[NA] is it time to ditch Amex?

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Let'sgoflying!

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west Texas
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Dave Taylor
I spent $30K last year on my card and received a modicum of Hilton Honors points.
I have never been able to receive any benefit from these points.
Tried to buy an airline ticket last year with them and the Indian or Pakistani representative spent 30 minutes making it difficult and eventually impossible to use them.
Maybe that's not Amex's fault but I chatted in with them today and they say there is no other card available for me (I have probably one of the best credit ratings possible).
I did like that Amex ostensible offered other benefits (which I never used) when traveling such as auto insurance, assistance when traveling (details evade me at the moment) and if I disputed a charge, I always won.
However, it seems from talking to others that I am leaving a pile on the table.
What card has no hidden downsides and will give me equitable points/rewards/cashback?
(Entitlement? Only because it's an industry standard now.)
 
Which AMEX card do you have? If it’s specifically for the Hilton brand, instead of a more general card, then AMEX might not allow converting it to a non-branded card. (That’s not peculiar to AMEX)

Anyway, there’s no obstacle to applying for a second, third or even fourth AMEX card, of a different kind.

The AMEX Blue Cash Preferred card is really good for groceries and streaming, and pretty good for gas including avgas, and the rewards are cash instead of points.

There are lots of websites to help you choose a rewards card, for example nerdwallet.
 
Do some research with The Points Guy or at Flyertalk.com or similar to find the rewards that fit your spending habits and lifestyle.

For us it is all AAdvantage cards, as we fly aluminum tubes a lot, and we get a 20% discount on redemption via M'lady when we redeem AA miles. Black one to get club access, silver one for double gas and dining miles, basic no frills one for online / routine charges only so when we lose one of the others we don't need to update all those accounts.
 
30k would net you $600 cash back on a citi double cash card, but it offers no insurance.
 
I don't know what kind of insurance you mean, but if it is dispute protection, I have yet to be denied a dispute by any of several card issuers in the last ten years, none of whom were Amex. The system seems to be heavily favored to the consumer vice the merchants. I do not abuse it, but I do take advantage of it when warranted.

If you are talking rental car CDW etc. insurance, that used to be fairly standard, but now I only have it via my USAA Visa, and that is the only reason I keep that card (although I discovered it also has trip protection insurance this week, so I used it for a spur of the moment scenic Amtrak booking).
 
The nice thing about AmEx (depending on exactly which card), is the rental car insurance specifically covers loss of use.
 
My primary card is an Amex and I wonder this all the time. I do get one companion ticket annually on delta by virtue of having the card, but I’d bet there is a better deal out there for me.
 
Years ago, I had rented a car using AMEX on business. The car was damaged in the parking lot of a hotel along with several others. All the AMEX rental car coverage would cover was my personal car insurance detectable and I would have to use my personal insurance for the balance. I said HELL NO and got our company involved to settle it. In the end AMEX paid nothing and our company insurance paid it all.
 
Plano Pilot said:
All the AMEX rental car coverage would cover was my personal car insurance detectable and I would have to use my personal insurance for the balance.
Click to expand...

That’s what’s called “secondary insurance”, and it’s typical for most car rental insurance provided by credit cards. It’s not peculiar to AMEX.

A few high-fee cards offer “primary insurance,” where the card’s insurance policy pays first. The Chase Sapphire Reserve cards for example include this, and it’s the reason I have one:

https://www.valuepenguin.com/travel/credit-cards-primary-rental-car-insurance
 
NoHeat said:
That’s what’s called “secondary insurance”, and it’s typical for most car rental insurance provided by credit cards. It’s not peculiar to AMEX.

A few high-fee cards offer “primary insurance,” where the card’s insurance policy pays first. The Chase Sapphire Reserve cards for example include this, and it’s the reason I have one:

https://www.valuepenguin.com/travel/credit-cards-primary-rental-car-insurance
Click to expand...

+1 to this. It's the only reason I still maintain my Sapphire card and its 95/yr annual fee. I rent enough cars and have suffered enough nonsense by the rental agencies, that it's my main line of defense.

I don't really have patience for all of the other point games the cards are playing. My daily driver is a costco/citi card, and it's "enough" -- I'm even amused that it often codes avgas as gasoline and kicks 4% back.
 
I used AMEX to rent a brand new Chevy Tahoe a few years back. It caught on fire in my driveway. I called AMEX to discuss the insurance. They told me SUVs are excluded. I cancelled the card and have never missed it. My VISA card does more with no membership charge.

FWIW, even with credit card insurance on rental cars, you’re exposed. They’ll pay the repair claim but you’ll also receive an invoice for lost rental revenue during repairs. Your credit card won’t pay that. State Farm has an agreement with Enterprise to waive lost rent for State Farm customers. It works, too. That Tahoe didn’t cost my anything when the smoke cleared, pardon the pun.
 
catmandu said:
I don't know what kind of insurance you mean
Click to expand...
I was referring to online purchases not received. We've never had a problem with theft at my relatively rural home. Last Saturday we had 3 small packages stolen from our mailbox. Tracking stated they were left in the mailbox. We were home. Mail was there but no packages. Our usual carrier said he put them in the box. The post office said a neighbor a few houses down the road had the same issue this week. I discovered Citi cards now offers zero insurance for lost items not received.
 
I have AmEx Blue Cash and Delta Skymiles. One of them provides coverage for loss of use for a rental car, which has to be primary coverage, since you can’t get that any other way, except buying insurance from the rental car company.
 
Amex insurance is secondary to your insurance. That is why they offer it because they rarely if ever pay anything. I had a green card forever and got rid of it a few years ago because there are way better options without a fee. I did get the no fee blue card and they canceled it on me for lack of use. I have been using the citi-double cash which gives 2% on everything.
 
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