American Express [AMEX] Credit Cards in Bangladesh, Explained

AMEX or American Express Credit Card FAQ in Bangladesh

The City Bank Limited is the sole operator of "American Express Credit Card" in Bangladesh. It's has some Pros and cons as like other credit cards exist in Bangladesh.

This post is not for inspiration or disappointment towards AMEX Credit Card [BD]
In this post, I will explain its features, Costs, Tips, Goods and Bads.

Available AMEX cards in Bangladesh

1. American Express Credit Card (Local)

2. American Express Credit Card (Dual)

3. American Express Gold Credit Card

4. American Express Platinum Credit Card
And 4 more cards which I will not talk about.

Here are the basic features of above cards.

1. Buy anything and pay before due date without any interest. 

2. FlexiBuy Program

    It offers 0% interest payment for many retail shops, products and online upto 3 to 36 month.

Now most of the shop offer upto 6 months EMI with no interest. 

And there is catch!

Most shops offer 0% interest on the regular Price, that means no offer like 'Cash Discount' can not be availed while puchasing through FlexiBuy Program. 

But some offer can be availed if seller allows you to, Like GP STAR member offer.

Important Note: Please make sure fill up the FlexiBuy/EMI form to get EMI correctly.

Now, if you want to extend your EMI more than seller offer, you may have to pay a FLAT interest rate like 6-8%. 

Let say you want to buy a product with a price tag of 50000 taka with 36 month EMI and 8% interest.

Then you have pay a total 54000 taka/36 month = 1500 taka/month.

3. Membership Points

   Like most of the credit cards in BD, it offers POINTS upon your POS and online purchase.

In case of AMEX you will get 1 point for every 50 taka or 1 dollar spending. But for Platinum Card you will get 2 points for the same amount spend.

What can you do with those point?

Nothing much really. In my view every point has a coversion value of only 40 poisa. So, if you accumulate 1000 points then your conversion value will be only 400 taka. 

Where these points can be redeemed?

1. Pay your annual card fee, sms charge fee,etc

2. Outstanding due amount can paid by these points.

3 Or you can convert your points to gift vouchers to puchase goods in retails store like Apex, Apon Jewelers, Aarong and many others

4.  You will get Best value for point when convert your points into vouchers.

5. Also you can convert point into gift cards.

4. Regular EMI

    Don't get confused! If you purchased a product from a sellar which does not offer FlexiBuy option.

Still you can get an EMI from AMEX card. You have to call their customer care number 16234 to avail this offer.

Interest rate is 1.42% MONTHLY!

What? Let me explain!

Say, you want to get EMI on a 50000 taka puchase for six month.

Then you have to pay 50000*1.42%= 710 interest every month + 50000/6 month = 8333.33 taka.

On the second month your interest should fall, right? NO! It's flat rate!

You have to pay 8333.33+710 = 9043.33 taka every month, total of 54259.98 taka. 

You can also calculate it with a 1.42*12=16.99% interest rate annually.

5. Cash Advance

    Although it's a credit card, you can withdraw cash from ATM. You can avail 50% of your total limit. That means, if you have 1 lac limit on your credit card you can withdraw 50 thousand from ATM.

There are two types of charge here.

1. Cash Advance fee which is min 100 taka or 2% of total amount you withdraw, plus 15% VAT on charge.

Example: Let say you withdraw 50000 taka. Your cash advance fee will be 50000*2%=1000 taka and 1000*15% VAT=150 taka, so total fee would be 1150 taka.

2. Interest on amount withdrawn: 

Which is 27% or 2.25% monthly or 0.75 taka per day per 1 thousand.

Example: Let's say you withdraw 50 thousand taka and didn't paid for 30 days.

Then your interest should be 50*0.75=37.5 taka/per day * 30 days =1125 taka

Let's get's a total cost/interest on your original 50 thousand withdrawn.

Cash Advance fee = 1150

Interest for 30 days= 1125

Total =2275

Which is 54% interest on yearly basis.

Let's talk about other fees:

1. SMS Notification Fee: 200 taka+15% VAT = 230 taka/per year

Same for every card type.

2. Card Annual fee: 1500 taka for Local, 2000 taka for Dual, 5000 taka for Gold and 25000 taka for Platinum card. + 15% VAT

3. Supplementary Card Annual Fee: Half of Primary card fee that is 750,1000,2500,12500 taka respectively. + 15% VAT

4. Late Payment Charge: 500, 600 or 10USD, 850 or 15 USD and 1000 or 20 USD respectively+ 15% VAT

AMEX Card Account Management:

You can do it in two ways.

1. You can create an account on american express Bangladesh website by following the link

2. If you have City Bank account and use their CityTouch App, then you can Tag credit card through that app.

Benefits: You can see your expenditure, avaialable balance, statement and individual transaction and many more.