Originally Posted by ramraideruk
This is very curious to read. I had to ask Amex for a chip and PIN as my card was refused at M&S at Cahring Cross and makes the National rail system crash.
Theyy stil haven't sent me one yet.
Can I ask, what is the point of paying for a gold card? I'm really thinking of giving mine up this year.
I never had any problem at M&S or with National Rail (GNER, SWT, Southern) with my old swipe card or my new chip & PIN. I still had my swipe card after the Feb 14th chip & PIN 'deadline' and still had no problem. I'd suspect it's more likely a case of poor staff training where they thing everything must be chip & PIN.
As for Gold card benefits, as a frequent flyer the card pays for itself as I can be fairly sure at least once a year I'll be able to take advantage of the delay benefit or luggage benefit and just one claim can be more than the cost of the card. It's so good when delayed to be able to spend £200 in the airport's restaurant/bar rather than rely on a £10 airline refreshment voucher (or whatever they give these days)
csdavidson: used in a few self service machines and the tube is the only one I've encountered so far. So hopefully there's not too many with a problem. I'm making sure I let Amex know when I encounter a problem. As Amex was so slow introducing chip & PIN it looks like they never done enough testing on this.