Re: "Enhancements" to Membership Rewards scheme for Platinum Card / Platinum Reserve
You think you are having a hard time? My situation is ridiculous.
Restaurant / food? Reserve
Travel? Reserve
Petrol? Edge
General rubbish? Reserve.
Rubbish that I want extended warranty? Gold charge
Bills? Visa
Insurance but Suncorp Metway group? Reserve because of bonus points.
My Citibank Platinum free for life has extended warranty, travel insurance, close to the same earn rate as AmEx. Also the free flights with AmEx platinum is so hard to book after switching from QF to DJ, with so many restrictions. AmEx is really p*ssing me off.
I don't know why so many people are keeping the Amex Charge Card if it's making life so difficult with remembering which CC to pay with!
Let's say that you have a relatively high expenditure of $50,000 per year on restaurants, travel etc - at an average of 2.5 points/$ you're earning 125k points. But with a Citi Select you'd get 83k - ie 42k less. This is assuming that all of that $50,000 in expenses can actually go on you Amex, plus $50k is probably much higher than most people spend on the higher earning points categories. Which begs the question - in this example, is the $900 annual fee worth paying in addition to the fee you pay for a Visa card (which is essential to have), for only 42,000 more points? For me $900 just isn't worth it for 42,000 pts, especially when you consider you often pay higher merchant fees to get these points.
For me, the Charge card is getting cancelled in the next week when I get around to it, with my 300k points t/f over to my Edge. At $700 a year the Citi Select will become the workhorse at 1.33 pts/$, and the Amex Edge at $99/year will mop up the fuel and supermarket bills and warehouse all those points.
