Billman27

Well hello,

I am a long time lurker and posted some questions a while back about AMEX charge/credit cards in the United Arab Emirates. I just wanted to post my experience in regards to applying for this credit card. I currently still hold my AMEX platinum charge card from the USA, a member since 2000.

So last week I decided to go ahead and get myself a Dirham based credit card as I would like lounge access across the middle east, I travel a bit with work. I called the number and was promptly directed to a sales representative (they work on commission as you obviously can tell when they push more cards). Here in Dubai, when you apply for a credit card, they will come to your office and meet you to gather the documents. Even though I have an Amex Platinum Charge Card, that meant little here. I had to provide the following:

3 months bank statements
2 months other credit card statements
Passport Copy
Residence Visa Copy
Salary Certificate from my office
A printout from my online account
A blank check (I argued on this point for about 20 minutes)
The filled out application form which the gentlemen did for me.

He was surprised that I had a platinum charge card, and even asked me how I acquired it....... At first I initially wanted to change my USA card to the UAE one. However, for some odd reason the UAE Amex Platinum is charged in dollars??? Blows my mind as you can get a Saudi one billed in Saudi Riyal. Anyway, so I still asked about the benefits of the Platinum card.

They were:
Personal Assistant - based in Bahrain (most likely will not know much on the UAE market)
International Airline Program seems a tad better with Royal Jordanian and Gulf Air, but no EMIRATES!?
Member Rewards
Airline Lounge Access ( You get this from the gold card too)
High Insurance

The annual fee, are you sitting down, $750.00 . CRAP, the annual fee for the gold card is 395 AED which is about $110.00 with all the same benefits. So that's the story, there are little comments on here about the Middle East Cards. I will give the card a go and update later. The card takes two weeks to be approved and the application with my 30 documents had to be sent to Bahrain.


Best Regards,

Billman

Ducatibiker

Interesting - the platinum card in Belgium is 570 euros (= 684 US dollars !). The affiliation is with SN Brussels airlines....and I am just dreaming when I read all the advantages linked to the card in other market - especially the US !

Billman27

It wasn't definitely not very appealing to pay the money for the platinum card here. The sales guy claimed it was very popular and people were dying to get it, but I hardly see that as it's charged in Dollars, the benefits suck, and there is little to no advantage over the gold card. The only difference was the assistant person, and knowing the middle east I bet it's not very good. Restaurants, clubs, and other items are not as well publicized on the internet over here, so you really need someone on the ground, not in Bahrain.

jaejaez

Reviving a very old thread to ask what could be a silly question... but here goes:

Regarding FHR - can any Amex Plat/Centurion card holders use this feature, no matter in what part of the world the card was issued in? e.g. Will I get to use FHR if I were to get Amex Plat issued in the middle east?

TIA

mia

Go to this page, and choose a specific country:

https://www.americanexpress.com/chan..._choosecountry

...then read the benefits description for the Platinum Card issued in that market,

daniellam

I remember reading somewhere that in this part of the world, if you are late on your payments, they would use the blank check to force you to pay off the balance. In the event the account for which the blank check is drawn on does not have sufficient balance and the check bounces, you can then be criminally liable for writing a bad check. The criminal liability part acts as a deterrent to overspending.