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IMPORTANT: American Express suspends the scrapping of pro-rata card fee refunds

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American Express informed us on Wednesday morning that it has suspended its plans to stop pro-rata fee refunds on its UK credit cards from 2nd October.

We don’t have any further information at this point. This is very much a last minute change of heart, given that the original announcement was made (in a HfP exclusive story) back in mid June.

This means that there is no longer a requirement to cancel any cards this week if you didn’t want to find yourself locked in for the rest of your membership year.

American Express suspends end of pro rata fee refunds

We believe that Amex does not intend to inform cardholders of this change, but the call centre agents have been told and can confirm this to you. You may want to call to get your own confirmation since there is no public statement that we can show you as verification.

We don’t know what the position is if you have cancelled a card this week and would now like it back.

The plan to stop pro-rata fee refunds is not dead, just resting, but we understand that there will be no changes until at least 2024.

I suggest keeping a regular eye on HfP over the next 2-3 weeks for more news ….

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Comments (324)

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

  • StanTheMan says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:41

    JDB head just exploded

  • BSI1978 says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:42

    Goodness me! Tough for those that have cancelled this week, albeit there has been increasing chatter on the forum/threads this week – poor form of Amex to announce this comparatively late in the day.

    Comments here are going to be ‘interesting’….!

  • Mart says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:44

    Sat in BA Gatwick South lounge, popcorn in hand, waiting for the JDB comments

  • CarpalTravel says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:46

    That seems impossibly strange, stranger than their even offering it in the first place!!
    My guesses would be it is either bad info on the CS part, something systems related on Amex’s part, or the avalanche (???) of cancellations so near to a quarter end was just too much to bear.

    • David says:
      27 Sep27 September 13:15

      My thoughts entirely. The avalanche must have been too much. Retention offers being handed around at 35k and 50k did not help the cause.

  • m says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:49

    It may take some time for the genuine reason for the backtrack to surface, but my hunch is that they must have seen a massive wave of cancellations.

    • Peter K says:
      27 Sep27 September 12:57

      That’s my guess as well. Far more cancellations than they anticipated and serious questions being asked about the judgement of higher ups coming up with this plan or the speed at which changes are being implemented spooking consumers.

      • CarpalTravel says:
        27 Sep27 September 13:02

        And of course with cancellations come refunds, so Amex would have seen cash flowing in the wrong direction for them. But surely as a percentage of customers, it cannot have been all than many people? Anecdotal obviously, but all the people I have spoken to about it (away from this site) said they didn’t even know Amex did that in the first place.

  • Nick says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:50

    What’s JDB?

    Glad I got a fat retention bonus just yesterday !

  • SammyJ says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:55

    Amex livechat told me a couple of weeks ago that there were no changes being made and that I could cancel Gold after Oct for a pro-rata refund. I asked a second agent and was told the same thing – I assumed it was just a training deficiency on Amex’s part, but perhaps not?

  • the_real_a says:
    27 Sep27 September 12:57

    Annual subs have been for a while a significant sum of money and offer marginal value (esp Platinum) – a small change to job role or travel plans mean the benefits no longer make sense. Its also often cheaper to “unbundle” the benefits and purchase them separately. I can see many people not wanting to lock in on an annual subscription, without the safety net of cancelling and threw in the towel by the deadline.

    • JDB says:
      27 Sep27 September 14:10

      I’m glad to see that raised! People often talk about the Plat card as a coupon book and say your £575 buys you £1000 of benefits or whatever, but I prefer to look at how much it would cost me to buy the specific benefits I need or want. That would even allow me, rather controversially, to go to restaurants of my own choice to spend £300. The couponing concept is seemingly something much more popular in the US which is perhaps why the Plat card is so unsuccessful here.

      • Rob says:
        27 Sep27 September 14:16

        But on that basis you could chuck your iPhone and buy a £10 Nokia, a compass, a torch, a calculator etc ….. 🙂

        • JDB says:
          27 Sep27 September 14:32

          @Rob you are a very professional card pedlar and I would buy your argument if they made the Plat more relevant to more people. The travel insurance, a fairly significant part of the whole proposition, is just one area that is long overdue a fix. The MR earning rate is just another weakness, but there are many.

          • yorkieflyer says:
            27 Sep27 September 17:13

            Yes the the travel insurance with its exemption for pre existing conditions drawn so widely eg high cholesterol or asthma is useless to many

          • Mikeact says:
            28 Sep28 September 10:10

            And their travel insurance age limit is totally ridiculous this day and age.

          • Paul says:
            28 Sep28 September 10:31

            Agreed the age limit is a huge barrier and will be the end of my membership irrespective of any other changes

      • ken says:
        27 Sep27 September 15:40

        I’d say the “couponing concept” works in the USA simply because the offer is far stronger.

        With interchange rates much lower in the UK, its always going to struggle.

        The headline benefit of lounge access is virtually worthless to me.

        • QFFlyer says:
          27 Sep27 September 16:49

          Same. I use mine (ICC, so arguably an even worse card than the ‘proper’ UK card) solely for insurance and to store MR points for transfers too SQ. With airline status covering Oneworld, Jetstar and Star Alliance, the lounge access maybe gets used one a year.

        • BBbetter says:
          27 Sep27 September 19:26

          Wrong. Couponing is done in US due to competition.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        27 Sep27 September 20:05

        I gave up on the Plat card and took a year’s car hire excess cover – £45, with the same underwriters that Amex use. And went to Nationwide Flex for travel insurance, who have just paid out £600 because an 18-day French Polynesia cruise had to miss two ports.
        So all that is left is lounge passes – and since we fly business or First long haul, they are not really that essential!

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