how can they be worried about your credit scoring? I just don't get that.

I just received their original letter which stated (sorry, only in German):

Sofern Sie mit Ihrer Karte Waren oder Dienstleistungen zum Zwecke des Wiederverkaufs an Dritte, Flüge oder Mietwagen und Dienstleistungen für weitere Personen oder Angestellte erwerben möchten oder Arbeitsmaterialien für die Firma einkaufen wollen, können wir solche Umsätze auf Grund des ungleich höheren Risikos nur auf einer gesicherten Basis genehmigen. wir bitten Sie daher um Zusendung einer Bankbürgschaft/Festgeldabtretung in Höhe der von Ihnen geplanten Transaktionen, sofern Sie Ihre Karte sowie die Zusatzkarten für den vorgenannten Zweck verwenden möchten.

As I said this is not even a Centurion card but a pure Business card that's used for business expenses.

My boss is inclined to cancel his card immediately and take his business elsewhere, and I can fully understand that. How you can treat a good customer like this after 25 years is beyond my understanding. Is AMEX loosing money in Germany or are they just loosing their mind?

Could the "high risk" factor be coming from your bosses oversea purchases that amex would lose money on if the charge was disputed? In other words amex would not be able to make their merchant take a chargeback so amex would have to pay for the disputed charge. . May I ask what your boss purchases outside his home country?

Don't think so as the majority of charges is not from overseas transactions and I don't think that there has been any dispute in the last few years AFAIK.

From the responses so far I would think that noone has ever heard of those restrictions mentioned earlier... :confused:

Just heard that the matter might haven been resolved and Amex has sent another letter to my boss. Let's wait what they have to say this time...

Hmmm...that's odd. I can't speak to the German-specific rationale behind this, but in AMEX TV ads here in the US, they show "customers" explaining what they need (implying that they should charge it on AMEX) and some woman says "I need four tickets to Tokyo!"...so clearly it's kosher to do that here.

hi,

i have a german centurion card too.

and i have one personal centurion for private use.
and you get one centurion plus card for company expenses.

i really dont understand what the problem is in your case.

dp

In other words amex would not be able to make their merchant take a chargeback so amex would have to pay for the disputed charge.

I always thought that it was always AMEX [or other credit card issuer] that always had the upper hand. To the best of my knowledge, AMEX can put through a charge back to a merchant any time they wish; and it would be the responsibility of the merchant to get the money back.

AMEX is usually very fair w/ their merchants, and will try to resolve the issue without a chargeback... but the merchant usually does have the short end of the stick.... unless there is something I am missing concerning foreign transactions.