We had this card for a year to earn sky miles. On the positive side we ended up with 2 almost-free flights. On the negative side, our card was hacked twice and the recovery process was lengthy leaving much to be desired. In the end, I recommend choosing a different company all together. Customer Service When recovering our credit card number after it was stolen online, the company dealt with it through snail mail. Not only did it take a long time to fix, they repeated steps in the process making it redundant. As if they forgot where we were in the process. Most companies are able to handle card theft situations over the phone. This played a large part in our decision to cancel the card and switch to a more reliable company. Available Rates I rate this a 2 because most credit card rates are high right now. We pay the balance every month so we do not incur the high fees. However, if you're not looking to practice this method, choose a different card. You will rack up debt quickly.

harveyse

USA

Don't bother. Citibank promises you the world and then refuses to stand behind their word. I hit the spend requirement 10 weeks ago and there's still no sign of my mileage bonus. They also promise double miles for AA purchases and there's no sign of that either. They never sent the Admirals Club passes they promised either. Forget shopping with their AAdvantage Mall. Some vendors come through with the miles they promise, some don't bother. ALL of these things I've tried seven ways to sunday to pursue and correct and neither Citi, AA, nor the Mall Vendors will lift a finger to correct. They all take your information and say they'll investigate, then you never hear a word from them again. The time you spend chasing down the miles they promised would be bad enough if you actually got the miles in the end. But you can't, they won't budge. As it stands, the whole thing is a scam for most people.

ConradDC

Washington, DC

I usually pay my credit card balances off in full every month.  I have never made a late payment to AAdvantage or any other card.  One month I had to leave a $1500 balance on this card (around tax time) and thought, oh well, 13.24% on $1500 is only about $17.00 for the month, no big deal.  I paid off the balance in full the next month. They charged me a total of $87.88 in interest over 2 months for leaving this balance of $1500 for one month. That is actually somewhere around 65% interest.  This company is a lying, cheating, den of thieves.  If you don't want to get ripped off, stay away. I cancelled this card and will never do business with American Express again. Ever.

AAdvantageRipOff

Littleton, CO

I have been an Citi American Express card holder for over five years. I think that their interst rate at 18% is too high especially for someone who has excellent credit. I use this card to get airline miles. I pay the blanace off monthly. I get 1 airline miles per $1.00 I charge. They also charge an annual fee of $50.00 which is too high. American Express cards are not accepted everywhere? WHY?* I have other credit cards which offer cash back points toward purchases etc. and they have 0% interest and 9% interest and no annual fee or they will waive the fee if i call them about it. I think that long term good clients should hav the best offers but often times I will get a soliciatation from American Express for a better interest rate but that only apples to new customers what's the deal. It used to be you had to build your credit and become trustworthy ad then you got the better deals. Why aren't loyal long time excellent paying customers getting the best deals?*

parisian

Paris, TX

While the hay day of American Express is long since passed, their attempts at reviving their once rock solid must for the traveler have launched with a pretty darn good offer.  25,000 bonus airmiles to your American Airlines frequent flyer account if you spend $750 USD in the first 4 months, (offer accessible at aa.com online).  Not a bad deal when you consider that 25,000 airmiles is a round trip domestic ticket.  Another travel bonus that's offered through American Express and American Airlines is a list of destinations published four times a year with reduced mileage travel awards, and offer travel discounts of 7500 less airmiles for destination travel.  Not a huge discount, but maybe enough to get you over the top for award travel, if the list contains somewhere you want to go.  While the travel perks are not bad, the interest rate is nothing to shout about, and if you can't pay off your balance on a monthly basis, I'd pass on this one.  However, if you don't spend more than you actually have, the additional travel perks include, 24 hour concierge service (which is pretty good by the way), 1,000,000 USD travel accident insurance, 3,000 USD lost luggage insurance, 50,000 USD rental car loss and damage insurance, and 1,500 USD trip cancellation insurance.  Please note that this insurance only is in play if you use your American Express card to purchase the aforementioned items.  One very noticeable place where American Express truly does excel, is in it's legendary customer service.  If you have something you need to deal with, or need assistance for, it's the equivalence between night and day from other cards.  It's really what all cards should be like, but aren't. ***The pros for this card are: *** Excellent customer service 24 hr concierge included travel insurance with purchase lost wallet service and 24 hour card replacement anywhere in the world roadside assistance service emergency assistance service product price protection for up to 250 USD (doesn't include Internet purchases) extended warranty protection of US product warranties for 1 year 24 hr travel services annual fee waived for 1st 12 months good online website for managing your account one airmile awarded for every USD spent on card purchases to your AA frequent flyer account ***The Cons for this card are thus:*** annual fee of $ 85 USD not a great interest rate American Express just doesn't have the coverage it used to, and doesn't get accepted as many places as say Visa, or Mastercard    I give it ***4 stars out of 5***, and rate it lower because of the high annual fee, and the less than attractive interest rate.  All things considered it's a good back up card, and if you're a frequent traveler it has a lot of good perks and services.  Add the 25,000 airmile bonus, and the offer is nothing to snivel about.    **UPDATE 03/10/2009:**   *After an impressive startup and a large lump of airmiles for signing up for this card, the reality of the formerly "great travel card" came to light.  * *On a recent trip through the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa it became very apparent that this card is not widely excepted over there anymore, nor here for that matter.  The entire country of Portugal doesn't except American Express a banker informed me in Lisbon.  Not a big deal if you're not in Lisbon, but if you are, it's a bummer.  While getting used to it being a not so widely accepted card anymore, I figured I'd still stick it out cause at least they still gave me a ton of airmiles, and a little loyalty goes a long way in my book.* *Then the problems started.  3 out of 4 missed payments by American Express, resulting in many phone calls and a lot of inconvenience of my part.  In the ensuing 10 days it took to rectify this problem, I decided to dump them.  As I carry no balances on any credit card in religious fashion, their inability to maintain the fundamentals of an account made any loyalty to them on my part vanish.  **So adios American Express!  I won't be back!  ***  

steve9631

Bellingham, WA