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

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• James says:

  27 Sep27 September 22:21

  My folks both cancelled because of this change. Looks like Amex may have seen a large number of cancellations and enquiries about cancelling over the past fortnight.

  • JDB says:

    27 Sep27 September 22:30

    This must be a much deeper issue than lots of cancellations which must have been anticipated. If it were as a result of unexpected cancellations, the whole strategy of Amex in the UK is called into question because everything has been geared to the flaky customer who is now jumping ship.

    • Peter K says:

      27 Sep27 September 22:37

      Maybe that’s why they are running scared, because they’ve realised what you’ve just said is actually true?

      • Roy says:

        28 Sep28 September 01:17

        I’m more inclined to believe that they’re running scared because they realise that CS has been misinforming customers in large numbers….

        • sayling says:

          28 Sep28 September 10:25

          How would they know, @Roy?

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      27 Sep27 September 22:48

      People don’t like the idea of being tied in, as well as the fact many people don’t plan a year in advance

• No longer Entitled says:

  27 Sep27 September 22:47

  Amex loves a flaky customer. I suggest you become one.

• Lady London says:

  27 Sep27 September 22:50

  OK let”s kick this up a bit.

  Is this just a Plat problem?
  If it’s not just, would you, as a buyer, not want to keep as many existing customers on board as possible whilst the 6-12 month proceses complete?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    27 Sep27 September 23:05

    I don’t think it’s “just a plat problem”. I think it’s a gold problem and a BAPP problem.

    Does the average person see enough value in it? Maybe

    Does the average person plan A YEAR in advance? No

    Does the average person like dealing with overseas call centres who say wait 60 days and.call us back? No

    I think you can see the point I’m trying to make…

• Super Secret Stuff says:

  27 Sep27 September 23:01

  They’ve said on chat that they’re not currently planning on enforcing it on that date, which still worries me a bit but I have screenshots saying I’ll receive a communication when they do start enforcing

• Gothbe says:

  27 Sep27 September 23:36

  This could be the end or severe reduction in repeat sign up bonuses. Retention bonuses bite the bullet. Replaced by good ongoing benefits and improved earning rates. Pro rata refunds or monthly fees so that customers don’t feel trapped

• mkcol says:

  27 Sep27 September 23:40

  So what new AMEX card is going to be launched?

  • Travel Strong says:

    28 Sep28 September 00:23

    American Express Phoenix – cyclically regenerates automatically. Every full moon it automatically self refers and the original turns to ashes (along with any vouchers). When it is 7 days old it gains a supplementary cardholder automatically. It never gets any offers (as they take too long to come through) so to make up for it you get £150 waitrose/m&s/john lewis credit. Dedicated customer service team who also regenerate with every call and give a different response each time.

    • Lady London says:

      28 Sep28 September 10:31

      ****i*g brilliant @Travel Strong

• JPR says:

  28 Sep28 September 01:28

  Not a retention offer but a bog standard one via email today on the BAPP. For a whole 2500 Avios, they’d like me to spend approx £1000 a week for the next 5 weeks!

• Roy says:

  28 Sep28 September 01:34

  Without having any real clue what’s going on here, I do rather imagine that the Consumer Duty will be causing Amex (and others, but particularly Amex) to think hard about their entire offer. If you skew the benefits too much towards churners rather than long-term holders then it becomes much harder to justify that you’re offering the long-term holders fair value (assuming you are aiming to run the operation at a profit!). i.e. genuinely funding promotions out of the expected profit from the new customers you will attract is fine, but funding them from the profits from your existing customers, and relying on those customers putting up with it due to inertia – that becomes harder to justify…

  Where the line is drawn – how much is too much – is unclear, and the dust is still to settle. But it wouldn’t surprise me if the landscape looks significantly different in a couple of years time. I doubt Amex themselves even know exactly how this will pan out.

  But I expect, over time, that churners will be losers and holders will be winners, to a greater or lesser degree.

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