American Express Credit Card - Tried and Tested For One Year - Here is my story.
We recently passed our one year mark having the Starwood American Express credit card. This was not the first credit card we’ve had, but I would have to say it was probably the best overall experience we’ve had. However, to say that this would be easy on behalf of American Express would not be fair considering we also have another credit card with the top-rated (Consumer Reports, Oct. 2007) credit card issuer - USAA. American Express was rated one of the two top credit card issuers available to all consumers. Our overall experience is highlighted by two main factors; American Express’s customer service and the flexibility to redeem rewards.
American Express’s customer service has been top-notch. I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than a few minutes to speak to a representative and every representative has quickly and satisfactorily resolved my concerns. Several statements incurred finance charges (we payoff balance every month) and American Express reversed the charges. After repeated reversals, one representative researched my payment history and determined that I had been making a portion of my payoff amounts after the due date. I mistakenly thought there was a due date grace period, which there is not with American Express, but they continued to make the reversals despite my mistake.
In August of this year, I took a trip to Kansas City where I rented a vehicle for the weekend. The rental car company accidentally charged me to fill the gas tank at almost $4 per gallon when I had returned the vehicle full. American Express quickly disputed the charge with the rental car company and resolved the incorrect charges on my behalf. Several weeks ago all of my debit and credit cards were accidentally shredded, including our Starwood American Express credit card. The shredding occurred late on a Friday night and American Express rushed a new card that we received the Monday following the incident. American Express was the only issuer to offer this expedited service.
Carrying an American Express card has a degree of prestige associated with it. We selected the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card for two different reasons. First was that it is accepted exclusively at Costco where we shop very frequently. Being able to use our card there allowed us to earn rewards on purchases we would be making regardless of our form of payment. The biggest reason we selected this card was the flexibility of rewards associated with the card. We can use our accumulated points for hotel stays at any Starwood hotel, airline miles on over 20 different airlines or gift certificates at many retailers. So far, we have been able to redeem points for hotel stays and are currently saving points to use under the Starwood Hotel Nights and Flights program. American Express offers the widest array of reward programs and cards to fit just about any consumer’s needs.
This year we’ll have to start paying the annual fee with our Starwood American Express, but given the level of customer service and the rewards we’ve enjoyed, the annual fee is worth far more than the mere $45. Looking forward, we hope the next and future years will be as satisfactory as our first with American Express. We hope our Nights and Flights vacation exceeds our expectations too, just like this past year - I’ll let you know.
