American Express to Cut Back Rewards Program

20 years ago

It was a fun ride while it lasted........

No more saving money by buying necessities with an American Express Card.

From article:

>>Membership Rewards program is scrapping some double rewards points programs and raising annual fees for some cards, The Wall Street Journal reported.

>>Customers will no longer earn double rewards for purchases made at grocery stores, drug stores and gas stations, but the credit card giant plans to implement a new double-points program for purchases made online at select retailers, the newspaper said.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/01/news/companies/amex/index.htm

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Comments (4)

kimba00
20 years ago
We finally cancelled our American Express card after almost 20 years of membership. The reasons were: A) charges a $75 annual membership fee (automatically on the card whether you want to continue or not) just for the "privilege" of owning The Card, I think that is wrong. The cardholder should be able to receive an invoice and decide whether they want to continue BEFORE they are charged this fee. B) charges the merchant more to accept The Card (owning 3 of my own businesses, this annoyed the heck out of me since they charge their customers and charged me extra and their statements always created extra time and book work). Many businesses will not accept them because of this and C) they DO NOT protect their customers (as they proclaim to) in the event of merchant fraud. We had a situation and they sided with the merchant (who was a crook, and proven to be so!).

We have a Capitalone miles card now which we pay, religiously, online once a month that gives us air-miles or cash back depending and it's free!
quiltglo
20 years ago
We live a three hour plane trip from the next large city. We do a bunch of online shopping and we have found AMEX to be the best in problems with credit card transactions. For that reason alone, we'll keep our AMEX. Otherwise, we really have used much of the reward points. We've gotten a couple of airline tickets, but that's it.

Gloria
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joyfulguy
20 years ago
No rewards offered on my Visa.

No annual fee, either.

Just pay the full amount monthly.

Which is what a local guy who retired at age 34 recommends in his book, "Stop Working! Here's how ... ", (that I just got at the library today, after having it on "Hold" for a while: why buy it yourself when you can read it free?). He writes articles every now and then in Canada's best personal money management magazine, as well.

He invested $200./mo. from the time he was quite young.

Went to teach English in Korea (I spent 10 years there), married there, honeymooned in Bali).

Now lives beside one of the Great Lakes, north of Toronto.

I say that it's nice to be retired: every day is holiday!

ole joyful
diymostoftime
20 years ago
Retire at 34? As long as so you live in the woods, hunt/fish for yourself, and never buy another pair of underwear.

or Win the Lottery!

One thing to consider is healthcare. One may be healthy at 34 or 44 but what happens when one doesn't feel good and discovers they have a horrible disease? Die at 45 or work and have health insurance and then retire at a 'normal' age and then let the other workers pay for your healthcare.

American Express to Cut Back Rewards Program

Comments (4)

kimba00

quiltglo

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joyfulguy

diymostoftime

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