Amex has simply the best customer service of any credit card company in the universe. You have a problem with any random transaction, you call them up, they apologize, and they go fix it.
I haven't noticed the fees being an issue, but I'm not paying attention; we have a finance@ for that.
What's the biggest conflict you've had over a Visa transaction? My biggest Amex conflict: I was forced to buy a walk-up fare one way ticket from Prague because CSA screwed up my booking; Amex fixed that in 4 minutes over the phone when I got home.
I'm not arguing with you; it's just my perception that Amex has been better than the various Visas and MCs I've held.
I've had my card copied and used to purchase thousands in gas and electronics. I called up Visa after seeing the charges when I logged in - and within minutes it was sorted with all charges waived.
Also, all purchases made with the card have their warranty doubled. So when my dell died right out of 2 yr warranty, I contacted them and was told to send it in. I then received a comparable unit from Dell the week after.
Just to be devil's advocate, any credit card is going to do the same thing if your card is stolen; they're legally required to, but they also do a good job on this just as a customer retention measure.
My Amex story is about getting fucked over in a legitimate transaction, and Amex making it right even though the problem had nothing to do with my credit card. I was told to expect this of Amex customer service, and they were right.
> What's the biggest conflict you've had over a Visa transaction?
We had to buy full-price tickets (~ $1k) to get back home from a vacation due to a hurricane warning. We had no applicable insurance on original return tickets, but we got a full refund after a call to a bank's credit card department. Perhaps it wasn't 4 minutes as in your case, more like 15, but considering the circuimstances I think it's still pretty awesome :-)
