American Express Membership Rewards - What is your Intrest Rate?

I know some folks will be unconformtable sharing this and some folks it doesn't matter since they pay it off in full anyway, but curiously for me this is THE most highest intrest card I have. 18% is ridiculous for me even though I have a habit of paying it down since I only use it for business. I have EXCELLENT credit and 7.9% fixed is the highest among my other cards.

I honestly don't know what my interest rates are. To me it doesn't matter. I think maybe in the 20 plus years that I have had a credit card(s) that I have not paid off the full amount or missed a payment maybe 6 times. But interest rates on credit cards are just insane, not to mention the fees.

I know some folks will be unconformtable sharing this and some folks it doesn't matter since they pay it off in full anyway, but curiously for me this is THE most highest intrest card I have. 18% is ridiculous for me even though I have a habit of paying it down since I only use it for business. I have EXCELLENT credit and 7.9% fixed is the highest among my other cards.

How timely.... I have two AmEx cards...A HHHonors and a Business Starwood. Both had low intro rates for awhile and both skyrocketed to 18.24% this month....I just spent the last hour trying to either drum up a few balance transfer offers or just coming up with the cash to pay them off. I too have good credit and I called AmEx twice to see if they would lower the rate...no.

I also have a personal Starwood whose rate is only 11%.

On my Blue for Students the rate is 16.24%. Not that it matters since I have never carried a balance, nor do I plan on doing so.

To be honest, I have absolutely no idea. In the history of several years, I may
have missed payments a couple of times.. and both were resolved
without any charges or interest or record on the credit history
(due to my good payment history)

My Blue Card has 7.99% Fixed rate, Starwood has 9.99% Fixed rate and my Flex Select Account attached to my Centurion has 11.99% fixed rate. The difference is when I opened the accounts and what the current offers from Amex were at the time.

Back in 2003 Amex was offering Blue Card with Fixed rate 7.99% but Fed funds rate was 1% currently the offer from Amex for the same card seem to be 11.99% but Fed Funds Rate is 5.25%.

I full except Amex to Raise the interest rate on some of my older card with lower interest rates just like BOA recently did to me on my BOA card from 5.99% to 12.99%.

I may get flamed for this, but carrying a balance once in a while to give a consumer confidence on a large unexpected consumer purchase that is a very good unexpected deal, is not always the worst thing in the world.

The trick is to do this :
1-low interest reward card.
2-An ethical issuer that uses average daily balance and not predatory double billing cycle method.
3-CEASE using that card until balance is paid off.
4- Actually pay of ENTIRE amount in 2-4 months.

Psychologically, I prefer to pay my C.C. bills out of transactional checking account.

I don't want to dip into my investment funds or emergency liquidity for bill payments.

Not all FT'ers are on a set stable salary.

Small business and self employed persons have fluctuations in income.
Carrying a balance short term is not necessarily indicative of living beyond one's means.

For those not on a set salary who have liquid assets earning 6%, then paying 9.9% is an effective interest rate of 3.9%.

If I clear the full balance it in less than 4 months , then I have paid a whopping 1%.

I'm willing to "lose 1%" for psychological comfort.
note #4 is the most important aspect here:
4- Actually pay of ENTIRE amount in 2-4 months.

Most consumers who carry a balance do so perennially and continue to use the card. You lose any and all grace period on new purchases once you have a balance.

16%. But I never carry a balance. not since college days.

except for one time when I bought airline tickets for someone and it took them a while to pay me back. A convinience for them became finance charges for me.

I may get flamed for this, but carrying a balance once in a while to give a consumer confidence on a large unexpected consumer purchase that is a very good unexpected deal, is not always the worst thing in the world.
What He Said, like this part: Small business and self employed persons have fluctuations in income.
Carrying a balance short term is not necessarily indicative of living beyond one's means.

I only currently carry balances (small amounts, $14Gs, and that's something I can pay off if I want to right away) on my Blue 'cause it's got a 0% intro rate right now, but I have carried large business-related purchases on my 8.49% cards for a couple of months while I wait for my clients to pay invoices (and those of y'all not self-employed may not realize that some businesses don't always pay on-time).

