American Express is famous as one of the pioneering payment card providers. Although they tend to be well known for their charge card, they are also a major supplier of credit cards.
American Express started in the nineteenth century as a postage company in the New England segment of the United States. Over the twentieth century they became a company that specialised in providing services to business travellers. This was how their pioneering charge card came about. They were one of the first payment card providers to be active in Australia.
The American Express charge card was the card on which the American Express brand has been built. It has a large amount of perks such as travel insurance that are paid for through a high annual fee and high merchant charges that are charged at shops that take American Express. The charge card is not a credit card in itself, as it is expected to be paid back every month and so does not allow a credit balance to be built up.
One of the legacies of the charge card has been that there is a reputation for exclusivity which American Express has tried to maintain with its credit card offerings. It also offers other services as well as payment cards that are offered to the business traveller market; these include insurance, financial services and travel agency services. They have a market beating support line that backs these services up as well as their credit card.
American Express has a close relationship with Qantas and offers the Qantas cards. These credit cards have a rewards programme that is integrated with the Qantas frequent flyer programme, so earning air miles with Qantas. As Australia’s flag carrier, or official airline, Qantas has a good international network as well as a reasonable network of domestic flights. Although a traveller is limited to Qantas flights they do have more generous rewards than the standard generic air miles program.
For a wider choice than is offered by the two Qantas cards there is a gold ascent programme that offers integration with seven airline rewards programmes, and the Blue Sky card which claims that it has virtually unlimited acceptance with a large number of different airlines throughout the world. The Blue Sky card also does not have an annual fee.
American Express also has a Platinum card. This aims to have an exclusive reputation and level of service. It offers a number of different rewards programmes. There is also a Platinum money back card which offers 1% back on purchases.
