Thank you guys. I appreciate your caring attitude
Will likely follow your recommendation. What is "upsetting" me here is that it is always hard to distinguish what is required by the law and what is just about Amex wanting to know everything about you for marketing purposes.

100% agree. I'm sorry, didn't mean to freak you out but I will never forget an experience I had with Amex years ago when I was living in the US.

I was traveling in Mexico and was hosting an event and tried to charge a large amount. Bang. Not only did they refuse but they suspended my spending privileges.
They asked me for tax returns, 6 months of bank statements, etc etc etc... which I provided and they closed my account anyway. High spender, paid every month, finances were in order.

I came to learn later that in the US "review" means they made up their mind for whatever reason to cut you off. Someone, somewhere in their structure determined I was some kind of risk...

So risky that someone else, on a different floor, *literally* two weeks later called me in the office with an invitation... 100K MR points and no fee "to get my business back" as I was a "such a valuable customer". I didn't say anything... I took the points, flew in F on SQ to SYD (when that was even feasible) with lots of Krug in celebration of their ineptitude for 140K on DL (those were the days...).

Moral of the story... never trust Amex. They can seem wonderful and then they turn into the nastiest demon ever in a matter of hours. And as we have seen, their "enhancements" in France have been to cut away at benefits... and to put pressure on their establishments to provide benefits (you can be sure Amex won't pay anything...) to offset their cheapening of their premium products in particular.

I completely share your assessment of Amex wanting more and more information. And I won't be surprised if they take advantage of this new legislation (if indeed this is true) to ask for more financial information. Let's hope that "enhancement" isn't coming.

I concur and can attest it.

There is no new legislation. Let me refresh you about an earlier post of mine.

Amex France has been hit with a � 2,000,000 fine by the ACPR (got to their website for the details of their ruling) for allowing shady payments by card holders and for not doing enough to "know their customers".

As a result, they have launched a large clean up operation and have closed many accounts.

Furthermore, they have been asking intrusive information to a lot of their customers.

This is the tricky part. They are supposed to ask for more information in case of suspicion of money laundering or financing of terrorism.

BUT, they are playing it safe and are now applying the same treatment to many if not most of their customers.

In the past, they were balancing the need for asking for too much information and that of losing customers as a result (plus the costs of asking and processing the information).

Now, because of the recent fine, they err on the side of caution and would rather lose card members that take the risk of another fine.

After my cards were suspended for one and cancelled for the other, I wrote to the ACPR (not for help but for information).

They confirmed that suspending the card without notice was illegal (but who would sue them for that unless you ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere and sustained harm because of it), but were entitled to cancel the card in the name of freedom of trade (libert� du commerce).

So, expect this tough behaviour for some time. Remember that behind a company there are people.

Overpaid people, holding jobs in a prestigious company, who'd rather lose customers "who don't comply" than be accused of endangering the company and run the risk of endangering their job.

So you will be asked for personal information, and if you persist in refusing (or answer incompletely), your card will be suspended and then cancelled.

P.S. Remember that there is a life without Amex.

I was initially annoyed to have been unceremoniously kicked out after having held a card for 31 years. Passed the initial frustration, I realised that apart from some obvious perks (such as MR points or FB miles), the rest had quite a bit to do with flattering my ego . Amex has made me realised that my card did not make me someone special. I am still the same without my Amex Platinum and gold.

So back to square one of this post: don't trust Amex . Ever.

thanks a lot for the lesson

+10000 !!

Looking for some advice on the standard non-branded Amex cards.

I'm a french resident and am planning multiple trips with Emirates so would like to earn as many Emirates Skywards miles as possible. I've come across an offer for the gold card which gives 80 euros cashback at 400 spend. The green card has a 15000 MR welcome offer which seems more interesting to me. Both free in the first year. So now I'm thinking of getting the green card as my main priority is earning miles.

