5 Underrated Benefits of American Express Credit Cards

Ameican Express is known worldwide for its premium range of credit cards. While Visa and MasterCard continue to dominate the credit card market globally, American Express credit cards are a class of their own- there is a reason why AmEx is considered the card issuer of the rich and the affluent. There are quite a few differentiating factors that make American Express credit cards stand apart. In this article, we shall discuss the reasons why American Express, despite having a relatively lower acceptance than its competitors like Visa and MasterCard, is preferred by many HNIs. If you own an American Express credit card or are planning for applying for one, you should be aware of these underrated benefits that AmEx credit cards offer.

Reward Multiplier

As most credit cards by American Express are Reward Points based cards, American Express has an aggregator portal called Reward Multiplier where you can purchase shopping vouchers from partner brands, plans of subscription services, book flights/hotels, etc. The benefit of making purchases from the Reward Multiplier portal is that AmEx cardmembers get accelerated reward rates on shopping via Reward Multiplier.

Usually, American Express cardholders get 2x to 10x Membership Rewards Points (depending upon your card variant) on shopping via Reward Multiplier, however, AmEx keeps coming up with even more attractive offers on Reward Multiplier under which cardholders can soetimes get as much as 10x reward rate on shopping via Reward Multiplier.

Charge Cards

American Express is the only credit card issuer in Inda that issues charge cards. Charge Cards are those credit cards that do not come with a pre-determined credit limit. The credit limit of a charge card keeps changing depending upon the spending habit and the financial behavior of the cardholder. Currently, there are two American Express Charge Cards in the market- American Express Gold Card and American Express Platinum Card.

Global Longe Collection

This benefit is applicable only for AmEx Platnum cardholders. Platinum cardholders get unlimited access to American Express’s global lounge collection which includes airport lounges across the world that come under American Express partner longe access programs including Priority Pass, Centurion Lounge, The International American Express Lounge, Escape Lounges, Delta Sky Club, Plaza Premium and Air Space.

Partner Airlines Frequent Flyer Programs

Like many other card issuers, the Reward Points earned on Ameican Express credit cads (called Membership Rewards Points) can be transfered to the frequent flyer programs of partner airlines, such as Club Vistara, Asia Miles, British Airways Executive Club, Emarates Skywards, InterMiles, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, Qatar Privilege Club, KrisFlyer and Virgin Atlantic. The number of partner airlines that American Express has is probably the highest amongst all card issuers in the country. You can find more details on the transfer of Membership Rewards Points as AirMiles on this page on the official American Express website.

Top Notch Customer Spport

While most reputed card issuers and also paymnt networks like Visa and MastrCard do offer a good customer service, but nothing can beat the quick and responsive customer support provided by American Express to its cardhlders.

Bottom Line

Although American Express credit cards do not have as wide acceptability as Visa or MasterCard credit cards and in most cases also have a higher membership fee, many cardholders, especially HNIs many times prefer American Express credit cards. This is most probably because of the top-class customer support of American Express and in the case of the Platinum Card, also because of the Global Lounge Collection. However, if you are new to the wold of credit cards, it is a better idea to pay more attention to the features, benefits and reward rate of the cards rather than the card issuer.