Amex ICC (USD) payment methods

[hackinjack]

Hi, I used to do mine via Caxton Fastpay some years back, but then First Direct started offering fee free international money transfers. Now, FD have started charging fees for ex-ECC transfers.

Tried Revolut but that gets returned after 24 hours minus the small transaction fee. Caxton appears to offer transfers with a floor limit of £100.

Interested to know how ICC users pay off their bills

Thanks in advance.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

Like you, I used Revolut in the past but I experienced the same problems. I am now using Wise very successfully – the rates are better than Revolut too 🙂

[Rob]

I pay mine off my HSBC current account online. I know this gets me a terrible FX rate but I spend so little on the card that I am happy to swallow £10 per year of FX losses for the convenience.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

Fair point Rob – I do think sometimes when playing this game we can lose sight of ‘balance’. When trying to get a pay-off we also need to factor in the value of our time. Convenience should sometimes out-rank best rates – I often think this when I see people scrabbling round for a few Nectar points too!

[memesweeper]

I’ve used Revolut a couple of times OK but my last but one payment bounced, and following a change of routing code advised by ICC, it’s now missing!

I’ll check out Wise, thanks for the heads up.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

I should mention re payment via Wise that you can only enter a 9 digit reference to accompany your payment and not the full 16 digits from your card number. However, as the first digits of Amex IDCs all seem to be the same (374500) I just input the last 9 card numbers and it has always applied fine!

• This reply was modified 54 years, 8 months ago by .

[memesweeper]

Having just tracked down a ‘lost’ payment to Amex, two things to note:

You many need a different ACH Routing Code to the one that Amex specify on the web: 026001591 works for me

Revolut silent truncate reference numbers, retaining the first characters only — as with Wise, quote the last nine digits to maximise the chances that your payment is applied correctly.

[QFFlyer]

I used to use Citibank to pay mine, infuriatingly they’d sometimes credit $25 less than the payment I sent, seemingly as some sort of fee charged by an intermediate bank, but I never got to the bottom of why that occurred, especially as Citibank don’t charge any fees for in or outbound international payments. It didn’t happen every time either, so not even sure what the trigger was.

Revolut never used to work, it’d send and appear to work, but then bounce back and re-credit the entire amount to my Rev account a couple of days later (never cost me a cent though for trying).

[memesweeper]

Revolut never used to work

Try the other ACH … that’s what fixed it for me.

[hackinjack]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

Like you, I used Revolut in the past but I experienced the same problems. I am now using Wise very successfully – the rates are better than Revolut too 🙂

Thanks for that, I’ll check them out.

[MD]

Baffled at all these Revolut failures, works perfectly for me.

[Dwadda]

I see that Revolut does not work reliably, which is a pity.. Then I remembered I asked HSBC for multiple currencies in my UK account, and put some USD in it a few years ago. Each currency has a sort code and account number. There is no cost to have these CURRENCY ACCOUNTS (as they call it), however, if you do not use them after a couple years they lapse. It is worth asking your retail bank relationship manager.

[Bill_B]

Can you pay off the card using a UK debit card? And if you do that, does your bank do the conversion to dollars/euros themselves? I was wondering if my Nationwide FlexPlus card would work, as it advertises no transaction fees for foreign spend.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 8 months ago by .

[memesweeper]

Bill_B wrote:

Can you pay off the card using a UK debit card? And if you do that, does your bank do the conversion to dollars/euros themselves? I was wondering if my Nationwide FlexPlus card would work, as it advertises no transaction fees for foreign spend.

Sadly no debit card option in any currency

[Skywalker]

memesweeper wrote:

Having just tracked down a ‘lost’ payment to Amex, two things to note:

You many need a different ACH Routing Code to the one that Amex specify on the web: 026001591 works for me

Revolut silent truncate reference numbers, retaining the first characters only — as with Wise, quote the last nine digits to maximise the chances that your payment is applied correctly.

Just resurrecting this thread in view of my last question on this topic – does the ACH number still work for cards with 374500 and is the Amex account number still the same?

