Amex drop balance transfer cards

Tue, 13 Jun 2006

American Express (Amex) has axed balance transfers from its personal credit cards for new customers.

Also, balance transfers will only be offered to a select profile of existing credit card users.

The move is thought to be a way of discouraging 'rate tarts', consumers who switch to balance transfer cards and 0% credit cards in a bid to avoid paying interest.

Robert Kenley, head of credit cards at price comparison company Moneysupermarket has described the move as "strange".

"Amex has chosen to revert to its traditional, more successful strategy of focusing on spenders rather than borrowers and generating revenue from merchant fees," added Mr Kenley.

"Although this is not the end of balance transfers per se for Amex, it does prove that for some providers recruiting customers by way of an attractive balance transfer rate is not always a viable business proposition

Mr Kenley continued that for consumers hoping to find balance transfer cards there are still "plenty of competitive cards", noting that there are still 50 0% credit cards available.

Amex recently apologised to thousands of customer to whom it mistakenly offered 0% credit cards for life, according to the Scotsman.

add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.

Credit Crunch Savers
Tesco Insurance Sale
50% discount on car and home insurance.
Offer ends 7th Jan 09
Post Office Instant Saver
Protect your savings with the Post Office saver
Amex Cash Back
Credit Card
Get 5% cash back on purchases with Amex
Virgin Credit Card
0% APR on balance transfers for 16 months