plat changes; increase fees; int rates; shortened payment schedule
 

Guess I won't be using Amex abroad. :td:
In today's statement:

ouch what was the fee before? im going abroad next year for school......was thinking i might just use my US amex...

Was 1% - this is a US amex. The notice was for my Platinum card, but it's likely to be for all Amex cards.

I only use my Amex abroad if I have to pay for a Centurion Hotel. Otherwise, I use my PenFed Visa. PenFed doesn't charge a fee for those transaction, so there's only the 1% fee charged by Visa. PenFed also gives you 1.25% cash back on ALL transactions, which means you end up getting .25% back on all foreign transactions.

PenFed also has great customer service and will actually give you a servicable credit line ($50K in my experience).

Wasn't the FOREX charge previously 2% for AMEX? This is an unfortunate change. I try to use my Capital One card (no FOREX charge) when I travel abroad, but unfortunately FHR hotel stays need to be paid for using an AMEX.

Mine was/is 2%

Maybe now is a good time to get the IDC

Does this mean we can't wait until the next closing date to pay our bills anymore?

That would appear to be the case.

Boy, the foreign currency/conversion fee really is just gouging. Other than canceling the card, or not using it abroad, does the card holder have any other option if they want still to use the card? I imagine none of this is negotiable with AMEX?

And, they are doing this to their so called "best customers?" Plat card holders?

AMEX just layed off 7,000 employees. Now these additional charges. The company must be doing really well . . . :eek:

Y'all sure? It's hard to tell but I think they're talking about paying after the current statement is 30 days closed, right?

But yeah, if y'all are right on this, it does suck. I'm never over, but there's days when I'm within a couple of days.

Here's my read on this line:
I have roughly 50 days from the closing date of any one statement to when I have to pay. That would be 20 days + the 30 days to get to the next closing date.

I don't think that is the part that is really changing.

The part that is changing seems to be that they are now going to charge a "fee" of $35 or 2.99% in addition to the interest due each month that you pay late, and there is a double hit of the fee at next close + 20 and 2nd next close dates, so if you pay your bill 65 days late you'll be destroyed with fees.

The FOREX change is redonkulous, I mean it was bad enough that there are some cards that only charge 1% and AMEX did 2% but to jack it to just about 3% is wrong.

FWIW the other cards that charge 2% its my understanding its 1%->Issuer and 1%->Visa/MC, which is why some cards only do 1% which is just paying the Visa/MC fee so with this change since Amex is the issuer and the processor if you will they are grabbing 2.7% vs 1% on Visa/MC. Thats over the top.

Most VISA and Mastercards of Germany charge between 1,75 and 2%
 

commision for any use in other than the own currency !!

Will look on my next statement if they change the commission in Europe too, I Think it's now 2 % . Was increased some years ago. :td:

As a great fan of Amex I will just look how this will develop.

One hint for all GERMAN cardholders which want to get foreign exchange commission free:
One bank, the Deutsche Postbank, offers a new kind of savings books. This savings book is a savings account not with the old traditional book ("Sparbuch") but in the new type of a Sparcard !
This Sparcard works anytime free of charge for wirthdrawal on "own" cash machines in the inland/domestic and TEN TIMES FOR WITHDRAWALS IN FOREIGN CURRENCY PER YEAR !! ^

Due to the fact that I don't want to get commissions for any recommendations, you can just search this by yourself in the internet offers of the Deutsche Postbank (postbank.de) or any German post office.

So this may be an alternative for any german based cardholder, especially to get smaller amounts of money for purchases.@:-)

Hope this helps.

Stopped using AMEX abroad this year. My Credit Union charges no FOREX fees for ATM withdrawals and I use Capital One also with no FOREX fees for charges.

Cheers

My previous credit union -- this is why I dropped them -- won't even let me use my card outside the US unless I call them before each and every trip. Given that I am out of the US for work a bunch of times a year, I just couldn't handle that annoyance. Is that restriction unique to the credit union I had been using?

Might be as I know of several others that do not require notification every trip.

Cheers

Thanks for the heads up OP- I totally missed the notice on my statement.


I'm glad that my Prague MO visit is this month and not after January. Per the terms we must use our Cent cards.



We typically use our Starwood cards in Europe but may reconsider.


ETA- I will have to carefully consider this though. When we had a problem with a merchant in Italy Amex
assigned a special representative who went out of her way to resolve the issue. She saved us close to $1000.
The extra fee may be worth it to us.

Can anyone confirm anymore about this?

I do not think it is accurate at all. See my post above. Alas, I have not called to confirm it.

Interesting observation from yesterday's Platinum bill:

My billing cycle typically ends on the 8th or 9th. Normally the due date is listed on the bill / website as the 22nd or 23rd (I know that you can pay after that by phone w/o penalty).

On my November bill which closed yesterday, the due date is listed as Dec. 4.

It looks like they actually expanded the payment window ?????

I just called Customer Service and just like always ---you just have to pay your bill BEFORE your next billing cycle begins.

Is FOREX rate going up on centurion card also?

I would assume so. AmEx has had the same rate across the board for all cards as long as I can remember. :(

Yes, it is. Got my centurion statement today, and it had the 2,7% notice on it as well. I'm still torn.

- My lowest card carries a 1% fee
- AmEx Rewards are worth 1% minimum

So, it's basically a 0,7% charge by AmEx for dispute/fraud/etc prevention. It may be worth it....

Hi there, it's my first post. Just wanted to say I got the same notice for the FOREX increase on my Starwood and Gold Cards.