Originally Posted by
Travelomania
Interesting ... I have several bank accounts in France, but never heard about the AF Amex card.
Will inquire right away @ BNP Paris Bas
Any usable links for this ?
Here's a link I found on Google (in French):
http://www212.americanexpress.com/ds...94RCRD&page=PR
I haven't taken the current offer apart but I looked into this card a few years ago. At that time, I knew someone who had the card and loved it.
My recollection of the pluses and minuses is that the card did provide status miles on AF for charges. You were billed in Euros and payment of your card balance was by debiting your France bank account. Charges were in or converted to Euros, so charges in other currencies did incur a big conversion fee, as Arthur Randolph points out. The card had no front end sign-up bonus and had an annual fee. Also, I don't believe that cards issued in Europe carry the same consumer protections as those issued in the USA, though I am guessing at that.
I decided to not get the card due to the negatives above, plus Amex has much more limited acceptance in France than in the USA, making the card limited unless you spend a lot at higher end places and ones that serve the tourist and business trades. In addition, status on AF would be worth working towards if one were planning a lot of AF travel, not just a couple of trips a year.