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Forums Payment cards American Express Platinum fee rising to £650

  • byt411 33 posts

    Just got the following email:

    Change to your cardmembership fee American Express strives to deliver incredible rewards, value and customer service across our products. In order to continue to provide the current benefits on your card, and as a consequence of rising costs of providing your account, we will be increasing the annual fee. Changes to your terms will be effective from 29 February 2024.

    This means that from your next fee renewal after 29 February 2024, your annual cardmembership fee will increase from £575 to £650. The new fee will take effect on the statement following your card anniversary and will be charged to your card account annually as normal. If your next fee renewal is before 29 February 2024 you will continue to be charged the current annual fee of £575 until the following year’s anniversary.

    Seems like a pretty steep increase – what are everyone’s thoughts?

    can2 815 posts

    Hurrah!

    What is next Amex? Drop HarveyNick credit, too?

    BA Flyer IHG Stayer 3,075 posts
    JDB 6,205 posts

    Hurrah!

    What is next Amex? Drop HarveyNick credit, too?

    They need to hurry up and confirm that dining credits and HN will continue into 2025. Having increased the fee “as a consequence of rising costs” they correspondingly need to up the credits to reflect inflation. The UK £150 dining credit launched in July 2022 would need to be £165 in RPI terms today (let alone for 2025) and given the higher inflation rate in the hospitality sector, really needs to be over £175 today.

    zapato1060 840 posts

    Probably be downgraded to £120 because of food costs rising.

    GJS 32 posts

    Data point: Just had email confirmation that the pay monthly price is increasing from £48 to £55, so it will be £10 per annum more expensive to pay monthly rather than £1 at present. Fortunately, my card year starts a week before the change so I’ll get another 51 weeks at the old price.

    ukpolak 122 posts

    I am *thinking* of signing up to one of these to avail of the Melia Gold status (thus 3 x 20% off coupons per year) but I can’t quite bring myself to spend £650 on a credit card, even though it’ll probably save £1k on a fortnight’s summer hol in the med.

    If I told anyone that I was spending £250 + £650 / year for 2 credit cards, they’d think I was mad.

    I have read a number of articles on the pros and cons but do you all get value from the Plat card? The other major benefit for me would be a c. £200/yr saving for not needing to take travel insurance any more. £100 Harvey N would be nice but I’d feel like I’m having to buy something for the sake of it.

    Ps I’ve just hit £10k on the BAPP after delaying the £10k threshold to a time when it suited, and also £10k on the Barclays Avios Plus (I took 7k Avios then downgraded) so until my BAPP year resets in Feb, I’m not really spending to get any SUB. I’m unlikely to be able to spend £15k by May to benefit from today’s BAPP tier point thing.

    Thanks!

    zapato1060 840 posts

    I am *thinking* of signing up to one of these to avail of the Melia Gold status (thus 3 x 20% off coupons per year) but I can’t quite bring myself to spend £650 on a credit card, even though it’ll probably save £1k on a fortnight’s summer hol in the med.

    If I told anyone that I was spending £250 + £650 / year for 2 credit cards, they’d think I was mad.

    I have read a number of articles on the pros and cons but do you all get value from the Plat card? The other major benefit for me would be a c. £200/yr saving for not needing to take travel insurance any more. £100 Harvey N would be nice but I’d feel like I’m having to buy something for the sake of it.

    Ps I’ve just hit £10k on the BAPP after delaying the £10k threshold to a time when it suited, and also £10k on the Barclays Avios Plus (I took 7k Avios then downgraded) so until my BAPP year resets in Feb, I’m not really spending to get any SUB. I’m unlikely to be able to spend £15k by May to benefit from today’s BAPP tier point thing.

    Thanks!

    You still have until 29 Feb 2024 to get a pro rata refund and/or ask for a retention bonus. circa 35k.

    byt411 33 posts

    I am *thinking* of signing up to one of these to avail of the Melia Gold status (thus 3 x 20% off coupons per year) but I can’t quite bring myself to spend £650 on a credit card, even though it’ll probably save £1k on a fortnight’s summer hol in the med.

