I received my quarterly offer in the mail today from American Express: They will give me an AmEx Gold Card with no annual fee for the first year and two free airline tickets if I charge $500 on the card in the first two months. (The annual fee is $150.)
First off, I have a couple of credit cards already. They have no annual fee, so I don't have to pay anybody $12.50/month for the dubious privilege of having their credit card. Besides that, just about every place with a credit card machine takes the two competitors to AmEx, not every merchant is willing to pay the higher fee to have the quote honor unquote to take AmEx.
And then there is the point that giving away free airline tickets is almost as enticing as getting a free week's lodging in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
I have to laugh at American Express's ads for their "small business" card. For instance, I've known a number of people who own small businesses and none of them need to order 450 tons of plaster or buy six tickets to Tokyo. That's just the sort of thing that someone running a bookstore or a diner needs to do, you bet!
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