How generous are credit card rewards in the EU?

amarcheschi 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

With sumup I get 0.5% cashback up to a whopping 10€/ month lol. There are other cards giving cashback, I think Amex blu has a 1% with no upper bound of monetary cashback

	▲	LeonidasXIV 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Amex has very spotty acceptance rate in Europe.

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bluebarbet 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Presumably not very, because the large majority of Europeans do not use credit cards.

	▲	SXX 16 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'd say it heavily depend on country. In some of them they are popular, but in others even debit cards is something only few people have.

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AnssiH 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My understanding is that they are much less generous on average compared to U.S.

E.g. for now I have the most premium card offered by my bank (50€/mo), and it gets me extra product insurance, rental car insurance, travel insurance, free lounge access, and some other things like that, but no cashback or similar.

I think some premium cards do offer cashback nowadays, but they are in the minority. Some cards also offer airline reward points. My experience is limited to Finland, though.

	▲	Hikikomori 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		US are not generous either. Merchant increase prices by 5% to cover costs, you get 2.5% cashback and visa/your bank pockets the other 2.5% you're paying.

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SXX 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Normal cards not very generous. Fintech can sometimes give 1% cashback capped at 30-50-100 EUR.

Some weird crypto stuff can give more cashback, but it mostly for scheming nerds.

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edent 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In the UK (which broadly follows the same rules), I get 0.25% with a Visa and 1.25% with Amex. Sometimes there are introductory offers for a few months.

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Symbiote 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And as a result of that, Amex is often not accepted.

	▲	rsynnott 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And is largely dying out as far as I can see; it’s only even still issued in a couple of European countries.

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SXX 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

At least in the UK Amex interchange fees are not capped like Visa and Mastercard.

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throwaway_20357 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Usually ~1%. Some direct cashback, some via rewards points (e.g. 1.5 AMEX MRP earned per EUR are roughly worth 1ct).

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graemep 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There are similar caps in the UK and most credit card rewards seem to be low after an initial offer period.

There are some specific discounts and benefits but not cash rewards.

It is illegal (not banks will not let you, actual legislation) here to charge more for card payments or discount for cash or bank transfer.