After a couple of debit / credit card issues on holiday (debit card swallowed by machine and a couple of fraudulent transactions on my cc resulting in it having to be stopped) means that I need a backup credit card. There are some good deals on an Amex Platinum card, but I thought that coverage isn’t as good as Visa/Mastercard. Any users / recent experience?
TIA

Only with work and they are a bit shit in the uk to be honest

Another with work.

Alright if you stick to mainstream places, helpfully most restaurants won’t take it outside of chains.

Non chain hotels tend to charge £2.50 or 2.5% as the fees they’re charged are higher.

Literally useless in non-cities in Germany, and on the continent generally.

Never used them as I see them as not proper credit cards as no one accepts them.

Frequently in a shop or restaurant and hear “sorry we don’t accept Amex”.

Online may be better.

If you want to use one for the deal / balance transfer then should be okay. Just using them to spend in shops perhaps less so. I should think even worse abroad.

Holiday – maybe get a pre-pay card, but then you could still have it swallowed by machines. Pre-load with enough to pay for stuff and take enough cash you think you’ll need but pay for most stuff on the card, plus a debit and credit card just in case.

Watch out though. Pre-pay cards have hidden catches. Often fees for use in cash machine, fees for transferring out any remaining balance at the end, and some (as I found) have fees for non use!

It’s not a credit card – only get one if you can pay it off in full every month.

Thanks guys – confirmed my suspicions.

I had one for years. They upgraded me from the green card to the gold card, and then the platinum card. However, I rarely used it after no longer travelling with my work, and after a few years I got around to cancelling it, and it’s one of those rare jobs which I still feel good about. Each year, around the time when the card’s subscription used to be due, I feel smugly satisfied that I’m £300 or £400 better off than I might have been, and I think of how many bikes or bike bits of savings I’ve made since cancelling. Of course, my satisfaction is tinged with regret that I didn’t do it sooner!

It’s not a credit card – only get one if you can pay it off in full every month.

The Amex Platinum card is a credit card
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/platinum-cashback-credit-card/

Have a Virgin amex one for the airmails. Lots of mainstream places take it and if they don’t they give you a visa one which is linked to your airmails account.
Pay it off every month . One month we were a day late and we got whacked with £40 interest. Phoned them up and they waived the payment.

I used to have one for work (when I was with IBM) and almost nowhere accepted it. The merchant fees are so high it puts off most outlets.

We had them for work use but the were becoming less and less accepted so we cancelled them.

Good rewards set up though. We had some good weekends away on them.

Only with work and they are a bit shit in the uk to be honest

FTFY – only with work and I spend my time with exceptions in my expenses to try and get my money back even though I didn’t use my amex because wherever it was didn’t accept. Hateful things, I wonder how they even exist.

Got a platinum cashback one, it’s definitely a credit card not a charge card. Works in more places than not in the UK. I have a couple of other non-Amex cards as backup, I wouldn’t use Amex as a backup. They charge merchants a lot to process payments but I guess the cashback has to come from somewhere. Very good website, App and contactless stuff. The conciege thing is pretty good too.

My one is linked to my paypal account , is taken in garages,supermarkets and half our suppliers.

I got one this year for the nectar points, fwiww. I’ve been surprised that some big places refuse it, some small places don’t. Bit random. I’m cancelling it soon anyway before I get charged an annual fee.

The Amex Platinum card is a credit card
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/platinum-cashback-credit-card/

Ooh beg your pardon, so it is! Any indication on the APR for larger credit limits?

I’ve had an Amex platinum cash back card for years. It has made me quite a bit of money in that time. In the UK I rarely have a problem with shops not accepting it. Abroad, it depends where you go. The best cards for travelling are the Halifax Clarity or Nationwide Select. Neither charge a fee for non-Stering transactions.

Amex BA Airmiles card is my main one. Accepted almost everywhere including at the supermarket. Some websites charge extra for it but not many. Mine is also setup as my ApplePay card. I also have a Mastercard, VISA and Visa debit

Used them in the past for miles. The reason nobody wants to take them is the merchant fee is 1-2% higher than Visa/MC. But the rewards are normally very good. In most places used in chain hotels, supermarkets, petrol stations & online etc. Never use one where you know the retailer!

I don’t find it too much hassle. Taken in most chains and online, also you can look at this map to see which local independent stores take it: AMEX small shop.

As zippykona says, if it is your only card, then consider one of the schemes which includes a Visa or Mastercard as well as the Amex.

also you can look at this map to see which local independent stores take it:

Just remembering the point above that the fee’s are higher for the retailer so it actually reduces the margain of the small operator paying with Amex. (hence the surcharges that sometimes apply) the campaign to shop local and save the high street is very cynical 😉

the campaign to shop local and save the high street is very cynical

Absolutely, I completely agree that the Amex campaign is hypocritical. But at the end of the day the shops on that map choose to include Amex as an option and the OP asked about Amex coverage. As you know there are plenty places that don’t and I am more than happy with using an alternative.

Used them for years, work and personal, only b+q seem to be the only real biggy you can’t use them.

