New Amex statement credits including £5 back on £5 London transport spend

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• Adam says:

  26 Oct26 October 07:46

  Would the d&d deal work with gift cards?

  • JQ says:

    26 Oct26 October 07:49

    Yes.

  • Rob says:

    26 Oct26 October 07:59

    If bought in a restaurant, yes

• JQ says:

  26 Oct26 October 07:49

  ” If you previously used a ‘pay as you go’ Oyster card, you can throw it away.”

  No! You need to present photo ID and address proof at a TfL office (even if the card up to now has been completely anonymous) and retrieve your £5 deposit!

  Or if you purchased it between 2008-2011, or before 2011 with PAYG credit only, your £3 deposit. Or before 2008 with a travelcard as the first product loaded, there was no deposit, so you can use it to a negative balance and then throw it away.

  “you will get an additional 20+ entries a month on your credit or debit card statement!”

  I’m not sure how it works but there is Mon-Sun weekly capping. If you took 1 bus a day, perhaps you will get 30 entries, but otherwise you may only get 4-5 if you hit the caps (or maybe 16 if you hit the daily caps without the weekly)

  The Esso offer would only be worth only £8.50 to me as Tesco is cheaper by 1p, gives 3x Amex MR instead of 2, and gives 2.25x the clubcard points. It went on my statement as “MALTHURST” though… let’s hope it credits automatically

  • Globetrotter7 says:

    26 Oct26 October 09:20

    You also get 3 MR points if your Esso has a Tesco Express attached to it (most do). Your statement will show Tesco Express

  • Mark2 says:

    26 Oct26 October 10:09

    And presumably no (up to but I always get it) 20p per litre off!

• Fenny says:

  26 Oct26 October 08:26

  I didn’t get the TfL one either, which is annoying, as I’m currently using a free night voucher at Hilton Green Park.

  What I do want to know about contactless payments is can you use the same card for multiple travellers? I have an oyster card anyway, but if I was with a friend, can I pay for us both on my Amex, or one on each etc. If you’re only an infrequent visitor to London and went with a family or group, paying for multiple people on one card would be more useful.

  • Jamie says:

    26 Oct26 October 08:33

    99% sure the answer to that is no, it will work like an oyster so won’t be able to cope with 2 people using the same card for the same journey.

  • Alan says:

    26 Oct26 October 10:30

    Haha I’m currently having breakfast at the Hilton Green Park! 😀

    It won’t be able to cope with two travellers on the one card unfortunately.

    Interesting points being made re senior railcard, will need to let my folks know. I’ve kept my Oyster for free Underground travel within LHR.

    • Fenny says:

      26 Oct26 October 10:48

      Probably saw you in there! I was wearing a Millennium Falcon t-shirt. Just gone back upstairs to listen to TA later 🙂

      • Alan says:

        26 Oct26 October 11:14

        Hehe 😀 I’m off to Heathrow now – HfP readers taking over the world!

        • Fenny says:

          26 Oct26 October 13:53

          We need some kind of app that registers proximity to other HfP readers. It would probably go nuts in any airport on any given day!

          Enjoy your trip.

    • Dave says:

      26 Oct26 October 12:42

      The free travel within LHR is still valid using a contactless credit card rather than an Oyster card (basically TFL just needs something to open the barriers that can confirm you only travelled within LHR – they only charge for paper tickets as it’s their policy to discourage people buying these).

      That said there’s still some reasons to keep your Oyster card. Don’t know why Raffles would suggest just binning it. One reason is if you keep it in the house, you still have a backup means to travel should your wallet get stolen and you’re waiting for new cards to arrive.

      There’s a few other things contactless doesn’t yet work on:
      Real routemasters that operate a Heritage service on route 15 (not these awful new routemasters that of course do take cards) the conductors hand held ticket readers only work with Oyster and as it’s classed as a normal TFL service for ticketing and fares it means it’s now also cashless so Oyster or travelcard is your only option.
      Pay as you go on Thames Clippers boat services (cheaper than paying with cash or card).
      Pay as you go on Emirates Airline (cable car), I’ve not tried it, but I asked TFL recently and they said it’s Oyster only for now. Don’t have Oyster then you’ll have to queue for a ticket (OK, it’s not that popular but if you’re visiting you may want to use it).

