Money alert: Credit card companies cut back on cashback

The generous 5 per cent cashback paid out by American Express for the first three months on its fee-free Platinum Cashback Everyday credit card will soon be harder to get for some. The card company will force loyal customers to spend a minimum of £4,250 a year in order to qualify for cashback from next March.

The move will hit anyone who's had a card since before August 2009. In a statement, Amex said: "We recently wrote to a proportion of our Platinum Cashback Cardmembers who acquired their Card prior to August 2009, to let them know that the minimum cashback amount that will be offered will increase from £12 to £25. This will be effective from March 2014."

However, AmEx is not the first to cut back on cashback this year. Capital One withdrew its Aspire World MasterCard and Barclaycard withdrew its Cashback card.

More could follow, warned Will Becker of TotallyMoney.com. He pointed out that new EU legislation - changing the way in which banks can charge fees to each other - could reduce plastic card companies' revenue by up to £2.4bn. "Those with cashback and reward cards will probably be the first to suffer as a result of this," he said.