Do ALL American Express cards charge annual fee?

[Scrapster]

"The road to financial success has many milestones marking how far you've come. You've just reached one such milestone." Sound familiar?

I get these letters every once in a while and I might be interested if I wasn't required to pay the annual fee ($55). Do all AMEX cards require the fee or are these offers just exclusive to me? Another question, does AMEX register with different banks like VISA and Mastercard or do they run their own branch?

 

[loogie]

Negative.

 

[jimmygates]

Nope. I have American Express Blue card and there is no annual fee and you don't have to pay everything off every month
Al so got an introductory rate of 0% finace charges for 6 months. Nice






-Jimbo

 

[Emulex]

amex is run by centurion bank. They have a full line of credit,charge, checking, savings, investment accounts.

If you are elite you can get the no-fee cards. They require extremely good credit. I believe you can get the blue "credit" card with no fee and 9.9% if you have stellar credit. it looks pretty cool too!

 

[loogie]

I am not elite. I have an american express card.

 

[aolj]

I have the Blue card and no annual fee for me. It's a great looking card too.

 

[Scrapster]

I wonder what my chances are getting a no-fee amex. I get the fee-based offers all the time, does that mean my credit is good, or am I still a "nobody" in the eyes of amex?

 

[loogie]

apply for the student card.

 

[Insanitation]

I can vouch for loogie. He is far from being an elitist. He's a broke ass student.

 

[Emulex]

why don't you call them up and ask ? They are very friendly on the phone and will take your application, check your credit score, and tell you what you qualify for.

It doesn't take much to get a no fee card, anyone with a platinum visa would qualify. I think they said they want 24 months of credit history. Just about anyone can get the green and gold charge cards, but again, the fee

 

[guyver01]

Blue is fee-free and i believe so is Optima.

 

[SinMen]

Blue is free.

 

[kranky]

The AmEx credit cards (Blue, Optima) can be had without an annual fee. The traditional AmEx charge cards (Green, Platinum, etc.) have annual fees.

 

[Scrapster]

I've owned a Yahoo! Plat. for the past year. I should give them a call. Worth a shot.

 

[Shantanu]

They'll give an American Express Blue card to practically anyone, and a $2000 credit limit to boot.

 

[rominl]

i have three AE card, the optima platinum, the american blue, and the platinum cash rebate card, all with no annual fees

 

[Valhalla1]

ohhhhhhhh damn..

I used to work for Amex as a damned telemarketer in high school, when "Blue" came out, we called Amex cardmembers to whore out Blue for them to get in addition to their current amex card.


and don't you go calling it "the blue card" on the phone or you get fired. don't know why, apparently some other card company already trademarked "the blue card".

anyway I could talk your ear off about that one, but it doesn't have an annual fee because its a CREDIT card, similar to the Amex Optima card and the student credit cards.

traditional amex cards (the personal card, aka green card, the gold card, the platinum card, and the highly-"secretive" and exlcusive Centurion card, aka "black" card).. these are all CHARGE cards, differrent than credit cards. charge cards have an aunnual fee because thats the only way besides late charges for Amex to make money on them. there is no spending limit, but they are to be paid off monthly, therefor they don't earn any interest. so how do they make the money? annual fee.. no way around it.

 

[bluegi]

nope...i have american express platium joined with costco with no annual fee

 

[Valhalla1]

the costco version is different.. the standard platinum card has last time I worked for them a $300 annual fee, but the costco card is a different item

the costco card is a damn good deal from what I understood.


but I'd love to have a Black card. none of the "higher-ups" would tell us much about the black card, but customers kept asking us about it, so they told us a little.

only the extremely wealthy and celebrities have them, they are by invitation only.. i.e. you can't just apply for one, you have to be selected to get one. A pre-requisite to getting invited is that you must be a platinum card member, and you have to spend at least $25,000 a MONTH on your Platinum card. :Q I don't spend $25,000 in 3 years on my credit cards, let alone one month.

the black also has like a $1000 annual fee, (or was it $5000? :confused but it supposedly can get you into the fanciest of fancy clubs or restaurants and hotels without a reservation or anything. and if a problem arises with something they fly out mafia guys to take care of the situation or something. :Q


'course now the info on the card is all public, but it was cool and "secretive" then.

 

[N8Magic]

My Amex Platinum card is no fee. PLHFFFFFFFFTT! nah nah nah nah nah!

 

[ElFenix]

well... amex does get the 3% or 2% or whatever of all purchases, just like other cards. some places don't take it because amex doesn't give the money out fast enough, according to the manager at HEB.

 

[Valhalla1]

yes, I meant from the customer thats how they make the money.

Amex does charge like the most for merchants.. my dad is a business owner, and he didn't take Amex for the first few months he was open, he told me they charge the highest percentage, to off-balance the non-interest-bearing accounts of cardholders