It's not like Rich and I, et al. are the folks out there carrying month-to-month minimum payments on maxed-out CCs. Most everything else goes on the Plat anyway, and that has to be paid off every month, lest Mr. Chenault send me a NastyGram. :)

You lose any and all grace period on new purchases once you have a balance.

Unless you use a charge card. Diners and American Express (green, gold, platinum, black but not the credit cards) have a feature that allows a designated balance to be paid over time with interest and this has no effect on new transactions because the financed portion is explicitly segregated.

I may get flamed for this, but carrying a balance once in a while to give a consumer confidence on a large unexpected consumer purchase that is a very good unexpected deal, is not always the worst thing in the world.


I agree with what you have said. In fact if you play your cards right, you can
end up making money by carrying the balance.

It depends how return you can get on your investments (and/or money saved
by getting some great deal) vs the interest rates and the interest paid on
the credit card.. but for many people its a comfort thing.

I always pay off the credit card bill out of my mortgage and never have to worry about juggling credit all over the place. Like other people here, I haven't paid credit card interest for over 10 years, I really don't know what interest rate any of my cards charges and I really don't care.

I can't be bothered with the "bait and switch" offers of balance transfers and such like, though I know a lot of people who take these offers for all they are worth and good on them. I just don't have the time these days.

For those not on a set salary who have liquid assets earning 6%, then paying 9.9% is an effective interest rate of 3.9%.

Is the 6% return net or gross? If it's gross then you have to subtract tax from it and (for my tax position here in the UK) that would mean a 3.6% return which doesn't look like a good deal at all.

Quite aside from that, if you have LIQUID assets which produce a return (after tax) which is LESS than you pay on your card why on earth would you carry a credit card balance which charges you MORE? It simply doesn't add up. :confused:

I suppose it suits some people to carry a balance on their cards to deter them from spending more than they can afford but I can't think of any other reason to do it.

which doesn't look like a good deal at all.

NO its a bad deal. Its not at all a good deal.

Quite aside from that, if you have LIQUID assets which produce a return (after tax) which is LESS than you pay on your card why on earth would you carry a credit card balance which charges you MORE? It simply doesn't add up. :confused:

My point was that if I make 3% after taxes and pay 8.9% then I am paying an effective annualized ,with no prepayment penalty,interest rate of 5.9 annual. Short term this is inconsequential.
three months is 25% of 5.9%.
BTW, I never touch the 18% stuff with a ten foot pole.
If paying a "surcharge" of less than 2% allows me to buy some New Zealand tickets when United Airlines is have an unexpected aggressive promotion in their premium cabin ;),
then that is well worth 2%.

In theory assuming a perfect world, I should pay it from my liquid money market.

But as I posted I want money for a rainy day.
I clearly stated that I prefer for psycological reasons to pay bills from transaction checking and not other savings , assets.
AX or Citi are NEVER appealing as a source of a cash advance.
As a self employed person whose income fluctuates , I want piece of mind, low blood pressure and reduced anxiety over a 2 or 3 % vig.

Plus if you throw them some blood interest once in a while, you'll shed your deadbeat profile with the predatory vampires a.k.a. credit card issuers.


I suppose it suits some people to carry a balance on their cards to deter them from spending more than they can afford but I can't think of any other reason to do it.

what about the reasons that I stated above.

If you have 1- an ultra secure salried position ,or

2- Are worth $30 million USD with $5 Million Liquid cash then I'd agree with you.

Personally, I don't want the first situation and , I am not yet in the second position.

I have $80k out at 0%. But none on AMEX.

vig
Heh. That's the way I see it, too. Besides, for me (and most probably you, too), the small amount of interest (.09/12 * 1 (or 2)) is just a "cost of doing business", esp. if the purchase means I get to snag a client with it.

5.9% fixed on purchases on my Chase Platinum.

I typically pay my balances off every month unless I make an unusually large purchase. If I do that, it goes on my Chase...it's my "emergency" card.

I use my AMEX cards for my business and personal expenses. I pay some of my bills with my Citi AAdvantage and use it when AMEX isn't accepted.

I have no idea and it doesn't matter, since I always pay my balance on time.