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Finland, Finnair, and credit cards - pre 2020 discussion

Finland, Finnair, and credit cards - pre 2020 discussion

Old Jul 6, 2012, 5:53 am
  #76  
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Call again hope for another agent

In the worst case ask the agent to give you an AMEX plat with the first year fee waived

(I find it funny, that AMEX charges a membership fee - the 15k € minimum spend I mentioned earlier in the thread generates them about 500€ in merchant fees)
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Old Jul 6, 2012, 9:37 am
  #77  
 
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Originally Posted by HELflyer
Just called them to have the fee waived on my (main and only) card, customer rep said it was impossible to do and claimed that they had received strict orders from the "head office" that the fees must be collected.
I got similar information a few days ago.

She agreed to send me a gift card (60e? I can't remember) as a good will gesture and I'll keep the Plat card until end of the year (paid until then already). I don't really see much reason to keep the Plat card with the current benefits, though.
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Old Jul 11, 2012, 2:18 pm
  #78  
 
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Originally Posted by WilcoRoger
Call again hope for another agent

In the worst case ask the agent to give you an AMEX plat with the first year fee waived

(I find it funny, that AMEX charges a membership fee - the 15k € minimum spend I mentioned earlier in the thread generates them about 500€ in merchant fees)
I probably will call again, but by that time I must have made the decision if I'm willing to pay the fee, or if I'll tell them I want to cancel the card (and be ready to follow through with that) if they don't budge.

I see the smiley, but do they actually have promo campaigns running at the moment that they could offer a plat (or gold) card with no fee for one year? That would be one solution even if it only puts off the problem until next year...

I have just the green card (didn't see the point of applying and paying for anything more than that), and while I didn't quite reach 15k€ I was not that far from it either, with average spend over 1k€ per month. That must make them several hundred euros of revenue every year, which they apparently are willing to give up for 75€.

I mainly have the card for MR points (the other benefits are nice extras but not something I'd be willing to pay for). I already did the maths before applying for the card, with the assumption that with some decent spend I can get the yearly fees waived, but if that's no longer the case then the card doesn't seem worth keeping. If I could put some 10k€ more through the card each year then maybe, but paying the fees for what I collect currently (while foregoing the benefits I can have by putting the same spend on other cards) just does not seem like a good deal.

Has anyone been successful in getting the fees waived during the past few months?
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Old Nov 30, 2012, 4:25 pm
  #79  
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Quote from Amex Sweden Facebook site:

"Till dig som är medlem i Membership Rewards - just nu fĺr du 50 % mer Finnair Plus-bonuspoäng för dina Membership Rewards-poäng. Erbjudandet gäller överföringar 28 nov-17 dec 2012. Läs mer här http://amex.co/T9kCQF"

This would be a nice promotion in Finland as well....
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Old Dec 1, 2012, 7:23 am
  #80  
 
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Originally Posted by Saturne-79
Quote from Amex Sweden Facebook site:

"Till dig som är medlem i Membership Rewards - just nu fĺr du 50 % mer Finnair Plus-bonuspoäng för dina Membership Rewards-poäng. Erbjudandet gäller överföringar 28 nov-17 dec 2012. Läs mer här http://amex.co/T9kCQF"

This would be a nice promotion in Finland as well....
Wow! The grass really is greener on the other side!
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Old Dec 1, 2012, 5:01 pm
  #81  
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Rumour has it that starting Monday there would be xx% bonus for MR transfers to BAEC, too. Interesting to see, if also FI cards are included (in June they were)

EDIT - the campaign is on, but not for Finland

Last edited by WilcoRoger; Dec 5, 2012 at 5:24 am
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Old Dec 20, 2012, 3:33 am
  #82  
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To bring up this again.

Had a chat with CS yesterday. It turns out, that they cannot waive fees for partner-cards anymore (70€ for Gold) but they don't charge the 170€ for the main card "because your card have the old terms that we don't give anymore" The "old terms" turned out to be the 15k€ p.a minimum spending. In contrast to previous years, the main card yearly fee wasn't charged at all, only that of the partner card.

