I genuinely have no idea what the interest rate is on my Amex account.
As I always pay in full on all my cards, it’s never something I seek out or consider when taking a credit card.
Just looked in the Amex app and could not find it there either 
1 Like
Interest rates are listed inside the pdf statement in statements section of amex app.
2 Likes
Found it.
At 30.0%, it is actually higher than my soon to change to Pulse, Amazon Platinum credit card, which stands at 27.84%, and my Barclaycard 17.62%
As I said before though, all meaningless as always pay in full.
So here’s a weird one, my direct debit date this month was the 17th September meaning it was impacted by the additional Bank Holiday.
My payment wasn’t taken and I see a DD attempt in my AMEX account followed by a returned payment of the same amount.
I’ve just spoken to Amex and they say that they attempted to take the payment, but it was cancelled by Monzo.
I haven’t had a returned payment fee applied (yet) but onto Monzo now to find out why this has happened.
1 Like
I had the same thing happen once and they charged me a fee. I gave up trying to get the refund.
It didn’t seem to be resolved or explained. My DD date was X, nothing came out but the Amex balance had changed to clear the balance. Fine, it often does this.
I check my bank and it wasn’t taken. I left it a couple days, my Amex balance returned to the negative and I had to manually pay my balance.
No issues as the payment still cleared before my payment due date. But I was hit with a fee for the returned DD even though it was fully paid before my due date and even now my bank had zero idea about any DD request; so Amex issue that they refused to acknowledge.
3 Likes
I had a similar thing happening and they did charge me an interest fee, very minor £0.07, but it was refunded.
I usually pay my credit cards in full at the beginning of the month, to reset my spendings for the month, but also have a DD to pay it in full if I forget, but this usually gets updated after the payment.
Last month I did make the full payment later and then realised it was to close to the DD date, so I contacted AmEx and asked them for solutions so I won’t be double charged, their suggestion was to cancel the DD from the source bank given the DD date is close.
The DD was applied and then removed due to the refusal from my bank, but towards the end the statement I was charged an interest fee, that 7p.
I had a chat with them and they said that the interest is for the pseudo credit they apply when the DD is due, I’ll attach a screenshot below.
Luckily, me being a “loyal card member” with a “good payment history”, they were able to remove the fee for me as a “one-time courtesy” again it’s £0.07 
4 Likes
Haha oh man that’s frustrating.
A couple years back I did the exact same (paid in full before the DD came out) and got charged a returned DD fee when I cancelled the DD and didn’t get a refund.
I’m obviously not as well liked at Amex 
4 Likes
They probably did a large PowerPoint presentation in the team meeting about your account, everyone discussed your last 24 months transactions, and whilst some wanted to send a deadlock letter, it was finally agreed with board level approval to credit you 7p. 
11 Likes
Why do Amex take payment 2 weeks before the payment date? Every other credit card seems to take their payment on the actual payment date. I asked Amex once but got a very woolly answer.
1 Like
It makes no sense, but then you could choose not to pay by DD and just pay by transfer closer to due date. As long as you don’t forget of course
1 Like
I like to pay in full by DD (Martin Lewis would be proud of me). It’s just all other providers seem to take the payments in full on the payment date. I guess Amex do their own thing. Good bit of extra revenue for them getting the full balance two weeks in advance.
3 Likes
Don’t worry. My Amex is paid the same as your’s. By DD, two weeks before the due date.
Bemused me when I first had the card two years ago, but used to it now.
Only spend what I have and don’t use credit cards as credit cards (i.e. My balance never rolls on), so always have the funds to PAY IN FULL 
1 Like
I do exactly the same 
1 Like
So to follow up on my issue, Monzo came back with a very extensive response and a letter for me without even having to ask. I’m actually really impressed - there was no back and forth, just one message from me explaining the issue in detail and a reply an hour later with a complete and detailed response.
Basically AMEX tried to take the payment on an inactive Direct Debit instruction.
This was probably because of my slightly complicated history with AMEX. I’ve recently moved to my fourth different card (Platinum). Instead of applying fresh, I upgraded my old AMEX Rewards Credit Card, so I’m thinking they tried to use the DD instruction tied to that card that hadn’t been used for a very very long time.
It’s also quite likely that I cancelled this DD instruction, but if that were the case, I would have expected AMEX to have been aware that the DD had been cancelled. Are merchants notified when a customer cancels a direct debit?
Anyway, to fix it I just asked AMEX to remove the DD on the account, so that I could set it up fresh again, then just paid the outstanding balance via their new open banking integration.
Yeah, I quite like the fact that AMEX do this. It gave me more than enough time to notice and fix the issue before being charged their astronomical interest rate. If this had happened on my other ‘borrowing’ card, it wouldn’t have ended so well.
And as for the fee, there are ‘returned payment’ fees as well as ‘late payment’ fees, but having spoken to AMEX, I’ll only be charged that if Monzo charge AMEX for attempting the transaction.
1 Like
Ah so an Android thing? It confused me as I initially thought they were ridding of anything other than Google Pay.
1 Like
Android allows apps to develop and create their own contactless payments. So for example some banks allow to have the bank app open to tap to pay from that bank. Or even set as default something other than Google pay.
In the UK market in practice only Barclays and Amex have implemented that plus Samsung pay.
However Amex also supports Google Pay. And amex Google pay integration imho is much better as one can get Google pay notifications for all amex transactions including those done with the card and offline.
Removing confusing amex pay is nice. Plus there have been odd implementation issues some card machines would take physical contactless but not amex pay, and vice versa.
2 Likes
Just if anyone is going to pay using Monzo (or any Mastercard), there is currently some issue with those payments being reflected on your Amex account (but the funds leave your bank).
1 Like
Over a day later and still nothing! Others have had the issue too.
Weirdly it debited from Monzo, now appears as a credit, and another debited amount today.
Edit: Amex aren’t being a huge amount of help…
Essentially Amex have said “check with Monzo” as they see it as a Monzo/bank issue. Will have to see if Monzo are aware…
1 Like
Minor quirk I just discovered. Most banks have a total showing you the current amount due on the card based on the last statement. With AMEX, they don’t seem to account for refunds in this. So I had a £69.99 refund a few weeks ago, and then cleared the remaining balance off in full today, however the statement page and homepage both show the refunded amount as still outstanding.
I checked with them and they said it’s fine as the card has been cleared (which you’d obviously expect), but it’s not the best UX. It doesn’t help that it’s displayed so prominently and specifically says “balance due”, with most other banking apps the amount due on the previous statement is much smaller or hidden somewhere. Can understand a refund not counting as making the minimum payment, but would have thought they could update the total due.