It's pretty expensive to have an Amex card, I had one for a bit, but ended up not really using it so the £ they wanted seemed like a rip-off in the end.

There are many amex cards which don't have any fees, they even have a filter for them on their website [0]

https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/all-cards/?i...

Amex is terrible card in EU. High fees, many places rejecting it, I see no real reason why to use Amex over Visa or Master/Maestro

The link I shared is a list of cards from Amex that don't charge any fee. Anecdotally the number of places that reject my personal amex is very close to zero (there's one cafe enar me which doesn't take it).

> I see no real reason why to use Amex over Visa or Master/Maestro

Cashback/rewards, and it's accepted on Amazon in the UK after this year is a really good reason to use it over Visa at least. Maestro is non-existant in the UK. Maybe mastercard is a better choice, but I carry two cards _anyway_ , so one might as well be an Amex, and the second should be a mastercard?

Majority of hotels around Europe don't accept it, same with restaurants, small business, shops.. there is not a single reason to own one in Europe, even with cashback (cashback to what actually, since i cannot use it anywhere)

I've travelled around the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and almost exclusively used my Amex over the last 5 or so years.

> Majority of hotels around Europe don't accept it, same with restaurants, small business, shops

I completely disagree. Almost every restaurant, hotel, cafe takes it. All major airlines accept them, the major train operators accept them, the major hotel booking sites and airbnb both accept it.

> there is not a single reason to own one in Europe, even with cashback (cashback to what actually, since i cannot use it anywhere)

Well there is, cashback, and contrary to what you're saying it _is_ usable in europe. You can book a flight with Ryanair, a train on trainline, hire a car via hertz/sixt/europcar, book a stay with airbnb/booking/hotels, and eat out in restaurants and local cafes all with an amex.

I spend on business travels around Europe 1/4 of the year, 2 years ago we were moved from Visa to Amex and the company reversed the move after 1 month back to Visa. Couple of major hotel chains didn't accept the Amex. In Dublin specifically I had huge issues with Amex, not to mention Germany and Scandinavia. It was just bad experience all together

1.25% cashback.

Mine's free, and they pay me cashback every year (which is of course mainly paid by companies like tesco and amazon as part of the fees)

You are paying for these "perks" and no I don't need insurance when I'm buying an electronic toothbrush from Amazon thank you very much.

> You are paying for these "perks"

Everyone is paying for the perks, since prices are the same for everyone, but only the people with a credit card are getting them.

You're paying for their perks every time you buy with a debit card - it's madness to use debit.

Unless you are getting a discount for paying with a debit card, you are paying for these perks too.

not typically unless you carry a balance. The merchant pays regardless if you use a credit or debit card, only the rate changes.