I asked to upgrade to Plat, but she said they cannot waive the 550€ p.a. fee for plat. No way I'll pay that.

As it is now, having dumped Sampo's AY Visa, I only pay for Amex as DC comes for free (AY Gold perk) MC comes for free (SK Gold perk and Nordea key customer perk) The SK-MC co-branded is nopt strictly free, as it comes with a 2€ invoicing fee so it's a 24€ fee p.a.
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Old Dec 20, 2012, 10:39 am
  #83  
 
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That's interesting.

It would be impolite to say the customer service lied to me, but at least they seem to give different information to different people.

I wonder if the fee waiver policy for the green card is similar (and with what minimum spend?)

I didn't get around to leveling out my MR balance and cancelling my card yet, but have to consider it again when the next yearly fee comes up.
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Old Dec 21, 2012, 4:20 am
  #84  
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It used to be 15ke for Gold and 7,5ke for Green. Last year they didn't waive the fee for the partner card anymore and I cancelled the partner card and also jumped over to DC as my/our main card. As a result I had <15ke and they wanted the 170eur for my card for 2013 and I just cut the card in half..done with AX for now. To me they tried all tricks like giving discount on the fee, restaurant vouchers, hotel vouchers....I just couldn't bother...AX is nothing special anyway (in Finland) and I would never pay anything to use their card = giving business to them!

BTW: those 15/7,5ke "deals" seem to be history now..only valid for old customers...but you never know what is the reality as AX clearly tells different stuff to people...last year when I cancelled the partner card they said to me that "no one gets partner cards waived anymore" - total b*****t..not the kind of customer service you'd expect to get from a world class?? brand like AX..shameful, actually..
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Old Dec 21, 2012, 5:57 am
  #85  
 
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Thanks NoWindowSeat - I think I had something like 14k on the green card last year when they said they can't waive the fee (and tried to make me believe they have never waived fees).

Did the "old" customers get the 15k/7,5k deal formally offered by Amex at some point? If there was no formal agreement, I wonder why they would still continue to give it to "old" customers, and where indeed does the line between "old" and "new" go - or is it just a story they're making up for those who ask.
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Old Dec 21, 2012, 6:03 am
  #86  
 
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Oh, and missed this part - so they did offer to give a discount on the yearly fee? That could be an option if it's a substantial discount.
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Old Dec 21, 2012, 6:12 am
  #87  
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Originally Posted by HELflyer
Oh, and missed this part - so they did offer to give a discount on the yearly fee? That could be an option if it's a substantial discount.
I can only speak from my personal experience but the 7,5/15k deal was verbal "deal" - nothing official.

This year (for 2013) they suggested to reduce my Gold card yearly fee to 100 (or was it down by 100 to 70, can't really remember) euros and they also first tried to offer hotel and restaurant vouchers (if I would have paid the full 170eur). Seems that AX Finland is pretty desperate with keeping the customers but they have strong corporate rules regarding the yearly fees...they are full secured profit to them so can understand why.
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Old Dec 22, 2012, 2:16 am
  #88  
 
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Maybe if they came out with the SAS Amex or other cobranded card that offered some REAL benefits in return for the yearly fees they might attract more members willing to pay... So far in Finland the signup bonuses and special offers are pretty weak
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Old Dec 23, 2012, 1:24 am
  #89  
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The last good thing they had was the Hilton card before they killed it 3-4 years ago. It started at 1 FIM=1 HHpoint. Those were the days...
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Old Jan 8, 2013, 6:25 am
  #90  
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No more Hilton Gold

I got my amex bill today (which is nice as my due date for the bill is tomorrow...) and there was a information that in Finland you are no more able to get Hilton Gold card with your platinum card. This ended 31.12.-12.
So now there is only SPG gold and ClubCarlson what you can get with new platinum card.
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