Questions and Answers

Hi Ben and everyone else,
I am German and I currently have the British Airways Barclay Card which will be cancelled by the end of this year since BA and Barclay are ending their cooperation in Germany. So I was looking into other credit cards for traveling and I want a card that
– has travel insurances
– should include a priority pass
– should have some kind of reward system
So I came up with the Amex Platinum, which is quite costly with an annual fee of 600 Euros (but that includes another card for your spouse, also with priority pass).

What keeps me from getting it is not so much the high fee but the fact that if I pay with it in a foreign currency that is neither Euro nor USD, then the amount will be exchanged to USD and only after that to Euro. Meaning if I, say, pay in Singapore Dollars, Amex will exchange the amount to USD and then USD to EUR which is what I will be eventually charged. This is a huge problem in my opinion with the weak Euro and the strong USD.

So I was wondering if you have any ideas what other card might be suitable? Since I am not a US citizen, I cannot apply for the Citi cards. Citi became Targo bank in Germany a couple of years ago and they don’t do travel cards.
Thank you and safe travels
Ina

Hey Ina,

I just ordered the AMEX gold here in Germany…they have a good offer at the moment.
15k MR points and 75 Euro Amazon gift card and no fee (140 Euro) in the first year.
Additionally, I heard that when you have 10k+ Euro turnover per year, you don’t have to pay the 140 Euro. That’s pretty cool. Besides that, I have the M&M blue card…but just that my miles don’t expire….but I’m certain you know about this card already.

Best Regards
Thomas

Thank you Thomas. But the Amex gold only has a discount to purchase the priority pass, right – say the standard plus pass would still be 169 Euros or so. Have you ever looked into the gold MC from Sparkasse ? It has a priority pass (don’t know which one) and you can collect M&M.

Actually, I didn’t ever look (or care) for the priority pass. Is this for lounge access only? My goal with this miles & points is to always fly business or first class which gives me lounge access anyway and I’m not travelling often for business in economy for example. So, if thats very important to you, unfortunatelly I am not really informed….sorry.
Longterm, I am trying to get away from M&M…because the redemption rates are very high compared to other *A programmes.
Maybe Ben knows something…but from what I was reading so far, he’s not really familiar with the german CC market.

Yes, it’s for lounge access. My company recently cut back on travel expenses (so Y tickets only) and I don’t really feel like using my private miles for company flights. I lost some of my status achievements during the last year because I was unfit to fly for most of the year. So that’s why I was looking into the PP.
You’re right about M&M – worst imo. That’s why I had the BA credit card in the first place. But there isn’t really a good program in Germany anyway – even AB (as a one world member) is much worse than the (old, they just changed it) Avio program by BA.

[QUOTE=”Ina, post: 4133, member: 165″]What keeps me from getting it is not so much the high fee but the fact that if I pay with it in a foreign currency that is neither Euro nor USD, then the amount will be exchanged to USD and only after that to Euro. Meaning if I, say, pay in Singapore Dollars, Amex will exchange the amount to USD and then USD to EUR which is what I will be eventually charged. This is a huge problem in my opinion with the weak Euro and the strong USD.[/QUOTE]

I previously had the NL AMEX Platinum. As an aside, the Priority Pass is very good, and allows 2 guests (free). Regarding currency conversion AMEX (Europe) definitely has a fee, but my foreign charges (just looked up some from Japan) are converted directly into Euro. (in this case Yen to Euro). This has always seemed to be the case. Of course, I can only speak to NL directly.