Well, this sure is a different kind of deal. Instead of paying you a bonus to join, New York-based American Express will give you a $300 American Express prepaid card if you agree to say goodbye. American Express says that it is making this “deal” so that customers can “simplify” their finances. Sure. The offer, which isn’t available to everyone, requires a 14-digit RSVP code. Customers are receiving this offer via U.S. Postal and email.
Let’s get something straight here. If you receive this offer, American Express is telling you something: please leave. Note also that in order to get the $300 prepaid card the customer MUST pay off his or her entire balance by April 30, 2009. If the balance is not paid off by April 30, then you will not receive the $300 card. But your card will still get closed. That’s a heck of a deal.
Here is a picture of the offer from American Express’s Web site (click to enlarge):
You can read the fine print here (click to enlarge):
You may be wondering why American Express doesn’t just close the accounts of these customers, which would save American Express $300. Here’s why: the $300 prepaid card is acting as an incentive for the customer to pay down the balance in an expeditious manner. The customer has exactly two months to get that balance paid off; if he or she does, the $300 card is theirs. Not a bad strategy by American Express.
They mentioned this on the news the other night. Gutsy move by the company.
It will be interesting to see how this works out for them. There will be the inevitable whiners, but the corporate value should be positive.
Other card companies are doing some slightly similar things. I’ve got several cards that I haven’t used in 5-7 years where the company told me they closed the account. Probably a good idea for a lot of these companies to start cleaning up their books. Of course, those with less than stellar credit scores are going to have trouble in the coming months. We’ll probably see a few more bankruptcies.
Didn’t American Express used to be the card that you didn’t carry a balance on? Maybe they are going back to that. More of a “Cash on hand” for people that don’t want to carry cash rather than a “Credit card”
I was recently offered something similar from Citi. They’ll give me 10% of everything I pay over the minimum up to $250. So, if my minimum payment is $50 and I pay $2550, I get a statement credit for $250.
Tell me these companies aren’t scared crapless at how easy it is not to pay your bills. They’re offering additional money for you to actually pay the bill. My how times have changed. 20 years ago people were scared crapless to NOT pay the bill, now it’s “No biggy, I’ll just claim bankruptcy” and the companies have almost no recourse, cept this of course
AMX has a Blue card you can carry a balance with intrest, and they have the Gold with no balance.I think many people loaded up *Blue *cards and are having problems making payments and also gold card use is way down.
I’m sure I don’t qualify for the Centurion card and I know I don’t want to pay the annual fee ($2,500 plus $5,000 initiation fee for the first year). I had a Platinum for awhile but the annual fee was prohibitive and I no longer need the false ego boost. I’m all about spending less now.
The classic AmEx card is a charge card where you had to pay it off within 2 months. With the introduction of the AmEx Blue card, it’s an actually credit card in the traditional sense.
The classic AmEx card is a charge card where you had to pay it off within 2 months. With the introduction of the AmEx Blue card, it’s an actually credit card in the traditional sense.
There are some situations where the green card can have a balance. The others cards for sure can have a balance.
Well, this sure is a different kind of deal. Instead of paying you a bonus to join, New York-based American Express will give you a $300 American Express prepaid card if you agree to say goodbye. American Express says that it is making this “deal” so that customers can “simplify” their finances. Sure. The offer, which isn’t available to everyone, requires a 14-digit RSVP code. Customers are receiving this offer via U.S. Postal and email.
