American Express Essential (page 3 of 6)

I have been a long time AMEX customer and this was my choice of card the min I landed on Australian land. I have this card since 2016 and it’s been amazing. Backed with world class customer service I’d say this beats most cards in the market.

The best thing about this card is that there are no annual fees and the monthly Amex offers are really good. Only problem is that the foreign currency rate is not as good as Visa especially when they are charging an extra 3%.

No Annual fees
Good amex offers
Points on spending
Apple pay
Safe and secure
Can use overseas
Good spending limits
Good customercare service
Low interest rate compare to other third party card.
Easy to use on application

Would recommend if you want no fee AMEX. The smartphone screen insurance is very valuable and so easy to use. I’ve made a claim before and it’s sorted so quick.
Amex service good so far.

Have not tried using the credit card overseas as I have other alt card for that purpose, but i'm really happy with AMEX's customer service call centre, and no annual fee! that's a big yes for me. I mainly use this card for it's offers, and also one of my usual merchant only accepts AMEX without surcharge.

No annual fee. You can have some awesome amex offers. It can really help me save some money. However, not every place accept amex. Could not do anything about that.

I have used various American Express credit cards for over 20 years, both in business and for private use. Although now retired, I still maintain an Amex card for local purchases because of their reward system. The card I currently use is the American Express Essential card which, although not earning as many points from a purchase as some other Amex cards, doesn't attract any annual fee and the points it earns are not too far behind the other cards anyway, so for me it's a nice balance.

This card is easy to accumulate points only if places accept it! It’s able to be used approximately one out of every four places which makes it very difficult. I’d rather just use my bank credit card!

This card was very useful for using overseas. Many stores, hotels, and restaurants accept this card, compared to the acceptance in Australia. Usually attracting much higher credit card fees in Australia over MasterCard and Visa Card.
The rewards are okay, they used to be much better. However we get rewards for lots of other things, so it kind of works out.
Redeeming points is easy when it's available.

This is a very convenient card for outside Australia....Never had it refused elsewhere......But here in Oz it still lacks the acceptance of Visa and Mastercard....BUT that is improving....Been an AMEX customer since 1980.....when almost no Australian company wanted to see it....but the rest of the world was happy with it...gradually that has changed...If you travel overseas I strongly recommend AMEX....If you don't - Visa and Mastercard are better, and cheaper options.....

I wish I could give it 0 star. worst credit card company ever. They've approved the application first. Got the annual fee and then requesting more documents and cancelled the card in 2 months. No refund for the annual fee. Terrible customer service.

After my Westpac Altitude card fee rose to $150, AND after over 30 years loyalty, I decided to go with this card as a backup to a debit card. Could not be happier with the service AND with the surprising number of merchants who now take AMEX. I had a small problem initially when I mistakenly thought I had set up direct debit and when I contacted their customer support, they reversed all of the accrued fees for late payment. They also covered a bill for goods not received from a UK store. I always receive a text every time a large purchase is made to check that I'm aware of the purchase. Couldn't be happier with a card that costs me nothing! Oh, and Qantas points accruing as well.

Worst company to deal with! There “24/7 support phone number” isn’t open at night time and their customer service assistants are not helpful! My husband tried to pay my bill (he has a supplementary card for the account) and they said he wasn’t able to. The website is impossible to use and you can’t use a card to pay over the phone! They make it impossible to pay your own bill!! I also asked to put a complaint in and the customer service rep said it wouldn’t make a difference and the outcome would be the samee.

It is a very basic credit card. Applied it for the occasion Amex offer, the best thing about it is it does not have annual fee, so you can keep it in the drawer when there is no offer.

no annual fee means you can sign up and have it available for use as backup card or take advantage of one of the offers that come along if you find one that suits your needs.

- Don't use this card overseas so not sure how to rate this
- No balance transfer that I had encountered
- rewards are great as points can then be converted to cash
- interest rate is low and can be negotiated dependable on your circumstance, in terms of financial assistance

This card is amazing, it gives you all the benefits of Amex without the annual fee of the other cards. Amex offers is amazing as every month they have money off certain shops that you can redeem that ranges from $10-$100. The only downside is AMEX isn't accepted everywhere so get use to rejection from shop attendants so its best to have another card handy as well.

Amex is not accepted everywhere. Not many benefits either. Not an ideal personal CC to have. I would consider all other credit cards before deciding on Amex and most would be better than Amex

Have not used it overseas. Have not transferred any balance to it. Satisfied with the rewards considering it has no annual fees. Difficult to accumulate points because a lot of merchants do not accept amex.

This is a good value credit card with no annual fee. It is easy to redeem points for credits. Disadvantage is that it doesn't offer travel insurance, unlike other AMEX cards. I also tried to use this card in NZ but I was mostly rejected

Easy to pay off the bills, no annual fee. Minimal points earned. Some good offers though which I have redeemed. Minimal interest for first year or so. Transferred to velocity points very happy.

October 9th 2022 Update: Handy and free!

No rates! Can also earn you points which eventually can cash in without much difficulty on the Amex website. Good rates on card also. Points value didn’t decrease that much this year during shake up. Also good $500 mobile screen insurance!

I have been with AMEX for more than 5 years and I hardly have any complaints. This particular card has no annual fees and comes with a 55 day interest free period. You earn atleast 1 point for every dollar you spent and every 1000 points can be redeemed for a return of around $7. AMEX also ties up with different retailers for promotions every month and offers great discounts while you shop at these brands during the promotional period. Even though I have used the card overseas several times there are still quite a lot of retailers that still do...

I got this card for its bonuses. I pay my mobile bill with it and get 2 free screen replacements a year. Which I have used once and saved $280. I also pay my amazon prime account to get 50% off.
I have also gotten a heap of cash back on their flash deals.
I have not found a store that charges the 2.5% surcharge anymore so I quite often use the card at places like Bunnings so I can get points.
This is a great card. A lot of the 1 star reviews seem to be people not utilising the card for the bonuses.

Pro:
- Earn points
- long interest free days
- Amex exclusive cash back offers
- No annual free

Con:
- Do not have shop small offer very often now
- I do not like the layout of the monthly statement, not easy to read
- Sometimes the transactions not shown on Amex Mobile App in real time

Arrogant staff, unclear answer. Call center seems in India and does not have mindset of customer service. The way they talk just like you asking them for money for free service.