Hallo allemaal! Ik lees uw discussies al een tijdje. Mijn Nederlands is nog steeds niet goed dus vergeef me alstublieft Engels te gebruiken. I have been living in the Netherlands for some time already. I was planning to get a Dutch amex gold until I bumped into the website of the German Amex. I think that the German amex cards are really the best alternatives to the Dutch ones (though they don't have the "flying blue" option). They are quite easy to apply and obtain. After spending some time looking at the website, I gave the German amex green a shoot. Today I got my card from my friend! Yay! Before, I lived in Germany for more than two years, but never thought of applying for an amex card to accumulate miles; such a shame! Advantages: 1. Yearly fees: Platinum 660 EUR, Gold 144 EUR (unofficial fee-waiver when having spent more than 10000 EUR per year), Green FREE (after 9000 EUR spent per year, otherwise 60 EUR). The fees are all cheaper than the Dutch ones. Plus, I know Germans who keep upgrading/downgrading to another card each year so that they can claim new offers every time. Surprisingly, this is possible with German amex as long as you have deregistered a specific card for more than 18 months. 2. Membership Rewards: All of them have an exchange ratio of 1 EUR for 1 MR. HOWEVER, if you activate the "Turbo-programm" by contacting the Amex team, you only need to spend 15 EUR per year for a ratio of 1 EUR for 1,5 MR! This equals to 1 EUR for 1.2 miles! The same as the Dutch platinum. It's worth it. 3. The options for MR exchange on the German side are 20 times more than the Dutch side. German amex has 13 mileage programmes (out of many other partners, such as hotels, webshops, gift cards, travel agencies...) to choose, while the Dutch amex only has 13 partners IN TOTAL! 4. Foreign Transaction Fee: 2% instead of 2,5% of Dutch amex. Still could improve... Disadvantages: Can't think of any... Maybe minor difficulties in applying for a card? Ways of Getting one: 1. A German address (could be a friend's or a forwarding service's. They do not require address proof at all.) 2. A German checking account (I use N26, for which I applied in the Netherlands! Better to use it for some time so that you may have a better SCHUFA score.) 3. A passport/ID (No need to have a German residence card. Identity check is performed via POSTIDENT, just download the app on your phone, fill in your info, and video-verify your passport with a staff member who speaks English/German/Russian/Polish...) 4. A German phone? Maybe a Dutch one will also do since there is a space to fill in area code. Did anyone try? (Otherwise, an online phone app will do the trick! Usually costs 2-4 EUR per month. It is just for the sms checking of POSTIDENT.) Apart from these materials, they did not ask for any others! Just like the Dutch amex, they did not even ask for a proof of income. Any thoughts? Anyone did this before? Would anyone else want to give it a go?
Welcome, and thanks for the helpful information! I actually applied a few months ago, but never heard back from them. Will try again
Thank you! It's very kind of you! Huh it is quite strange... I got my result in 30 seconds, right on the last page with a green tick! And right after I also got an email saying that as long as I finish the POSTIDENT, my card will arrive in a few days (applied last Wednesday and got it today!). Did you miss something? Could always try again, won't hurt
And they can have a good sign up/referral bonus like 75K points in Q1. But you need to spend 6000eur in 6 months, which can be hard without traveling. Do you have a German passport? Because for me with a Dutch passport I had to show my registration form of the city. So proof, that I live in Germany.
Yeah... Sadly it was in April and I missed it, but you're right it would be VERY hard to spend so much during isolation. No I don't even have an EEA passport! They didn't even ask for a German residence card, and my passport worked smoothly during the POSTIDENT procedure. (I lived in Germany for some years before but it shouldn't affect the application procedure, I guess.) My Dutch friend also applied with his Dutch passport with no problem. In which part did they ask for it? If during POSTIDENT, it may vary from agent to agent. Could hang up and try another agent again
That's weird - I got an email saying they will get back with results, same as with the dutch Amex. Nothing about POSTIDENT yet. We will see
Oh I see. Yeah if you go to the post office yourself they may ask for more documents. You could try verify via the POSTIDENT app; very easy to use and you only need to provide your passport info.
