I had advance notice on Tuesday that American Express was about to make changes to the minimum income requirements to apply for its cards.
To be honest, I assumed that they were going to go up.
Instead, Amex has removed minimum income requirements altogether.
These were the previous HOUSEHOLD minimum income figures for the travel cards:
Preferred Rewards Gold (charge) – £20,000
Platinum (charge) – £40,000
British Airways (credit) – £20,000
British Airways Premium Plus (credit) – £20,000
Starwood Preferred Guest (credit) – £30,000
If we’re honest, these figures were probably too low.
Let’s take the British Airways Premium Plus card. This comes with a £195 annual fee. Someone on a salary of £20,000 will take home £1,397 per month. That is not necessarily a good income base for shelling out a £195 annual card fee.
Similarly, a £40,000 salary gives you take home pay of £2,530 per month. A £450 fee for Amex Platinum is a disproportionately high percentage of that. I’m not sure that this works in favour of Amex when it comes to recruiting cardholders who will stick with it for the long term.
This is why I expected the minimum income numbers to increase. Instead, they have gone.
I can see the logic here. After all, a single person living at home on a £20,000 salary has a totally different disposable income profile to someone who is married with two kids and a mortgage taking home £20,000. Taking a strict cut-off level is a blunt instrument.
It remains to be seen if American Express will, instead, make their application forms more complex and start digging deeper into your personal and financial situation before accepting you.
Do let me know if you decide to apply for one of the cards above, where you would previously have failed to pass the household income test, and are now successful.
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I applied for AMEX Gold when I got my first job, obviously my income was significantly lower than £40K…but shortly after I submitted the application, I received a phone call from AMEX say they would like to invite me to apply for Platinum card. It was a really tough choice, the £300 annual card fee was a rather large sum, especially if you use “available income” as a measurement (Net income less living expenses). That was probably around 8% of my available income.
It took me a good minute being silent on the phone before I told the guy that I would accept the invitation. (I fear if I rejected the offer, they might never invite me again, as I was hoping to get Platinum card shortly in the future)
I did wonder why AMEX invited me, given I was totally honest with my income. But if AMEX could see the spending on my Barclaycard, then it might make sense…I believe there was about 40K spending through my Barclaycard per year.
A friend of mine wants to start collecting Avios. Do you think as the first card, the Amex Gold card would be the best to join? How long does it take to transfer the Amex Reward Points to BAEC for example? Would transferring points from Gold Card to BAEC regularly keep the miles active in your account or do you need actual account activity on your BAEC account for any Avios to remain active?
Thank you
I would do Gold. No fee and, importantly, you have a year to decide if Avios is for you. If not, you can cash out for something else.
Amex Gold is a good first card. It’s free. Transfers from MR to BAEC take a few days. Set up the link to BAEC prior to when you actually want to transfer to ensure quicker transfer. Any account on BAEC keeps avios active for another 3 years
Anyone know how long it takes for the complimentary upgrade to HHonours Gold to process?