Their rates are far lower these days, so most accept it. Keep a backup visa and all is good, never been stuck for payment. Amex vs visa spend is at least 1000:1 for me, that includes debit cards that I no longer use much as there is little point

whilst coverage obviously isn’t as good as visa and mastercard in the UK (in the US and Canada its accepted pretty much anywhere), I probably manage to do approx 90% of my spending on amex. All supermarkets, petrol stations, travel related places (rental cars, airlines, travel agents), nearly all restaurants and hotels, and a lot of independent places do take them, and tbh if you start to use the card a lot you get a ‘sixth sense’ as to whether somewhere will take it or not (amex’s customer base are generally higher-earning and spending, so if you’re somewhere a bit posh, it’ll probably take the card).

Is it a bit of a pain compared to visa or mastercard? yes, however the cashback and the customer service if anything goes wrong is crazy good. For example they can get you an ECR (emergency card replacement) to you within 24 hours, anywhere in the world

as an emergency card, you can also get cash out on it (to get you out of a hole) although I believe there are some fees associated with that (not tried it myself)

It’s probably not the best idea as a back up card, we have a Halifax Clarity card for spending abroad as it is fee free.

However we use Amex for most UK spending. The fee is £25 a year and in return we get about £600 a year back in cashback. As others have said you get even more back if you take an airmiles card instead.

Supermarkets, Wiggle, petrol stations, most restaurants, airlines etc etc all take Amex. Some small businesses don’t take it for sure, but the majority do for us. I guess it depends where you spend you’d money. Well worth it for us.

The “no credit limit” thing is fun – I used to have one for business, and one bike supplier once accidentally took £13,000 off it. Didn’t notice until the direct debit was pulled out of my account. That was fun reversing.

I accept them, basically because some people use them – but they take longer to send me the money and change larger fees.

We have a Platinum Charge Card. I got it when I was travelling for work as there is essentially no credit limit – I was expensing hotels and flights on it and paying off each month.

Fee is expensive, £300 a year – probably about break even on the benefits it provides us so we’ve kept it so far. The insurance and travel network is invaluable.

We were stuck in New Zealand by an Icelandic volcano, and could only get to Hong Kong. Amex insurance only had to pay out for a flight delay, but actually ended up finding us a non-extortionate hotel in Central, and paying for most of it (more than they were obliged to).

Some places don’t take it, or charge a lot more to use it but we try to put most of our big spending on it.

I have a personal Amex blue. I’ve had it for 15 or so years as the insurance is so damn good for international and online purchases. I have it connected to my PayPal account so I’m protected but also use it in most of the stores I use.

Some small independents done take Amex, hey ho, pay with debit card.

We use a platinum Amex for all our supermarket, petrol, PayPal, Amazon and pretty much everything else spends, get £150 ish a year in cash back for doing so, but I do pay the balance in full every month.

Frequent traveller here.

The standard card I use for travelling abroad is the Halifax Clarity – no loading fees. Backup card is a Santander Zero (which I don’t think is still available).

However, I do have an AMEX card tucked away, mainly because it once paid a restaurant bill for around 20 of us in France – nobody’s Visa or Mastercard would work. I can only conclude that the payment system is different, so worth having (for me) as a backup of a backup..

There are both ‘Charge Cards’ and ‘Credit Cards’ from Amex. The Platinum Charge Card costs something like £450 a year? If you travel a lot then it’s possibly worth the money because you get access to all airline lounges and you get a concierge like service as well.

I’ve had an Amex card for maybe 15 years. I put something like 80% of the household spend and all my work expenses on it. I build up the points and then do something fun with them like send the wife on a luxury spa day with a friend. You find that smaller independent retaileres don’t tend to take it but 95% of the main multiple retailers do.

Amex have been great for us we moved here 10 years ago and Amex at the time was the only provider who issued us a card with the least fuss when we moved as we had our Amex back in the US/Canada.

Their customer service has always been great.

The amount of retailers/small ships accepting Amex has increased and I link paypal to Amex as well when the retailer does not accept Amex but only Master/Visa and Paypal

As above their most used cards are charge cards and you really need to pay it off by the due date else the penalty is quite dear.

I have a joint Amex / VISA card through Barclaycard, some places take them – Tesco and the like – and often other places don’t (small retailers and restaurants. Tend to use it in the big places where I can as the cash back is better, and either elect (or can’t use) not to use it in smaller outlets.

Amex BA Airmiles card is my main one. Accepted almost everywhere including at the supermarket. Some websites charge extra for it but not many. Mine is also setup as my ApplePay card. I also have a Mastercard, VISA and Visa debit

+1, to all of that.

Coverage definitely better than it used to be, and whilst not universal I’ve been surprised that 90% of the time I’ve gone to use it they accept it.

I have one as my company card.

It’s fine (unsurprisingly) in the US. Everywhere else it’s somewhere between mildly annoying and a complete nightmare. Budapest in particular was a pain.

I swear we’re given them so that we have to put stuff on our personal cards and claim it back.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF-U9nL9Ios[/video]

Never felt the need – have about 40k of credit available between Barclaycard and a couple of others. None have fees & are paid off when used.

Went to pay for something today and was told “but not American Express”. Wouldn’t normally have noticed, but I did chuckle – I was in Palm Beach….

I have one which I use exclusively in large petrol stations. Feeling ripped off enough already by fuel prices that chase oil prices upwards but never back down, knowing they have to pay Amex a fortune makes me feel ever so slightly better.