Reply To: Amex has cancelled all my cards!

[Ladyshopper]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Froggee, they don’t seem keen if your only income is a pension (even a gold-plated one!), but if you say you’re employed a few hours a week which brings in a few extra quid, that’s fine, apparently. Perhaps you could be Mrs Froggee’s PA?

I’m currently on an Amex break, I took stock of my cards recently and I literally only have the HH Barclaycard and another minor one with a 0% balance transfer. All my others are SUPPs.

@Ladyshopper, I am in a similar position to you as I was part-time for half my service, but haven’t had this problem. Are you in a position to do even a few hours per week which would push your income to, say the Gold card threshold? After my 2 year break I’d really like another BAPP, so need to find a part time job which will make up the minimum income requirement without affecting out travel plans, which is going to be fun!!

Also part-time for the majority of my 16.5 years service (although varying in hours from 30-34 at different points), so have that double whammy! I think my pension is around £11k, so it would be more than a few hours a week needed unfortunately. And health wise I’m not really up to working either. I do get a small amount of ESA on top of that, which fortunately protects my NI contributions, but was a right old battle getting that.

I know rules change, Amex have to be careful etc, but it’s just a little frustrating when household income wise, nothing has changed for us at all (in fact it’s probably gone up a bit). Our bank account is a joint one, the only thing that is separate is things like ISAs to maximise use of them (only have one each, so nothing that I can claim adds enough to my income to make it up to the minimum) and premium bonds.

If I can ever get on top of my health issues enough to work a few hours, then I’d be very happy to to be honest. Feel like quite a useless part of society the majority of the time.