Hey gang,

Just a curiosity. I noticed that a gold Canadian AMEX card with Accelerator Program gets 1.5 miles/Cdn dollar spent. With the exchange, this works out to 2.25 miles/US dollar (exhange of roughly 1USD=1.5Cdn). These miles can be converted to CO, Delta and Canadian. Although annual fee is very high $185Cdn ($125 USD), it is interesting.

For instance, $2000US purchase = $3000Cdn which gets 4500 points=4500 miles.

I am sure that you more than pay for it on exchange rates, if you use your card predominantly International.

Anybody's thoughts?

Not to mention things like triple points at participating grocery stores! 7.75 points/dollar???

Amex's currency exchange rates are quite reasonable -- much better than cash or traveller's cheques, and no purchase commission either. As a Canadian Platinum Amex cardholder (points acceclerator is included) I feel very smug every time I look at US purchases on my card.

While you might be paying a small amount on currency, your are getting an extra 1.25 points, or about 2.5 cents worth of points, on each US dollar spent. I think that would make up most of any currency loss. This presumes of course that you are willing to pay extra, just to get the extra points.

Checking my statement, it appears that for US charges, I am paying a premium of about .4%, or about 80c on 200$. So by paying an extra 80c, I receive about 265 points extra. That works out to about .3c US per point, or about 1/7 the cost of buying points.

I suppose you would have to figure out the additional cost to pay in CDN dollars as well, but it still looks like a good way to earn extra points.

Regards,

Ken Hamer


[This message has been edited by KenHamer (edited 04-26-99).]

Canadian cardholder don't receive many of those types of offers (triple points on groceries.) We do get things like 1000 points for buying a CP air ticket on Amex. That includes award tickets where you have to pay the taxes. I paid C$9.70 on an award ticket a few months ago, and received the 1000 point bonus. As well, if you transfer points into your Canadian Plus account, you get discounts on award travel ranging from 3000 to 10,000 points.

Regards,

Ken Hamer

Ken

Our accountant told me in the new terms from Amex on our Corp Gold card that there is now going to be up to a 2% fee on exchange rate conversions. I dont have it any longer to quote from. I will see what I can find out.

TW

Just got the same notice of "up to 2%" fee on foreign purchases in the new terms for my Platinum card.

No notice in Canada (yet) about any currency exchange fee. One hopeful sign for Americans might be the phrase "up to."

Regards,

Ken Hamer

While we're on the subject -

In Singapore, where I have spent the last 4 years, American Express imposes a credit limit. I know that Amex is not supposed to but under Singapore Monetary Law, they have to. And your credit limit is double your monthly gross salary. No execptions! And if you fail to pay your bill on time, that month's balance gets credited to the next. So sometimes it can be very embarrassing if the cheque to Amex hasn't cleared in time and you get a "amount rejection" for something as low as $50!

The Singapore Amex card also participates in the Membership Rewards scheme. But, it is pathetic by comparison to Canada or US members. S$1.60 gets you one point. (CAD1.00 = almost SGD$1.14)

1 AMEX MR point gets you on THAI Aiways ROP 1 mile . It used to get 1 km on PASSAGES BUT
now that AsiaMiles (Cathay Pacific) and KrisFlyer (Singapore Airlines)calculate in miles, 1.6 AMEX MR points get you 1 mile on the above 2 programmes only.

Attempts to get the points transferred to Canadian Plus did not succeed!

[This message has been edited by Celestar340 (edited 04-27-99).]