      Then you have the railcard issue mentioned earlier (railcards can be registered to Oyster and you get the discounts when using pre-pay).

      So what I do is use contactless (unless I plan to use a boat that day, or the route 15 where regular buses and routemasters alternate on the central cycle), but my Oyster is at home as a backup in case I lose my cards.

      Even if you genuinely think you don’t want to use your Oyster again and can’t be bothered getting a refund of your remaining credit + deposit there’s boxes at some major stations where you can dispose of your Oyster card and they donate the remaining credit to charity.

      • Alan says:

        26 Oct26 October 14:17

        Ah, interesting to know re LHR and contactless being OK. Leaving my Oyster at home probably wouldn’t be that much help given that’d be Edinburgh but I’ll hang onto it for now 😉 For a very infrequent user I certainly find contactless much easier than topping up the Oyster (never like auto top up as it left the credit on the card much higher than I’d want). I was impressed with the detailed itinerary it was able to give for the contactless cards too once registered on the website.

        Agree with comments re systems elsewhere – the Lothian Buses app for Edinburgh is good, but £10 minimum spend is a bit of a pain for those that don’t live here.

        • Richard says:

          26 Oct26 October 21:00

          Don’t get me started on the Lothian Buses app. The £10 minimum spend wouldn’t be a problem if it worked like Oyster – that you just had £10 sitting on your account to spend whenever you want to. The killer is that you have to decide in advance what types of ticket you want to spend your £10 on, and there’s no “daily cap”, AND they expire really quickly.

          Their new Oyster-like card is even worse – you can only load it up with £1.50 fares, if you want day tickets you’re out of luck. This is the same company which gave us the carnet ticket that actually cost more than the same number of singles. Honestly, I despair – they invest all that effort (and probably money) in designing a flashy new system, and yet somehow manage to miss every opportunity to actually improve the experience for travellers.

          Back on topic… I got all excited about TfL contactless and used it on my most recent trip to London, but I think I’ll stick with Oyster – I end up just shoving the card into my pocket as I step onto the escalator, and while I’m happy to do that with a prepaid Oyster with £15 of credit on, I don’t want to treat my Amex that way. Contactless was very handy for my girlfriend though, who doesn’t have an Oyster and was saved from having to go to a ticket machine or whatever.

        • Alan says:

          26 Oct26 October 21:03

          Hehe yep – totally agree re. the silly pre-selected fares issue. I couldn’t see the point in their Oyster equivalent at all! On the upside the buses themselves are pretty good and the bustracker system is fantastic!

• Jamie says:

  26 Oct26 October 08:30

  Very handy promo, the TFL discount was on my amex gold and my wife’s BA card.

• Neil Spellings says:

  26 Oct26 October 08:41

  I certainly won’t be throwing away my Oyster either. I have five credit cards in my wallet with contactless capability, and there’s no way I’m fishing out my wallet then extracting the right credit card every time I go through a tube or train turnstile (several times each week day).

  I’ll keep my Oyster in my back pocket where I can whip it out to swipe in seconds with no fear of “card clash”.

• Andrew says:

  26 Oct26 October 08:53

  I’ll be continuing to use my Oyster card over a contactless Amex. Points are awarded per transaction by the Amex Gold card so make a £2.90 journey and that 90p is ‘lost’ points-wise. However, top up Oyster by an amount in full pounds and nothing is lost.

• Mikeact says:

  26 Oct26 October 08:56

  For the few ! Don’t throw your Oyster card away if you are a Senior… if loaded with your Senior Railcard,it ensures you automatically receive any discounts.

• JJ says:

  26 Oct26 October 09:00

  Not to mention that all the small change in my pocket should find its way somewhere

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.