American Express launches instalment plan option for credit card users

American Express has launched an instalment option called Plan It for its credit card customers to offer a new way to spread the cost of purchases.

It will allow you to select certain purchases of more than £100 and choose to pay for them in three, six or 12-month instalments for a monthly fee instead of paying interest.

Here, Which? explains how the new feature works, if it’s worth using and how it compares with similar instalment initiatives from Barclaycard, Monzo, NatWest and Virgin Money.

How does Plan It work?

You can use the Plan It feature if you have one of the following cards:

Platinum Cashback Everyday Credit Card

Platinum Cashback Credit Card

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

British Airways American Express Credit Card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

The Platinum Card

Nectar Credit Card

Marriott Bonvoy

American Express Card

Vitality American Express Credit Card

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

Those with an eligible card can select a transaction, or an amount from their most recent statement and put it in an instalment plan. It must be more than £100.

The instalment plan options are three, six and 12 months. 

You’ll be charged a fixed monthly fee for your instalment plan, but you won’t be charged interest on the balance in your plan.

Your monthly instalment amount will be part of your minimum payment due on your billing statement. The first instalment will appear on the first statement after you create a plan.You’ll earn rewards on your purchase as usual.

You can have multiple instalment plans, but the amount you can have at once will depend on your card and credit limit. 

Find out more: .

How much can you save?

Amex said the monthly fee charged will be comparable to the interest you would pay if you carried the balance without creating an instalment. 

Your monthly instalment amount will include the monthly plan amount and the monthly fee. 

Here’s how much it would cost to use Plan It versus having no instalment plan for £100 using all three plans.

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As you can see from the tables, the amount of money you save is minimal when using the instalment plan.

But you may find it gives you more flexibility with how you manage your spending on a credit card. You can split purchases you know will take a while to pay off from your everyday spending and have different strategies for paying off each.

Is Amex a good provider?

Which? surveyed thousands of credit card customers in October 2023 to find out how satisfied they were with their providers.

We also asked them to rate the companies across a range of customer satisfaction categories, from the application process through to the service they receive when using their card.

Amex is a Which? Recommended Provider and achieved a provider customer score of 79% – putting in second in our table behind Tesco Bank.It scored five stars for its mobile app and clarity of statement and four stars for its transparency of charges, application process and customer service. 

It also has three cards tha have our Best Buy endorsement – the American Express Rewards Credit Card for airmiles, the American Express Platinum Cashback Credit Card and the American Express Platinum Everyday Credit card for cashback.

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How does the Amex scheme compare?

Several other providers offer the option to pay down your credit card bill with instalment plans.

Here's how the Plan It by American Express compares with similar schemes, ordered alphabetically. 

Monzo Flex and Virgin Money have the most competitive offer as you can get 0% interest on purchases with no monthly fee for at least three months (Virgin Money Slyce offers six months). 

These options are similar to buy now, pay later schemes where you don't pay interest on purchases if you can pay back what you borrow withing a short period.

Find out more: .

Is this the best way to borrow?

American Express said that using Plan It would provide ‘flexibility and control, taking the guesswork out of your payments’ allowing customers to have fees that are 'clearly outlined' at the start of their plan.

While this is true, we’re struggling to think of any more reasons to use this feature as you won’t save much in interest in the long run. 

With reward credit cards, we recommend paying off the balance in full every month to avoid hefty interest charges that are common with these types of cards. 

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These cards won’t charge interest for a set period of time (typically between three and 21 months right now). However, if you don't manage to pay off the amount within this period, you'll be charged interest on the remaining balance at the card's standard APR – typically around 20%.

Find out more: .

source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/american-express-launches-instalment-plan-option-for-credit-card-users-aNyBH5R1Xsd2