My question is whether I am missing something by not getting the gold card? Do Amex do offers during the year that apply to the gold card but not the green card? Insurance wise I'm good with my Visa Platinum.

Called AMEX this morning to see whether it was possible to have an MR welcome bonus instead of the 80 euros cashback for the gold card but this was met with a firm no.

Doing the maths, at a 5:4 ratio, 15000 MR can be converted to 12000 skywards miles. Purchasing 12000 skywards miles directly with Emirates would cost at least $240 (1000 miles is $20 at the moment) so better than 80 euros cashback.

Thoughts on this? Also, are there any other cards in France that I'd be better off getting?

It's true that the new offer for the Gold card is euros instead of points. I agree that the 25 000 points signup bonus was much more valuable than the actual 80€.

If you want to maximize MR Points, then go for the Classic Green card with the 15 000 signup bonus.

AMEX Gold don't have much interest in France because the insurance are weaker than the one you will get on a Visa Premier (even the free ones with Boursorama or like).

If you are only after points, then I would say go for the Green, take the signup bonus, and just before the birthdate of the card then change for the Blue which is even cheaper.

If you have a company (or self-employed) you can also take an AMEX Business card (signup bonus for the Gold is 20 000, Platinum is 50 000 + 150€)

If you want to be referred for the Green or for a business card don't hesitate to PM me

AMEX France is having a really good referral offer on their Blue card (non-AF) until 22/01/2022

- Lifetime fee waived (instead of 5€/month)
- 50€ cashback for 150€ spent

You can convert amex point into flying blue points at a rate of 5:4 (similar for other programs like Asia Miles or Avios)

Happy to be referred and apply. Thanks !

Just applied (thanks for the link!) - let see how it goes.

Just received an offer from Amex NL themselves: Upgrade to the FB Amex Plat and received 75K miles. Not sure if it is targeted. Looks like no reduction on the fee though (600/year). Anybody else got this and any luck combining this with the first-year-half-price offer?

I guess you could say that 75K miles is worth about 750 euro (at 1 cent/mile), though I have found it quite difficult recently to spend miles at a good value point - so not sure if that 1-cent rule still holds true. I'm leaning towards devalueing FB miles to about 0,5 cent judging by my last redemption (Intra-European business class at the lowest level: 50K miles one-way).

A recent data point: I played around with miles/euro alternatives in November, and found the mile value to be often 0,38 cts, and sometimes 0,7x cts (about twice as much) when purchasing discounted J tickets.
My guess at the time was that 0,38 cts is their now their default monetary value, on top of which they apply various promotions. I used to consider that miles were 0,5 cts pre-covid, looks like inflation took its pound of flesh there too.

The flexibility in the covid era changes things somewhat but, normally, something to bear in mind is that awards (other than promo awards) are reasonably flexible in terms of cancellation whereas deep discount J tickets aren't so a straight comparison for valuation purposes is somewhat problematic..

That's a good point. So yes, you could argue that an award is better than 400 euro discounted business class paid fare, as the award would be more flexible. Though, covid aside, I find that generally I use points for personal travel - and that (used to ) typically not really require flexibility. But there is no denying that there is value in flexibility. How much that's worth depends on the person/situation though.

In my case I booked AMS-ATH one-way with KLM in C for 49K miles. A paid roundtrip would be 800 euros, so you could say that the 49K miles equals 400 Euros. Or you could argue that a one-way actually costs 500 Euros rather than 400. Or you could argue that a competing airline offers a, possibly better, business class product on the same route for 200 euro. It strongly depends on your view on things what the value of those miles is.

That�s a good point indeed.

Now, we also have other references : miles upgrades vs � upgrades, lounge access paid by miles or cash�
I don�t recall the last time a mile was worth 1ct. On a different thread the new CDG lounge access price list for 2022 was posted today. For this service, AF values each mile at 0.5 cts

You didn't have to pay a cash part for """"taxes"""""?