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I currently have a Platinum Cashback credit card and successfully applied for the Platinum charge card last Monday. Is it possible for me to upgrade the Platinum Cashback credit card to a Preferred Rewards Gold credit card, or would this need to be a new application? If I can upgrade it, do I retain my accrued cashback (~170GBP in card year ending December)?
Why would you want to do this? You won’t get a bonus on Gold and the only other real benefit would be the airport lounge passes, and Platinum gets you those anyway.
Meanwhile, yes, you’d lose your cashback.
It would be for the additional reward rate on non-GBP spend and travel bookings.
Amex are picky with “upgrades”. Sometimes you can do it and sometimes you can’t.
It also usually has to be in the same “category” I.e cashback to cashback, MR to MR and Avios to Avios. They don’t usually let you swap between different earning categories.
I made a new application for the Gold card because I thought you couldn’t upgrade to a different scheme, such as cashback vs. MR points vs. Avios, etc. and it only was a soft check on my account. My credit limit is half that of the cashback card and Amex couldn’t transfer the credit limits over for some reason, so I gave up with that.
It would be for the additional reward rate on non-GBP spend and travel bookings.
This is why I also moved onto the Gold card rather than tha Platinum to be begin with. Bonus points earning is nice and the Platinum is very basic, though might need to do maths on whether it’s even worth it for £160 a year going forward. Only benefit I see is the Deliveroo credits to bring the fee down to £40 from next year onwards.
I just see it as spending £160 (or £40) a year to get 0.5 more MR points and 1 more MR point for foreign use or Amex travel. I guess you could see it as an extra 2x MR points for flight tickets in foreign currency.
I made a new application for the Gold card because I thought you couldn’t upgrade to a different scheme, such as cashback vs. MR points vs. Avios, etc. and it only was a soft check on my account. My credit limit is half that of the cashback card and Amex couldn’t transfer the credit limits over for some reason, so I gave up with that.
I find the online chat more helpful for transferring limits around. Plus you have it in writing for future reference.
Thanks Rob, Gary, and Maples.
Yes, with the Platinum Cashback, you get 0.75% up to 10k and 1.25% after 10k for an annual fee of 25GBP. From October, with the Gold, the effective rate in the UK is 1.5 MR (let’s say this is 1.5%, assuming 1MR=1p) up to 25k, assuming you hit those 5k intervals for the +2500 MR per interval. The effective non-GBP rate is 2.5%, which gives a net non-GBP transaction charge of 0.49% (i.e. 49 GBP fee per 10,000 GBP equivalent non-GBP charges). For Amex flight booking, you’ll get 3.5%. In addition, on top of Platinum card benefits, you’ll also get referral bonuses, Deliveroo bonus, and things like the Paypal bonus.
As to whether the annual fee justifies it: in terms of annual fees less cashback/MR, you’ll start profitting with the Gold over the the Platinum Cashback at 18k GBP spending (for both Platinum Cashback and Gold at 18k GBP spending, cashback/MR – fees = 110 GBP). This obviously ignores bonuses and non-GBP spending which would make Gold advantageous over Platinum Cashback at a lower annual spending level.
I find the online chat more helpful for transferring limits around. Plus you have it in writing for future reference.
I actually asked them on live chat first and they said their system isn’t working and to try later. I called them up and got transferred when the same issue came as well. I tried a month later and still had the same issue, so I gave up. I don’t need the limit increase right now so I’m fine.
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