Usability

One of the biggest criticisms over the years of American Express credit cards is that they have not been as acceptable as their counterparts such as Visa and MasterCard.  While this has definitely been warranted criticism in the past, it is becoming less and less valid as American Express begins to be accepted in more places not just within North America, but also internationally.  Ultimately, this is due to the company being able to capitalize on the widespread popularity of their traveller’s cheques and of course it ends up benefiting the card holders greatly.

Fraud Protection

One of the major benefits of owning an American Express credit card lies in the area of fraud protection.  With the number of pre-paid applications that go around nowadays and the ease it is for a person to steal another person’s identity, a big part of the operations of many credit card companies have now gone into the fighting and prevention of fraud services.  American Express has been acknowledged as one of the leading authorities on preventing fraud from the credit card company’s side of operations and this is because they have a very impressive fraud protection system.

Part of the American Express philosophy when it comes to fraud protection is the less the consumer knows about the protection services, the better American Express is doing its job.  In other words, protection services from American Express are always there, but they are also silent and do not put that much of a damper on your daily activities with your credit cards.  The main aspect of the American Express fraud protection lies in their authorized user verification procedure, which uses zip code as well as CID verification in order to make sure that the transactions you do in stores and online respectively are as secure as possible.

To raise the stakes even further, American Express has a fraud protection guarantee that states that you as a customer are not held responsible for any fraudulent charges, period.  No fine print is present in that guarantee and that is rare indeed coming from a credit card company.

Reward Programs

Another benefit of American Express credit cards is the diversity of rewards that you as a customer can choose from when you decide that American Express is the card for you.  There are a number of different credit card specific rewards along the lines of entertainment, shopping and cash back to choose from and within all of those categories are credit cards with reward programs exemplary in the way that they remain competitive with the marketplace.

In addition to credit card specific rewards, the customer has the chance to be a part of the membership rewards program put out by American Express.  These membership rewards are great because they are very general in the way they work.  You earn approximately 1 point for every dollar spent and then those points can be redeemed for rewards relating to travel, shopping, dining, entertainment and many other potential rewards.  The versatility of this program is definitely a testament to how good the rewards can be for an American Express customer.

Interest Rates

A final benefit to a person that decides to become a card holder for one of the many credit cards offered by American Express is the interest rate that they are likely to get.  In a market where interest rates seem to only go in an upward direction every year, American Express has managed to freeze a lot of their key interest rates.  Even now, you can certainly expect to see an interest rate around 15%; even if you don’t have exceedingly good credit.  This is something that many other companies simply do not do anymore and that is exactly why it is worth mentioning.

Another related aspect is the fact that the American Express credit cards are easier on a person when they end up missing a few payments.  American Express is not as quick to raise interest rates as other companies and the flip side of that coin is that it is also easier to get your interest rate back down with good behaviour if you do end up in the unfortunate situation of having your rate raised due to poor credit performance. 

The combination of competitive interest rates, good usability, excellent reward programs and absolutely stellar fraud protection services makes American Express a definite possibility for all credit card shoppers.