Credit card concierge service

I've been considering shelling out a bit more and getting a credit card with a concierge service, but would like to get some input from people who have used these concierge services. What does the concierge service actually include?

Hi there,

The concierge services that come as complimentary benefits with credit cards are generally limited to services which can be performed remotely via the Internet and telephone. The concierge service will normally work with its partner merchants as a first stop, and it will charge the cost of goods or services you order to your credit card.

These concierge services are useful for handling flight, public transportation and hotel bookings. All you have to do is tell them what you are looking for and where, and they will get back to you with one or more offers for confirmation before booking. You can also have them handle gift shopping on your behalf, or even find information which is not related to a purchase - such as activities in a certain location or a travel itinerary. They also help in event organization, such as booking venues or hiring entertainment on your behalf.

They will not actually physically run around on your behalf (airport or school pickups, for example) the way that expensive luxury concierge services do. They also do not generally handle replying to mail, answering phone calls, paying bills and arranging appointments on your behalf - although there may be some aspects of these duties which they may help with if asked (paying bills which can be paid by credit card, for example).

You can find more information in the moneyland.ch guide to credit card concierge services. To find out which Swiss credit cards include concierge services as a benefit, simply select the "concierge services" filter in the interactive credit card comparison. Currently, the Visa LibertyCard Plus is one of the cheapest credit cards which includes the concierge service benefit (the service is the same one you get with most platinum credit cards).

Best regards from Moneyguru

I wonder if you could provide an update on your advice re: concierge services in Switzerland?

Amex Platinum have severely reduced their offering by reducing the maximum number of included support requests to 30 per year, and restricting the assistance they will provide to travel and entertainment bookings only. They will not support you in any other way anymore, meaning only Centurion card holders receive a real service.

Any experiences with Allianz concierge would be great to hear about.

I used the Libertycard Plus with the Allianz concierge service until a year ago. On the whole, I was pretty happy with the concierge service. They did a good job of finding suitable restaurants for my large family during festivals and other times when most restaurants were booked up and we didn't make prior reservations. They also helped me find information (nearby activities for the kids, for example), even without booking anything.

For hotel bookings, they worked with booking.com, and would only book hotels through that, even if booking directly or through other booking sites was cheaper. So you did not always get the best available price. The same was true for flights/travel. Also, making bookings took more work than I would have liked (you had to give your credit card info each time).

All in all, it did provide added value and let me spend more time with my family instead of on a device doing research or making bookings.

Thanks for the response thetownclownsa.

Good to know that I won't achieve much with Allianz. 

I guess I am looking for more day-to-day assistance as an expat with weak language skills, e.g. understanding complex Swiss requirements, finding an English speaking doctor to register with, or even something as simple as knowing when the rubbish collection day is in my neighbourhood. 

Both here and in the UK (where the Amex Platinum concierge is FAR superior), I never found their travel booking services particularly useful. In the UK the prices were often higher than could be obtained yourself. Here they are simply too lazy to research things properly, e.g. they wanted to book me into a hotel that was still under construction! Thankfully I had the sense to do a quick online search before I said yes. Naturally, there was no real explanation or apology for their mistake.

I see that cornercard Platinum use Quintessentially, although according to Quintessentially's website they don't operate in Switzerland. I wonder if anyone has any experience with Cornercard? 

I've never used the Platinum card from Cornercard, but I had another card from them and was happy with Cornercard's service. I had a look at Quintessentially's website, and it definitely looks to be on a different level to the Allianz Global Assistance concierge. Seems the Cornercard Platinum has most of the other benefits you get with the Swiss Platinum American Express (i.e. unlimited airport lounge access). Plus you get cash back which could cover a big chunk of the annual card fee.

I honestly don't hold out a lot of hope that even Quintessentially's service will be up to scratch as customer expectations are far lower in Switzerland. However, I could well see the fee covering itself via cash back so I guess it's worth the risk. Unfortunately the application website is in German and I have not received any response to an email asking whether I can expect all documentation and card login websites to also be unavailable in English. Not a good start!

The local market is simply used to receiving less and not making a fuss about it. In the same year Amex Platinum increased their card fee, they reduced concierge enquires from unlimited to 30 (without even defining what a single enquiry constituted), removed concierge assistance unless entertainment or travel related, and totally removed their customer website portal so no way of viewing or downloading transactions on a PC. All of this in a year where the same card in the UK and North America added multiple features to compensate customers who were no longer able to travel, so therefore couldn't make use of the majority of features they were paying for.

I often wonder if Amex are aware of just how bad Swisscard (the local issuer) and Ten Consulting (the concierge provider) are! My expat friend living here even went to the length of getting a UK Amex Plat and using it here (naturally there are no forex charges for the UK card unlike the Swiss), rather than getting the Swiss version due to all this.