American Express USA bans card churning …. UK to follow?

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• Farringdon says:

  27 Mar27 March 12:44

  Presumably the US bloggers who make a living from referral fees (including some number of churned accounts) will take a hit from this.

• Jordan D says:

  27 Mar27 March 12:48

  Very interesting debate, not least as that now I’ve completed the car hire I had on the books and got some points of a Platinum referral, I’m about to shut the card and wait my 6 months … in time for my holiday in November.

  Will I get the Platinum in 6 months time? Who knows … depends on the offers available and – as Raffles has mentioned – what the actual card benefits will be. Time will tell.

• RIccati says:

  27 Mar27 March 13:34

  The flaw in the logic is that most people would have already had these credit cards throughout their life if not the last couple of years, indeed!

  Assuming someone who never had an AMEX card, earning 110-120k in Avios accumulated over a couple of years would give a return in J to Asia. That’s it.

• Charlie Whiskey says:

  27 Mar27 March 13:41

  I don’t think we can complain at all if the rules change. Amex clearly knows what is happening on the churning front (my iPhone app when downloaded showed all of their cards I have ever had) and they make a business judgement as whether they want me and my wife to have their cards or not. I took almost all my advice from the amazing Raffles over the years – ever since the heady days of the Marriott > Tesco Clubcard > BA Air Miles trick which got me started.

  A complete stop to a second points bonus would affect some more than others. When I look at my BA Flightpath record that has just appeared on my BAEC account I see that over the past 10 years Mrs Charlie Whiskey and I have done 8 return long-haul trips in First, 3 in Club, 6 Club Europe plus about another 6 in Business within the USA and Southern Africa. In this time I have not earned a single tier point and all flights have been done on Avios from Amex cards, Tesco and some ad hoc sources such as hotels.

  If it all stopped tomorrow I will have had a great ride whilst retired, and I would still have oodles of Avios in the kitty plus the chance to get BAEC two-for ones until they ran out. I have a conscience but don’t think I would feel guilty as a possible contributor to bonus-demise: Amex can tweak the rules to serve their purposes, and I can work within them to serve mine.

  Oh! and we should lay off Raffles: he is a paragon of virtue, a superbrain and a source of much happiness.

• Frenske says:

  27 Mar27 March 14:12

  Credit cards in the USA are often ridiculous generous. Not only AmEx is doing, but for example Club Carlson Visa is bordering too madness.

  • Stripy says:

    27 Mar27 March 18:16

    Have you seen the state of Radissons in the US? That’s a big part of the reason why CC has to be generous. There are a large number of competitors offering rooms at similar rates, in better locations and with better amenities…CC has to offer some sort of carrot to make up for that.

• Martin says:

  27 Mar27 March 19:38

  I’d be interested particularly for a platinum card what loss of revenue amex would see if these bonuses stop for people who have already had a card, chances are you wouldn’t take it on again. I’d question if the platinum perks are worth £450 a year.

• Anon says:

  27 Mar27 March 19:56

  Rarely post but felt compelled to do so…

  Malibu Stacey – Do you have problem with Raffles having a wee income from a few refferals and his his sterling efforts via this site?

  Its a great service that we get for free, “good on yer” is what I say for Raffles

  • Rob says:

    27 Mar27 March 20:27

    I felt the comment was directed at US bloggers rather than myself, to be honest!

• Georgie says:

  27 Mar27 March 20:05

  I would say in the context of this article (after all we weren’t talking about the weather) it would be a disaster. 110,000 lifetime sign up miles are not much use to anyone. I suspect there are loads of serial churners just because they don’t post on here or flyertalk doesn’t mean they aren’t reading, many that do post brag about how much churning they do, putting in their new application after 7 months. That’s the trouble with spelling things out so people don’t gave to work at things for themselves, hence the collapse of the clubcard scheme as well. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s all over in a years time if AMEX deem it a success in the US, or maybe even if they don’t, they are not stupid. Don’t think it will go to one or two years, it will either stay as it is or go, not worth their while just tweaking it. We will all be saying it was good while it lasted and talk about the golden days and lament their loss – ours not AMEX .

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