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American Express (AXP)
To understand the American Express Optima card, first, we should know about the ‘American Express.’ American Express is a multinational financial company that offers its services to the public. Its headquarters is situated in Lower Manhattan in New York City. This company was founded in 1850, and since then, it has been providing its services to the people. 175 countries take benefits from this fortune company. It offers different kinds of cards and cheques, and other products.
Cards It Offers
American Express puts forward credit and charge cards to individuals. In fact, it’s one of the largest companies to provide credit and a variety of other cards. It has also tied knots with other companies/brands to provide Co-branded Credit cards, including E-credit cards, corporate cards for small enterprises etc.
American cards, also known as ‘Amex Cards,’ include a number of cards. Some of the examples include The Platinum Card, American Express Gold Card, Blue Cash Preferred Card, Cash Magnet Card, Hilton Honors Cards, American Express Green Card, and the list goes on and on.
The good thing about this company is that it offers a wide range of cards according to your specific needs, for instance, Travelcards, Cashback cards, cards with rewards, cards with no annual fee, cards with 0% intro APR, cards with low interest.
Suggested Read: Can I Finance a Car With No Credit in 2021
American Express Optima Card
American Express Optima Card is one of the Amex Cards. This is an Optima card/ Second chance Card, set in motion in 1987. It was American Express’s first credit card launched. It’s basically an electronic payment card, which can be used to make an online transaction with a microprocessor chip. It’s a second chance Card which means it offers its customers chances even if they have made some mistakes with money in the past, but it’s not a secured card.
American Express Optima Card allows you to compensate for your mistakes, like if you misused your credit cards before or have had trouble using your credit card in the past or you did not have an excellent experience with second chances credit cards before, then it’s a good and reliable choice for you.
With the time passing, people are becoming aware of this American Express Optima Card; however, it doesn’t have any websites for its advertisement, it’s because the company is very choosy about who it is gonna issue the card to.
How Does It Work
American Express Optima Card is considered a high-class Card. You submit your application to apply for this card, it will be processed, looked through, you’ll get guaranteed approval, and you will receive your Amex card in the mail. It comes with an annual fee but has almost no perks and rewards or bonuses. Its charges include
- Annual fee, which is 49$
- Penalty APR, in case you forgot to pay your payment, is 25.99% in addition to the prime rate.
- Late fee, in case you did not pay your fee by the due date, which is almost 40$.
- Foreign transaction fee, the fee which you are charged if you make a transaction in foreign countries is 2.7%.
- Its standard APR is prime plus 14.99%.
After taking a look at its charges, it’s not an expensive card that one cannot afford. Very reasonable and comes with a lot of benefits.
Who Can Apply for American Express Optima Card
Not everyone can apply for this Amex card. First of all, you cannot get this card whenever you want to, you need an invitation to apply for this card, and then the company decides whether you are going to get the card or not and if you are fortunate enough to receive your invitation for this card, you definitely go for it. This is one of the reasons why it’s called a high-class card. As already mentioned, it’s a second chance Card; that is, it offers an invitation to Amex card users who already used one of Amex cards and defaulted it. This card is offered to you if you want to settle your balance and the plus point is if you use it wisely, you are eligible to apply for other Amex Cards as well. In a nutshell, it’s only available for Amex users. When you get the American Express optima card, you need to pay off your balance.
Do you want to use a credit card to develop credit? Instead, use the Destiny MasterCard to improve your credit.
Benefits
American Express Optima Card offers a number of benefits for its customers. Its pros are :
- It allows its customers balance transfers for transferring your debts from one card to another, thus helps you to save.
- In addition to balance transfers, it doesn’t charge you for it. Zero balance transfer APR and zero balance transfer fee.
- It provides excellent security and liability and doesn’t ask for unauthorized charges.
- This card helps you manage your debits and credits.
- It gives low APR balance lifetime offers.
- You get the deals that offer you rewards.
- It’s not very costly and has charges comparable to other products, which is a good thing.
- This card is an excellent option for those who have made some blunders with their Amex credit cards in the past.
- It doesn’t charge you any additional annual charges besides the annual charges of 49$, unlike other credit card companies.
- This Optima card does not require you to pay your fee in advance, which is a kind of relief for those who are not so well off. They know about the due date, and they arrange the fee by the due date anyhow. No advance, no worries.
- Its customers have access to FICO scores each month. FICO score means that it tells the lender about the borrower that how likely is it for them to pay back the loans, and what the odds are, which helps you decide whether you should give a loan or not.
- If you want to be on good terms with American Express Company, American Express Optima Card is a perfect idea.
Disadvantages
Everything that comes with benefits indeed has some disadvantages as well and while we are on the benefits, why not have a look at some of its disadvantages.
- It’s not like you can get this card whenever you want. You can only get this card if the company sends you an invitation, which is a con in a way that you really want to go for this card, but still, you are bound.
- The other con is you must qualify for all the terms and conditions they ask for, and to do that, it requires a lot of time and energy, which makes it kind of a hectic process to get this card.
- It’s very unlikely to get any rewards or bonuses when using this card.
- It’s an unsecured card, so you have to pay your charges without any leniency.
- One more con is that you have to be an Amex user to apply for this card, and you should have one of its defaulted cards; otherwise, you wouldn’t get this.
American Express Optima Card Is an Unsecured Card
Now the question arises what harm being an unsecured card does to this Amex card. Well, being an unsecured card, no doubt it offers you a great deal of freedom, but it comes along with immense drawbacks, especially if you are used to spending too much.
Moreover, if you are unable to prove a good credit history, it is better to opt First Access Card that does not require a perfect credit history.
An unsecured credit card comes with an imaginary limit. You are not spending your own money, and if you overspend, you might end up being in trouble. It is mandatory to pay your dues on time while using an unsecured American Express Optima card. The other con of using this unsecured card is that your interest adds up. So no matter how much the American Express Optima Card benefits you, as it’s an unsecured card, it brings a considerable disadvantage.