I have read may reviews and have heard varied opinion about American express Card. Some good and some bad but I am an avid fan of Amex.
I am an American express credit and charge card holder for about 2 years and have been extremely pleased with the service and they have given me enough reasons to be pleased.
The start of the relation was a bit shaky since their DSA had promised me waiver on the yearly charges but when statement arrived, I was shocked to see the yearly charges. However after just one phone call to their customer support team, the charges weren’t waived off completely but they decided to waive 50% of them. Nevertheless I decided to go on with it.
Acceptance of American express card is limited and I am sure they are working towards it because since past two years I have noticed considerable increase in size of merchants accepting the card and am certain it would grow. I have never ever had a problem with billing. Due to my very busy travel schedules I have missed out on dues dates many a times and have been charged late payment fees and interest charges but everytime that happens, I have called them and requested them to waive it off and without much ado they have waived it off completely. Now that’s what I call service and true “Customer Care”.
After about a year of using I was offered a charge card and I accepted the same. Though bit expensive, but someone like me who is traveling most of the times, it can come in handy. After I received the charge card, a executive from Royal Sundaram called me and informed that they had a tie-up with American express and to all Amex card holders they have a special offer where for accident policy the premium would be half if I opted to pay the premium through card and I readily accepted the offer. After a year when the policy came up for renewal, I called up Royal Sundaram and requested them to cancel the policy and NOT to charge the card to which they agreed and sent me a letter to that effect as well.
I was shocked to know that despite my cancellation request, my card was charged with the premium amount to which I lodged a protest with AMEX as well as Royal Sundaram. Here I must mention that Amex customer support handled this extremely professionally. They requested me to get in touch Royal sundaram and take this matter again with them and if I didn’t get any appropriate reply, Amex would take it up then. I did follow-up with mails and calls but to Royal Sundaram but with no response and after having lost my patience I approached AMEX again. Without me having to suggest anything, Amex executive arrange for a Conference call with royal sundaram and helped me sort out the issue.
I was amazed and touched by this gesture as I had expected Amex (rightfully) to draw their hands off the issue. There have been many such small instances where I have been taken proper care of and Amex have gone out of their way to assist. Professionalism like this has made an Amex customer forever. Not to mention the facilities like checking your statements online, checking and redeeming points online. I think one thing that’s missing is online payment facility and they should do some thing about it. They do have an ECS facility but it has got its own pros and cons.
We can go on and on with the list of facilities that they have and they don’t, but as I see it, every other card has something which other doesn’t and something that Amex has some cards don’t so its more of a irrelevant comparison to get in to.
Overall, I would strongly recommend Amex Charge/Credit card to all those who wish to have one. And as long as you use and abide the Amex card (for that matter any card) by the rules, I don’t see a reason why one should be rubbed the wrong way.