Cruises.com.au Blog

Words & Pictures: John Pond, Editor at Sea – Cruise Passenger Magazine: Our latest issue of Cruise Passenger Magazine is due out next week and if you haven’t got a subscription (see bottom of blog) I suggest you rush to your local newsagent to buy one.  My Last Word page may be of interest to all my cruising readers using or thinking about changing credit cards.

I have been a customer of Amex for over 45 years, in my latest account for my Platinum card was a membership fee that ran into hundreds of dollars.  As I am not using all the benefits of this card I felt the fee excessive, especially as they had changed some of their benefits (again see more details in Cruise Passenger Magazine).  I rang the Premium Platinum phone line and after hanging on for some minutes was told there was a queue and I could be waiting up to 20 minutes, I asked them to call me back.  To cut a long story short I cancelled my card but I must say the three customer service representatives did everything in their power to assist me, were very courteous and seemed reluctant to lose me as a customer.

In my review in Cruise Passenger Magazine I give ANZ top marks for their insurance component attached to their Gold and Platinum cards.  When talking to an ANZ representative I told him of some of my dissatisfaction relating to Amex, especially the high fee.  Their reply was to offer me a free Amex card because I was a Platinum card holder with them.  I was quite pleased with this as I am a great believer in having several credit cards when traveling overseas in case of emergencies.  When I received my new ANZ-Amex card I was disappointed to find it was linked to my regular ANZ card being married to my regular limit.  This is not exactly what I wanted.

With cap in hand I called back the original Amex customer service representative and told him of my plight.  He suggested I take out an Amex Blue Skies card that offered frequent flyer points but not all of the benefits found on the Platinum card, that I did not use anyhow.  The big clincher was that there was no annual fee for the card.  So now, I am still a 45 year member of Amex with a card that cost me zero and offers benefits that I can actually use.  The moral of this story is that there are some great products out there but you have to dig and do your research to find the ones that are right for you.

John.

Comments above are the opinion of the author.

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