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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.

  • R says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:48

    The main replaceable benefit for me is the travel insurance for me, supp card holder, kids. Where do people look for an equally easy to deal with alternative? Most sites sell based purely on price, not quality of service (never had any arguments on an Amex travel insurance claim) or features (checkbox that coverage exists, not setting the amount of the coverage).

    • Rob says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:11

      MSE ‘best buys’ are based on willingness to pay. Used to be LV on top but not checked for a while.

    • WillPS says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:42

      Halifax Ultimate Reward (£17/month + £5 easy reward for ‘spending £500’)
      Nationwide FlexPlus (£13/month)
      Virgin Money Club M (£12.50/month)

      Pick the one of these that offers better insurance coverage in general for you.

    • SteveJ says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:55

      If eligible HSBC Premier back account, fee free.

    • GJS says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:09

      I’m in the same situation. Need to do my research. The claims I’ve made with Amex have been very simple, which is handy with kids.

    • Mikeact says:
      11 Oct11 October 14:04

      Travel Insurance? You must be joking…wait till you get a little older.

      • A says:
        11 Oct11 October 21:18

        One things Amex Travel insurance has is trip postponement, means you can move your trip if someone was unwell….so you can push back flights and hotel….very useful indeed..

  • JC says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:54

    Will be cancelling my Platinum next year. The offers recently have been garbage and quite frankly it’s impossible to derive that much value from the card – even if you’re a regular traveler such as myself who uses most of the benefits

  • points_worrier says:
    11 Oct11 October 08:57

    They would do better to improve their customer service instead. I was awarded my £50 Harvey Nichols credit only after going to the FOS. I think the customer service just couldn’t understand why I was asking for a £50 credit and should talk to Harvey Nichols, and the formal complaint that followed just said they agreed with the representative. An expensive error costing them £750 FOS fees, the £50 credit due, and a further £50 compensation.

    • JC says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:05

      Harvey Nichols credit is worthless when everything is 30% cheaper elsewhere

      • Rob says:
        11 Oct11 October 09:10

        Not sure you did Maths A level 🙂 Even if this was correct, you’d be getting £70 of free stuff ….

        • JC says:
          11 Oct11 October 09:15

          Apologies for the slight hyperbole – but it’s slightly frustrating that this is touted as a £100 benefit when Harvey Nichols is overpriced and they charge a ridiculous deliver fee.

          Love the site Rob. May be worth refreshing the article you’ve run in the past on how much benefit one can derive from this card in a given year. I do think people will struggle to justify the cost now

          • Rob says:
            11 Oct11 October 09:17

            Isn’t delivery waived if you’re in the loyalty scheme and you select that as a choice benefit?

          • JC says:
            11 Oct11 October 09:22

            SELECT YOUR BENEFIT(S) BELOW THAT WILL BE FIXED FOR THE YEAR:
            – Free Drink Instore
            – 10% off selected Bars & Restaurants
            – 10% off HN Food, Wine & Hampers
            – Kids Eat Free
            – 10% off Beauty & Grooming Services
            – 4x Double Points Boosters
            – 2 x Triple Points on Beauty

            Those are the only benefits I see

          • Rob says:
            11 Oct11 October 09:23

            Ok. We are on an elite tier so I don’t see which options are cut.

            Double / triple points not to be sniffed at though, plus a hefty instore or online Avios bonus.

      • Fraser says:
        11 Oct11 October 09:11

        That would make the £50 credit worth £35, not worthless

      • points_worrier says:
        11 Oct11 October 12:08

        You can buy a £50 gift card with your credit, and then top the card up with the remaining £50 later in the year. Use the £100 in the sales or just put it on eBay.

    • Danny says:
      11 Oct11 October 14:21

      They refuse to give point boosters when they have site-wide promotions. Twice I’ve had to hassle them. HN is beyond stingy. Why bother with a loyalty scheme if it just breeds illwill.

  • brian says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:10

    A little frustrating that this gets introduced in February rather than March but I still see value for money at the new increased price.

    That calculation will be vastly different should they decide to remove some of the reason benefits such as the Dining & the Harvey Nichols Credit though.

  • Paul says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:13

    madness for most people to be holding the plat now imo. Unless you’re a heavy traveller, the fee is ludicrous (assuming no pro-rata refund) for what you get.

    • JC says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:17

      Even as a heavy traveler – you can now get lounge access very easily elsewhere for far less and you’d struggle to make the FHR credit & benefits add up to the increase in fee

    • Gavin says:
      11 Oct11 October 09:32

      As long as the retention bonuses continue (35k to 50k per year), I can justify it.

    • Paul says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:55

      most of these cash back offers are the same on other Amex cards too with significantly lower fees? That’s been my experience having held a number of their cards.

    • Harry T says:
      11 Oct11 October 18:22

      If you’re an actual frequent traveller, you’ll have airline status that gets you into lounges. I’m British Airways Gold and Marriott Titanium, so the priority pass and mediocre hotel statuses included with Amex Plat are useless to me most of the time.

  • George K says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:31

    I may be in the minority, but overnight, my Platinum companion Credit Card was cancelled with no notice. I just logged into the app to see it stricken out.

    For those who don’t remember, this was supposed to be a companion credit card for the main Platinum charge card cardholder, which obviously benefited from longer payment due times and acted as a standalone card (with its own offers).

    I’m travelling at the moment, but will give Amex a call to see what’s up. It was there yesterday and I received no notice of cancellation..

    • johnny_c-l says:
      11 Oct11 October 11:41

      Mine is still alive.

      This used to be a great card when Amex would mess up and load the Platinum Charge Card offers like £X off £Y Amex Travel spend on there by mistake.

    • A says:
      11 Oct11 October 12:09

      My platinum credit companion was auto cancelled a while back as hadn’t used it for a specified period of time. Couldn’t be re-instated. Very annoying but buried in the T&C somewhere.

      • George K says:
        11 Oct11 October 17:29

        Bingo – that’s what it was. I had to call to find out. No communication, no nothing. Apparently a note is added in the PDF statements, but obviously never checked them as I had a zero balance.

        Live and learn the hard way!

        • A says:
          11 Oct11 October 20:00

          Yep, same – no communication or warning, and I never had a note added into the pdf statements either. I was rather annoyed with that one.

  • Mark says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:32

    Someone else wrote this earlier but I will say it again, I would happily keep this card for fewer but better benefits. For example instead of having a middle tier hotel status in multiple chains why not just offer top tier with 1-2 hotels so that you are guaranteed free breakfast as a minimum. This would make me think twice about cancelling the card and would also drive my stays towards that brand.

    • GJS says:
      11 Oct11 October 10:07

      +1 for less but better. I’d take a higher MR earning rate (or spend bonuses, like Gold) over the Harvey Nichols nonsense.

    • Harry T says:
      11 Oct11 October 18:24

      You don’t need top tier hotel status to get free breakfast in some programmes. They could offer Hilton Diamond as that’s worthless anyway, due to every American and their dog being diamond.

  • Cranzle says:
    11 Oct11 October 09:39

    Have Centurion fees also increased?

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