American Express to Cut Back Rewards Program

17 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

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

kimba00
17 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
17 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
Related Discussions
First Worm Harvest - Very rewarding experience, Thanks everyone!
Q
Comments (6)
Hey Tina, The nick name is from an old folk song: "There's a frog on the log in the hole at the bottom of the sea" I'm not an experienced worm wrangler like the other counterparts here so take my advice as such. The bedding breaks down to a mixture of rich humus and worm castings. The organisms take a while to break it down even further to that ideal carbon to nitrogen ratio. As long as the foodstock is buried an inch to two inches deep in that bedding you'll be okay. Some systems or methods do a layering where new bedding is put on top of the foodstock and the vermicompost is harvested on the bottom. You might want to search the forum for top feeding versus pocket feeding. Yeah the BSF adults I had are about the size of a large horsefly 1 to 2 inches. I don't know if they get larger. The BSF can't fly that well so they would land on my arm or my shirt. I guess when they saw the bright light they would fly and then they saw me as a landing pad. For a while there it was one or two every evening I opened it. There haven't been any the past couple of weeks. As far as splitting the worm bin. It really is a preference. It also depends on what you want to do, i.e, do you vermicompost for the byproduct or do you do it to recycle food waste, or a little of both? From what I've read here from other experienced people and from other resources, the worms will adjust their population (biomass) to match their living space. If the space is large they will increase the population and vice versa. I split them to get the population to a point where they better match my waste average and to get a good soil amendment. Others may split the bin to share some of their worms with neighbors or for a workshop they plan on doing. Even though I'm splitting the bin, I probably will still have to put some of the foodstock in the lasagna bed when it gets cold and the worm activity slows down. It's still in the 80's here so I have a while. Good luck with your harvest. Let us all know how it goes. Charles
...See More
American Express Auto Insurance???
Q
Comments (8)
I just went to their site to get more info and got the following message: Effective August 1, 2005, the American Express Property Casualty companies are Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance. Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance is underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company or IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company, De Pere, WI. Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Ameriprise Financial, Inc., expected to become independent of American Express on or after September 30, 2005. Learn more about this change, other changes to names of certain affiliated companies, and the anticipated separation from American Express Company by clicking on the Corporate Entities and Important Disclosures link at the bottom of this page. All other information on this site remains the same and does not change. I understand that some American Express companies and businesses have changed their names and that, for my convenience, I will see this message only once. Sounds like AmEx insurance isn't going to be AmEx for much longer . . . maybe not a good time to switch. tom418 - As far as AmEx being strict, thats kind of what I'm getting at. If they are so strict when it comes time to file a claim that they are hard to work with, it probably is not worth the switch. I don't have any first hand experience, but I've heard many times that is how AAA is, atleast here in California, even when working with their own policyholders. And you are right earthworm, a lot of times their is a catch to saving money and you do get what you pay for. I like your idea of a fill-in-the-blank form, but I'm sure they'd just laugh and hand it back.
...See More
Problem with cash reward card
Q
Comments (7)
REcently, i was traveling in Canada and I was told of a trick to get a native English-speaker using Dell's tech support (as w/ so many others, they've sent their tech support to India; and apparently not to the part of India where everyone speaks English. Guess it's gotten too expensive). Anyhoo, this fellow said that after a couple hours of trying to deal w/ people he couldn't understand, he requested to be transferred to the French support, which is in Quebec (in the officially *bilingual* country of Canada). Problem solved. Now, maybe this would also work for Amex and other companies sending their customer "service" jobs abroad. I'm planning to try it the next time I have to deal w/ one of these companies, but i'd be really interested to see if anyone else has success. To get off on the right foot w/ the nice French speakers, try this: (spelled phonetically) "Bonjour. Ess kuh vooz et Quebecois? [if yes ("wee"), great. If no, still try:] "Parley-vooz Anglais?" [If yes, then continue w/ your questions.] And, when you're done, a hearty "Merci bow-coo" is in order. Hope this helps!
...See More
What things have you cut back on to save money?
Q
Comments (53)
Hi Kath, Congrats on getting your nursing degree! I'm sure you worked VERY hard for it! Use the DOLLAR STORES, esp. for laundry/cleaning items, Deoderant, toothpaste, misc. cutlery, glassware, plastic storage containers, etc. Get that crockpot out and use it! I work 2 jobs and I am so thankful for my crockpot! Plan ahead for meals, especially with you working. Get a FOODSAVER and make ahead meals and freeze them. Get the mixed salads at the lower cost grocery stores, roast some chicken...you've got dinner for that evening and a meal to take to work the next day! Take your own lunch and snacks to work. Refill water bottles. Buy a filter for the sink or a filtered water container. $10 at Walgreen. $5 to renew the filter every 3 months. Drink more water instead of fruity drinks or soda. You'll be surprised how you will get used to in and REALLY only WANT water. Buy secondhand clothing for yourself and your kids. CONSIGN any good clothes you need to get rid of, shoes, purses, belts. Our local Goodwill stocks underwear by HANES...'seconds' I guess. They sell for 80 cents apiece. Sell your nursing books you don't want to keep on the Internet (amazing.com half.com) Good Luck!
...See More
joyfulguy
17 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
17 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

Related Discussions

joyfulguy

diymostoftime

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US