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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.

  • Nun says:
    27 Sep27 September 15:50

    Is this UK only or also US cards (and Canada)?

  • Tom says:
    27 Sep27 September 15:51

    Just used live chat via the AMEX app to enquire about cancelling my BA Premium card. Offered 10K Avios for spending £3K (in 3 months). Pushed back once but allegedly there was nothing more they could offer. Accepted it anyway since it’s better than nothing, but certainly not as exciting as the 35K credited immediately as outlined above!

    • ken says:
      27 Sep27 September 15:56

      I’d take it with a pinch of salt that anyone is getting 35k retention for a BA premium card.

    • JDB says:
      27 Sep27 September 16:15

      I haven’t seen reports of any retention offer on the BAPP higher than 10k Avios for £3k spend in the last two years; not really surprising that it is by far the lowest retention offer of the pack.

    • CarpalTravel says:
      27 Sep27 September 16:24

      35k will have been MR’s for the Plat card, definitely not BAPP.

  • G says:
    27 Sep27 September 16:20

    And I presume for those who have cancelled their cards and got a refund can re-sign back up?

  • Ronak says:
    27 Sep27 September 16:28

    Amex should follow the Barclays model and apply the charge on a monthly basis, rather than an annual charge

    • meta says:
      27 Sep27 September 17:12

      You can do that already if you call and ask.

    • TeesTraveller says:
      27 Sep27 September 17:32

      Monthly payment is the normal offer in some countries (ie Sweden & Netherlands) and not others (UK, USA) wonder why this is?

  • Damien says:
    27 Sep27 September 16:53

    Damn… I cancelled my platinum a couple of weeks ago. Going to Japan next month and would have been useful for the insurance, hotels and car insurance.

  • Shu says:
    27 Sep27 September 17:01

    I just spoke to an agent on Webchat who advised me that they still intend to stop the pro-rata refund of annual fee on Oct 2nd.
    Any more info on this?
    Obviously I don’t intend to use my Plat very much in the next 6 months so i planned to cancel today/tomorrow.

  • Sloth says:
    27 Sep27 September 17:13

    I like reading the usual numbskull comments on these things when they happen, it’s rather amusing. I’m also looking forward to the numerous moaners who will now be attempting to cancel post 2/10 and wondering why they are not getting a refund. No one has any evidence that Amex have rolled back on these t&c’s. Amex don’t seem to have a clue what they are doing and more fool those who believe what they are told

    • Rob says:
      27 Sep27 September 17:16

      It’s 100% happening and more will become clear soon. This is only the beginning.

      • Sloth says:
        27 Sep27 September 17:25

        I’m not saying it’s Not happening, I’m saying as it stands there is no evidence and whilst I have no reason to doubt you Rob, you are just passing on what Amex have told you…there is no proof atm

      • davidn says:
        27 Sep27 September 17:34

        The beginning of what?! 🙂

        • zapato1060 says:
          27 Sep27 September 19:46

          The beginning. Everyones children will be enslaved into boot camps to mine bitcoin and you only get to see them in relation to how many MRs you have. Each MR is a second.

      • JDB says:
        27 Sep27 September 18:01

        @Rob – I hope Amex realises how appallingly it has handled the communication around this both internally and to cardholders. Clearly some agents were aware of the u-turn a few days ago, now some are seemingly saying that the new T&Cs will come into effect as planned. It’s quite inappropriate for them casually to communicate this selectively via HfP without providing a formal document you can share.

      • meta says:
        28 Sep28 September 07:17

        Reads like we should be worried?

  • rob keane says:
    27 Sep27 September 17:20

    Cardholders coming up for renewal can currently kick the decision down the road, effectively thinking they are on a pay monrhly card that they can cancel anytime, which I wonder does that work in Amex favour, i.e. they continue to kick it down the road for the entire 12 months, and then repeat, whereas when faced with a cliff edge, are forced to commit to the spend, or cancel.

    Perhaps the saving of getting rid of the “get the bonus and cancel” squad is more than ate up by the amount that cancel due to the cliffedge.

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

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