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Hi,
I just noticed something new on my BAPP worth mentioning here. I can choose to pay some transactions (incl BA flights, TFL, John Lewis etc) in 3, 6 or 12 installments.Here is a snapshot from Amex:
Plan It™ Instalment Plans
Illustrative Examples
With Plan It, you can spread the cost of your eligible purchases into monthly payments with fixed fees.
This means a fixed instalment plan fee will be charged monthly instead of interest on the eligible purchases.
Illustrative Examples
The following examples show the costs of repaying using an instalment plan compared to repaying it over the same period without an instalment plan.
For these examples, we have used an interest rate of 30% per annum. This may not be your personal rate and your actual rate may be more or less. The examples assume the monthly repayment is being made on the payment due date and there are no other transactions on the account. The total Plan It fee is based on the plan being created the day before the statement is generated and applied for each month of the duration plan. This is for illustrative purposes only. Your actual fees may be more or less than the amount shown depending on your plan.https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/benefits/plan-it/key-information/
Not a great deal as it’s not fee free but it might be an option if someone is not able to pay the statement in full.
I avoid these kind of offers like the plague. If you can’t pay off your statement in full then using a credit card is a very bad idea. If you want to pay for something in installments there are cheaper ways than this – e.g. interest-free credit, or a low-cost loan (not that interest rates are great just now).
Someone else will need to do the maths but I don’t think this is a very responsible move by Amex!
Cheaper than interest, I suppose, but as you say @NorthernLass if you’re paying interest then you really shouldn’t be using one of these credit cards anyway.
It’s unclear to me how the fee is calculated – did I miss the obvious point somewhere? It _seems_ to be about 1.1% of the borrowed amount per month, but I don’t see that stated anywhere.
Plan It™ is simply Amex’s BNPL offering to compete with all the other BNPL products on the market. Quite a change from Amex’s traditional UK market positioning.
I’d avoid BNPL at all costs, it’s a slippery slope and most people won’t be able to remember what they brought 3 months ago. Credit cards are enough to manage. Even if they offered free MRs I’d avoid
I am a bit baffled by this. In the past year or so Amex has been doubling down on “affordability” and declining a lot more card applications in the name of responsible lending but is now offering the modern-day equivalent of HP!
I am a bit baffled by this. In the past year or so Amex has been doubling down on “affordability” and declining a lot more card applications in the name of responsible lending but is now offering the modern-day equivalent of HP!
Yeah! And increasing the minimum income too. I saw it yesterday and first thing I thought it looked Wonga/Klarna-esque and not a good look for Amex.
You can’t over pay on a plan it – so if you find yourself with some extra cash one month you can’t use that to reduce the balance you have to end the plan.
If your account is in credit that credit can’t reduce the monthly payment – you still have to pay the set amount.
The monthly fee is almost the same as the interest.
What next from Amex – payday loans 🤷♀️
@JDB will probably opine that Amex needs this to pay for our ridiculously generous SUBs and retention bonuses 😂
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