The Best American Express Credit Cards

American Express Credit Cards

Whether it’s the idea of the exclusive ‘black’ card or the potential reward points on offer, the likelihood is that American Express is a name you have heard of.

Yet surprisingly to many, the globally-known card provider started life as a freight forwarding company in 1850, before successfully expanding into financial and card products. Since then, it has built itself up to be one of the largest global payment networks available today. With fans that range from everyday cardholders to the billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

American Express has an extensive portfolio of credit cards available in the UK, ranging from premium cards suited to the more affluent customer through to reward cards or low rate cards. If you are eligible, then you are spoilt for choice and stand to reap the benefits that come with being part of the American Express family. You may even want to consider an Amex business card. 

What does American Express do well?

One of the flagship benefits of having an American Express card is rewards. These come in different forms depending what card you take out: Nectar points, Avios points, cashback, Membership Rewards points etc.

Membership Rewards is the provider’s own rewards scheme which enables cardholders to earn points on whatever they spend and then redeem them for vouchers from a wide selection of partners. The cherry on the top is that, depending on the card and subject to eligibility, American Express often offers some sort of welcome award to new cardmembers in order to get their reward earnings off to an encouraging start. In addition to that, supplementary cards for family members are often complimentary, and friend referral schemes are in place to help boost your points total.

An American Express card is also all about the full package. As long as you enroll in the programmes, most of the cards include, as standard, refund protection and purchase protection. This means that items purchased on the card and that meet the qualifying criteria are protected and will be repaired or refunded as necessary.

Customer service is also key, with the provider promising 24/7 support and the added advantage of each customer dealing with the same customer service representative from start to finish. All in all, if you qualify for an American Express credit card, you are looking at a full service package with extra reward benefits.

Where does American Express fall down?

American Express is very much focused on borrowers who have a good or excellent credit score. If you are someone who has struggled with credit in the past, then you are unlikely to find an American Express credit card that you will qualify for.

One specific area that could be problematic is the eligibility criteria for welcome awards or bonuses. While not every card carries a welcome award, for most that do, you will not be eligible for the award if you have a personal American Express credit card or have held one in the past 24 months. It is typical for cards to have some sort of time requirement before you can apply for a new member offer, but 24 months is definitely at the higher end.

Then there are also annual fees. They are not attached to every card, but are common among American Express credit cards. Annual fees are usually attached to cards offering the higher reward packages, and may well be worth it for what is on offer; if the card you are interested in has an annual fee, then it is always worth balancing the cost against the benefits you will receive.

Finally, there is an issue that American Express is not as widely accepted as cards operating on the Visa and Mastercard networks. How much that might impact you depends on where you live and what type of spending you typically do. If you’re in a large city, a heavily touristed destination or are shopping with a large retailer, you’re unlikely to really notice a difference. American Express is accepted at tens of millions of merchants worldwide. But, if you frequent small shops or pubs, there’s the chance of your card not being accepted. If this concerns you, you could skip out on American Express cards, or you could find a basic, no annual fee Visa or Mastercard to carry along for the situations where Amex is not accepted (that, or simply pay cash).

What will you find in American Express’s card portfolio?

American Express is not a card provider that typically chases the interest-free introductory offers. While a 0% purchases deal or a balance transfer may be included on some cards, it is not the provider’s main focus by any means.

Instead, what you are likely to find with an American Express card is rewards ¬– lots of rewards. Most of its credit cards available in the UK feature some sort of reward or cashback offer. Cards can be partner specific, such as the British Airways, Nectar and Marriott Bonvoy cards, or they can just be part of the provider’s own Membership Rewards programme.

If you are looking for cold hard cash, then American Express also has cashback-specific cards that offer different cashback yields depending on qualifying spend. Either way, you are spoilt for choice if you want to make your credit card spending work for you.

How to apply for an Amex card

You apply online through the American Express website. The process will take less than 10 minutes, and you will receive a response in 60 seconds. If you are unsure whether you’ll be accepted, there’s typically the option to check your eligibility prior to applying. This will perform a ‘soft check’ to see whether you’re likely to be accepted. This is useful because if you go through the full application and are not accepted, it can hurt your credit score.

As part of the application, you will need to provide personal information including your income and employment details.

American Express requires applicants to have no history of bad debt, be aged 18 or over and be UK residents.

More ways to compare credit cards

Top credit card picks by category

Top credit card picks by issuer

The Motley Fool receives compensation from some advertisers who provide products and services that may be covered by our editorial team. It’s one way we make money. But know that our editorial integrity and transparency matters most and our ratings aren’t influenced by compensation. The statements above are The Motley Fool’s alone and have not been provided or endorsed by bank advertisers. The Motley Fool has recommended shares in Lloyds, Tesco and Barclays.