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

I last paid my ICC bill back in June, via Wise, & these details worked fine:
AE Services Limited
ACH routing 026001591
Account no. 3582022339001
Quoting last 9 card digits in reference field

[Skywalker]

Fantastic, thank you for helping 😀

I’ve sent it now, so fingers crossed it all gets there.

I will update the thread with stories of success or sad tales in a few days!

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

You’re welcome @Skywalker … If all else fails use the force!

[points_worrier]

With the HSBC global account, I would now recommend this – I have previously used an HSBC UK-based USD account and it works fine. The Global account now allows changing GBP to USD for a low ~0.25% fee.

[Skywalker]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

You’re welcome @Skywalker … If all else fails use the force!

I don’t even think the force can override Amex ICC’s vintage payment system! 😀

[Skywalker]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

I last paid my ICC bill back in June, via Wise, & these details worked fine:
AE Services Limited
ACH routing 026001591
Account no. 3582022339001
Quoting last 9 card digits in reference field

A little worried that the payment hadn’t credited as of yet, I contacted Amex and found a very helpful advisor, who confirmed the above ACH routing code and account number above as correct for use with Revolut and Wise.

Thanks to @GuernseyGlobetrotter and @memesweeper for help again.

[Skywalker]

Update:

Amex had to put a trace on the payment as it was not showing, but they located it very quickly and the payment made from my Revolut account to the ICC account credited in time.

The only thing I am unsure of, is whether or not Amex will need to trace the payment every single time…?

[QFFlyer]

Update from me here, I’ve been using Transferwise to pay mine since I re-applied for an ICC earlier this year, has worked flawlessly every month and taken 2-3 days max to credit, best option I’ve found so far, even better than using my USD denominated HSBC/Citi accounts. Largely moot now as I’m only now holding it for insurance purposes since triggering the SUB and moving a large stack of UK held MR points to it (for 1:1 to SQ).

Strange that I can use Transferwise to pay my actual US Amex via Direct Debit, but not this one. But never mind, it is what it is.

Shame to see they’re not being offered directly by Amex any more, UK wise it seems HSBC aren’t offering them either, only Barclays International still offering them, as far as I could find.

[Luca M]

QFFlyer wrote:

Update from me here, I’ve been using Transferwise to pay mine since I re-applied for an ICC earlier this year, has worked flawlessly every month and taken 2-3 days max to credit, best option I’ve found so far, even better than using my USD denominated HSBC/Citi accounts. Largely moot now as I’m only now holding it for insurance purposes since triggering the SUB and moving a large stack of UK held MR points to it (for 1:1 to SQ).

Strange that I can use Transferwise to pay my actual US Amex via Direct Debit, but not this one. But never mind, it is what it is.

Shame to see they’re not being offered directly by Amex any more, UK wise it seems HSBC aren’t offering them either, only Barclays International still offering them, as far as I could find.

HSBC Global Money should be a very good option for this. They do not actually charge a separate fee, their margin is built into the exchange rate, which has been best in class for Euro transfers so far, and almost best in class for USD transfers.

With regards to options to get one, these are still offered via Private Banks, including the Private Bank divisions of high street banks, but no longer to regular retail customers

[Breeno]

@GuernseyGlobetrotter
Thanks for the helpful advice.
When I attempt to transfer it requires me to add the recipient’s email address.
How did you get around that that?

Also, are you choosing ACH, Wire or SWIFT?

Thank you
BREEN

You wrote “I last paid my ICC bill back in June, via Wise, & these details worked fine:
AE Services Limited
ACH routing 026001591
Account no. 3582022339001
Quoting last 9 card digits in reference field”

QFFlyer wrote:

Update from me here, I’ve been using Transferwise to pay mine since I re-applied for an ICC earlier this year, has worked flawlessly every month and taken 2-3 days max to credit, best option I’ve found so far, even better than using my USD denominated HSBC/Citi accounts. Largely moot now as I’m only now holding it for insurance purposes since triggering the SUB and moving a large stack of UK held MR points to it (for 1:1 to SQ).

Strange that I can use Transferwise to pay my actual US Amex via Direct Debit, but not this one. But never mind, it is what it is.

Shame to see they’re not being offered directly by Amex any more, UK wise it seems HSBC aren’t offering them either, only Barclays International still offering them, as far as I could find.