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American Express raises the annual fee on many of its cards

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American Express has announced a sharp rise in annual fees on many of its UK personal and business credit and charge cards.

There will be no compensatory change in any of the benefit packages.

However, there will be some fantastic bonuses available from today to encourage new sign-ups. These cover The Platinum Card (covered today), Preferred Rewards Gold (covered tomorrow) and the Marriott card (covered this Friday).

American Express announces sharp rises in annual fees on many of its cards

Which American Express cards are getting fee increases?

Here are the changes which apply from today for new applications:

Personal cards:

  • The Harrods American Express Card increases from £150 to £195 per year

Business cards:

Other cards remain unchanged.

American Express announces sharp rises in annual fees on many of its cards

What happens to existing cardholders?

If you currently have any of these cards, you will not pay the new fee immediately.

You pay the new fee from your first billing date after 29th February 2024.

This means that, for example, if your Platinum card renews on 1st January, you will still only pay £575 on 1st January 2024. The new fee will not kick in until 1st January 2025.

Why is Amex increasing fees?

To quote:

American Express strives to deliver industry-leading rewards, value and customer service to all our Cardmembers. In order to continue to provide the same level of benefits, and due to the rising costs of providing these benefits, rewards and services, we are increasing the annual fees on a handful of our Cards. We know that our Cardmembers value the wide range of benefits and services they receive, and are confident our Cards continue to provide great value for money relative to the annual fees.

What is happening with the end of partial fee refunds?

American Express still intends to push ahead with the abolition of pro-rata fee refunds when cards are cancelled mid-year.

The new plan is that pro-rata fee refunds will be available until at least 29th February 2024.

This replaces the original cut-off date of 1st October 2023.

This means there is some good news ….

With pro-rata refunds still available until at least 29th February 2024, you could take out one of the exceptionally good sign-up bonuses launched today and still benefit from a pro-rata refund if you cancel within the next four and a bit months. The exact date for the ending of refunds is still to be confirmed.

The deals are:

To work out if you qualify for any of these bonuses, read this HfP article which breaks down Amex’s rules into bitesize chunks. If you have a BA Amex card, the only bonus you MAY qualify for is 100,000 points (=100,000 Avios) on The Platinum Card.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (157)

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

  • Amy C says:
    11 Oct11 October 04:16

    Woah, that’s quite the increase on Gold and Plat. [Wipes brow] relieved the BAPP escaped this time around.

  • JDB says:
    11 Oct11 October 04:36

    Well, these fee increases aren’t exactly surprising. Quite apart from inflation it seemed obvious that Amex was going to ask the main body of cardholders to chip in towards paying for hugely costly repeat SUBs and retentions. Obviously, people want it all – high SUBs and retentions, generous referrals and card offers plus excellent customer service but that’s not realistic without paying more. Amex doesn’t pay £500 Plat retentions out of its own pocket.

    Also, a fee relatively modest fee increase of £75/13% on the Plat will no doubt elicit a lot of moaning, but if the supposed benefits were so tight/really down to the last £75 in the first place, it was really too small a margin to make it worthwhile anyway. For me the Plat benefits are of very limited or no value but I recognise others put quite big sums on them.

    • Tariq says:
      11 Oct11 October 05:20

      Well, after all, it ‘is the one that people often find the hardest to get their head around.’

    • BJ says:
      11 Oct11 October 07:15

      I think you can relax a bit, very few habitual churners remain eligible for SUB except where the play a long strategy. Even that pool will be thinned out by a combination of tightening eligibility, increasing fees and abolition of refunds. It’s probably reasonable to assume that most who apply and get accepted for these new large SUB are genuine new customers who will then stay or leave amex depending on their perceived value of the cards and their experience.

    • Harry T says:
      11 Oct11 October 07:42

      I haven’t experienced excellent customer service from Amex in a long time now.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    11 Oct11 October 05:08

    So initial offer 100k rewards for taking out the Plat.

    75k for spending £ 10k in the first 6 months and the remaining 25k if you spend in month 15 (so after you’ve paid renewal).

    That’s going to get some complaints!

    • JDB says:
      11 Oct11 October 05:47

      Well it’s £1000 sub + £800 credits over two years for £1300 plus whatever value you ascribe to other benefits. What’s to moan about?

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
        11 Oct11 October 06:05

        Oh they’ll soon find something.

        • No longer Entitled says:
          11 Oct11 October 06:37

          That works out at a £250 return per year, or about £20 per month, £5 per week. I don’t think it is a simple value proposition because while you do need to ascribe a value to the other benefits you also need to put a value on your time to play the game and keep abreast of the shifting landscape.

          We may be at the point whereby life is too short and it is simply easier to get a cash back card for some.

          • Paul says:
            11 Oct11 October 07:35

            I am agree with you to a point. At the moment I do ok on value as I have managed to use the dining credit and HN credit relatively easily. That said the card now goes in the hotel safe when travelling unless I need something to be insured or protected. 3% FX fee is hefty particularly given the never ending appalling weakness of the £.
            If you factor in charges made by some retailers for using it ( notably Australia) then it possible to add £50+ to every £1000 spent outside the UK. consequently I now draw the line.
            where i have major concerns is customer service calls being diverted to the Philippines.
            despite my love of that country scripted responses and occasional poor english is not acceptable with a fee of £650 year!

            so just what is the best cash back card to use overseas ideally with no FX fee?

          • John says:
            11 Oct11 October 12:53

            I think it’s hard to beat chase debit but monthly limit and doesn’t work on some categories of transactions.

    • rum says:
      11 Oct11 October 06:46

      It’s obvious they are trying to retain customers for longer with this ‘bribe’ of a bonus after however many months of retaining (and using) the card. But it’s debatable if such a huge fee increase is going to mean people keep the card…

  • Andrew J says:
    11 Oct11 October 05:41

    Ah well could have been worse, thought it would be worse, including supps being charged a considerable fee like in the US a few months ago. So £75 fee rise on the Plat I can swallow, given a loaf of bread has increased by a similar margin. I was considering applying for the Harrods card as it now comes with £100 of dining credit, so will make sure I do that before the fee increase.

  • Rui N. says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:20

    Bye Amex.

  • Anna says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:26

    So the new supp fee will apply after Feb 24 too?

  • rum says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:43

    If they had problems retaining Plat card members over the past few years, I wonder just how many will be left after 29th Feb! I for one can’t justify the increase on Gold and will likely (try to) downgrade once my free year is up. I’m kind of screwed as I have a huge MR pool so can’t just cancel.

    Good news for the BAPP in a way. It really is the best Amex card by a country mile.

    • Doc says:
      11 Oct11 October 06:50

      Get the cash back card to keep your MR before cancelling your Gold card. Unless Amex decides to shut that route as well.

  • DJ says:
    11 Oct11 October 06:51

    @rob, how does it impact existing cardholders on the monthly fee plan for The Platinum charge card?

    • James says:
      11 Oct11 October 06:55

      Presume you can cancel a monthly fee plan at any time but get a big red mark on your file?

    • DJ says:
      11 Oct11 October 06:59

      My platinum card was changed to the monthly plan in January 2023. Does that mean I will be on old £48 a month plan until 2025?

      • John says:
        11 Oct11 October 12:54

        Ask Amex and if their answer turns out to be wrong then you probably get some compo with a complaint

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

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