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Sign up nowAmerican Express launches instalment plan option for credit card users
Find out whether the new feature can save you money
American Express has launched an instalment option called Plan It for its credit card customers to offer a new way to spread the cost of purchases.
It will allow you to select certain purchases of more than £100 and choose to pay for them in three, six or 12-month instalments for a monthly fee instead of paying interest.
Here, Which? explains how the new feature works, if it’s worth using and how it compares with similar instalment initiatives from Barclaycard, Monzo, NatWest and Virgin Money.
How does Plan It work?
You can use the Plan It feature if you have one of the following cards:
- Platinum Cashback Everyday Credit Card
- Platinum Cashback Credit Card
- American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card
- British Airways American Express Credit Card
- British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card
- The Platinum Card
- Nectar Credit Card
- Marriott Bonvoy
- American Express Card
- Vitality American Express Credit Card
- British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card
Those with an eligible card can select a transaction, or an amount from their most recent statement and put it in an instalment plan. It must be more than £100.
The instalment plan options are three, six and 12 months.
You’ll be charged a fixed monthly fee for your instalment plan, but you won’t be charged interest on the balance in your plan.
Your monthly instalment amount will be part of your minimum payment due on your billing statement. The first instalment will appear on the first statement after you create a plan.
You’ll earn rewards on your purchase as usual.
You can have multiple instalment plans, but the amount you can have at once will depend on your card and credit limit.
- Find out more: American Express credit card review.
How much can you save?
Amex said the monthly fee charged will be comparable to the interest you would pay if you carried the balance without creating an instalment.
You can use its calculator to see how much it would cost, which assumes an interest rate of 30%. However, you may be charged less/more depending on your card's APR.
Your monthly instalment amount will include the monthly plan amount and the monthly fee.
Here’s how much it would cost to use Plan It versus having no instalment plan for £100 using all three plans.
| Instalment plan for three months | No instalment plan | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan amount | £33.33 | Monthly card amount | £33.33 |
| Monthly fee | £1.07 | Average monthly interest | £1.36 |
| Monthly instalment amount | £34.40 | Average card repayment | £34.69 |
| Total repaid at end of term | £103.20 | Total repaid | £104.07 |
| Instalment plan for six months | No instalment plans | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan amount | £16.67 | Monthly card amount | £16.67 |
| Monthly fee | £1.07 | Average monthly interest | £1.25 |
| Monthly instalment amount | £17.74 | Average card repayment | £17.92 |
| Total repaid at end of term | £106.44 | Total repaid | £107.52 |
| Instalment plan for 12 month | No instalment plan | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly plan amount | £8.33 | Monthly card amount | £8.33 |
| Monthly fee | £1.07 | Average monthly interest | £1.23 |
| Monthly instalment amount | £9.40 | Average card repayment | £9.56 |
| Total repaid at end of term | £112.80 | Total repaid | £114.72 |
As you can see from the tables, the amount of money you save is minimal when using the instalment plan.
But you may find it gives you more flexibility with how you manage your spending on a credit card. You can split purchases you know will take a while to pay off from your everyday spending and have different strategies for paying off each.
Is Amex a good provider?
Which? surveyed thousands of credit card customers in October 2023 to find out how satisfied they were with their providers.
We also asked them to rate the companies across a range of customer satisfaction categories, from the application process through to the service they receive when using their card.
Amex is a Which? Recommended Provider and achieved a provider customer score of 79% – putting in second in our table behind Tesco Bank.It scored five stars for its mobile app and clarity of statement and four stars for its transparency of charges, application process and customer service.
It also has three cards tha have our Best Buy endorsement – the American Express Rewards Credit Card for airmiles, the American Express Platinum Cashback Credit Card and the American Express Platinum Everyday Credit card for cashback.
- Find out more: best credit card providers
How does the Amex scheme compare?
Several other providers offer the option to pay down your credit card bill with instalment plans.
Here's how the Plan It by American Express compares with similar schemes, ordered alphabetically.
| Provider scheme | Minimum amount | Instalment term offered | How is monthly fee calculated? |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Express Plan It | £100 | 3, 6, 12 months | Equivalent to interest rate of card (fo example, 30% APR) |
| Barclaycard Instalment Plan | £100 | 3 to 24 months | Monthly fee 1% to 8%, subject to credit limit |
| Monzo Flex | £30 | 3, 6, 12 months | No fee if 3 month option selected, 29% APR for 6 or 12 |
| NatWest credit card instalment plans | £50 | 3, 6, 12, 24 months | Less than the equivalent interest rate of the card, typically 11.9% rather than 18.9% APR |
| Virgin Money Slyce | £30 | 3, 6, 9, 12 months | No fee for 3 and 6 month plans. 9 month charged at 7.5%, 12 months charged at 10% |
Monzo Flex and Virgin Money have the most competitive offer as you can get 0% interest on purchases with no monthly fee for at least three months (Virgin Money Slyce offers six months).
These options are similar to buy now, pay later schemes where you don't pay interest on purchases if you can pay back what you borrow withing a short period.
- Find out more: buy now, pay later schemes explained.
Is this the best way to borrow?
American Express said that using Plan It would provide ‘flexibility and control, taking the guesswork out of your payments’ allowing customers to have fees that are 'clearly outlined' at the start of their plan.
While this is true, we’re struggling to think of any more reasons to use this feature as you won’t save much in interest in the long run.
With reward credit cards, we recommend paying off the balance in full every month to avoid hefty interest charges that are common with these types of cards.
If you're looking to spread the cost of a big purchase you may be better off with an interest-free purchase credit card.
These cards won’t charge interest for a set period of time (typically between three and 21 months right now). However, if you don't manage to pay off the amount within this period, you'll be charged interest on the remaining balance at the card's standard APR – typically around 20%.
- Find out more: best interest-free purchase credit cards.