    If I told anyone that I was spending £250 + £650 / year for 2 credit cards, they’d think I was mad.

    I have read a number of articles on the pros and cons but do you all get value from the Plat card? The other major benefit for me would be a c. £200/yr saving for not needing to take travel insurance any more. £100 Harvey N would be nice but I’d feel like I’m having to buy something for the sake of it.

    Ps I’ve just hit £10k on the BAPP after delaying the £10k threshold to a time when it suited, and also £10k on the Barclays Avios Plus (I took 7k Avios then downgraded) so until my BAPP year resets in Feb, I’m not really spending to get any SUB. I’m unlikely to be able to spend £15k by May to benefit from today’s BAPP tier point thing.

    Thanks!

    I’m trying to evaluate this now. My breakdown is as follows:
    £650 yearly fee
    -£300 Dining credits
    -£100 HN credit
    -£150 Travel Insurance
    = £100, and this is without counting the number of lounges I’ve been to this year (probably at least 15?) so I think it’s still decent value (for now). Also used one of the Melia vouchers, which saved me around £90.

    strickers 1,030 posts

    @byt411 I think valuing the dining and HN credits at full value is problematic. I value the dining credits at £100 each, there are generally better and cheaper options. The HN credits I value at £30 each, if I’m anywhere near one of the stores I’ll have some lunch if not I buy a bottle of whisky which I can almost always find cheaper elsewhere. As has been mentioned numerous times recently, the flagship Amex card is missing a wow factor benefit.

    LittleNick 265 posts

    the flagship Amex card is missing a wow factor benefit.

    No plans on ditching mine, but for me what might be more compelling to keep the card is a Centurion lounge in LHR T5 somewhere, even in 5C if needs be? Thoughts?

    CamFlyer 61 posts

    @byt411 I think valuing the dining and HN credits at full value is problematic. I value the dining credits at £100 each, there are generally better and cheaper options. The HN credits I value at £30 each, if I’m anywhere near one of the stores I’ll have some lunch if not I buy a bottle of whisky which I can almost always find cheaper elsewhere. As has been mentioned numerous times recently, the flagship Amex card is missing a wow factor benefit.

    2x points on airlines and no FX fee (or less preferably, FX fee but 2x points, as on Gold) would vastly change the value proposition.

    ukpolak 122 posts

    I signed up today after all. I’m in the market for a beach hol hotel in the Med and so want the 20% Melia discount. I have been browsing their website today and they happen to have a number of Black Friday hotel deals (without Gold benefit) so I’m likely going to reserve on a Fully Refundable / Black Friday rate and then have another go once I have the Plat Amex and Gold Melia bonus, albeit Black Friday will have passed by the time I get it all.

    I pay c. £200 for annual travel insurance and I don’t live too far from a Hotel du Vin to use the dining credit, plus I’m happy to spend £100 online at HN for the sake of it.

    The fancy hotel benefit seems a bit pointless and then reviews on here of the permitted airport lounge are a bit negative, but tbh i need somewhere to spend my next £10k as I’ve done the BAPP and Barclays SUBs so this is a decent enough alternative for 100k Avios.

    I am getting fed up of setting up new CCs across e-commerce platforms, including from my bank when I settle the bills monthly! To think I had a Tesco Plat Mastercard for 15+ years to bank hundreds of thousands of clubcard points, only to now open up 3 replacement cards in the past year to chase other things.

    Thanks for your tips all!

    TooPoorToBeHere 302 posts

    Yeah I think mine’s going in the new year unless the retention offer is worth most of the fee. Just the combination of little things – priority pass refusal/nickel-and-dime’ing, the travel insurance has too many exclusions, there’s too much sharp practice/incompetence with the offers, it’s outrageously expensive to use abroad, and I’d rather free up the credit limit to apply for more useful cards.

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