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BIG NEWS: American Express blocks multiple sign-up bonuses, starting immediately

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American Express unveiled massive changes to its UK card sign-up bonuses last night.

This will effectively end card churning for most people.

Before I go on, I want to stress one thing.  The new rules on bonuses do NOT stop you applying for any of these cards.  They simply influence whether or not you will qualify for a sign-up bonus when you do.

It is also worth remembering that, even if YOU no longer qualify for a particular bonus, your partner or other adult family members might.

What is changing?

Until today, American Express sign-up bonuses followed two basic rules:

Cards were grouped into families based on reward type (Membership Rewards points, Avios, Starwood points, Nectar points) and your eligibility for a bonus depended on whether you had recently had a card in the same ‘family’

There was a six month restriction in place between cancelling an American Express card and being able to re-apply – with a new bonus – for a card in the same ‘family’

This is what is changing for the personal American Express cards:

The concept of ‘families’ has gone for most products.  The eligibility rules now span ALL personal American Express cards in most cases.

The look-back period increases from six months to 24 months

Whilst there are two exceptions, in simple terms you cannot get a sign-up bonus on a personal American Express card if you have held ANY personal American Express card in the last 24 months.

Are there any exceptions to these new rules?

Yes.  There are a few exceptions to the above:

The British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card is only impacted by the change in the look-back period to 24 months.   The old rules on eligibility remain – you cannot have had either of the two British Airways American Express cards in the previous 24 months BUT American Express does not count any other card you may have had.

(In plain English: if you’ve had a Platinum / Gold / Starwood / Nectar / Platinum Cashback card in the last two years, but NOT either of the BA Amex cards, you are eligible for the bonus on the Premium Plus card – but not the free BA Amex)

The Platinum Card is only impacted by the change in the look-back period to 24 months.   The old rules on eligibility remain – you cannot have had a Preferred Rewards Gold, Green, Platinum or American Express Rewards card (all of which earn Membership Rewards points) in the previous 24 months BUT American Express does not count any other card you may have had.

(In plain English: if you’ve had a BA / Starwood / Nectar / Platinum Cashback card in the last two years but NOT a card offering Membership Rewards points, you are eligible for the bonus on the The Platinum Card – but not Preferred Rewards Gold)

Small Business and Corporate products are not impacted at all.  The existing rules apply for those.  Importantly, the six month rule continues to apply for these cards.

(In plain English: if you’ve not had any personal or business card offering Membership Rewards points in the past six months, you are eligible for the bonus on the American Express Gold Business and American Express Platinum Business, assuming you own a qualifying small business)

Can you summarise this by card?

Here you go:

If you currently have the free British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus credit card ….

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways, British Airways Premium Plus, Preferred Rewards Gold, Starwood Preferred Guest, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Gold Business or American Express Platinum Business IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Gold Business or American Express Platinum Business card in the previous six months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

If you currently have Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card or American Express Rewards credit card ….

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express, Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, Starwood Preferred Guest, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You would need to cancel and wait six months before you can get a bonus on American Express Gold Business or American Express Platinum Business, assuming you meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

If you currently have a Nectar or Starwood Preferred Guest credit card ….

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express (free version), Preferred Rewards Gold, Starwood Preferred Guest, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Gold Business or American Express Platinum Business IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green, American Express Rewards, American Express Gold Business or American Express Platinum Business card in the previous six months and meet the qualifying criteria for having a small business

If you currently have a Platinum Cashback or Platinum Cashback Everyday card ….

You would need to cancel and wait 24 months before you can get a bonus on Platinum Cashback, Platinum Cashback Everyday, British Airways American Express, Preferred Rewards Gold, Green, Starwood Preferred Guest, Nectar, American Express Rewards

You can get a bonus NOW on The Platinum Card IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on British Airways Premium Plus IF you have not held a British Airways or British Airways Premium Plus card in the previous 24 months

You can get a bonus NOW on American Express Gold Business or American Express Platinum Business IF you have not held a Preferred Rewards Gold, The Platinum Card, Green or American Express Rewards card in the previous six months

Discussion of the American Express sign-up bonuses changes continue in a further articles here.

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British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

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Earning miles and points from small business cards

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British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

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Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards, American Express Platinum card, Amex Rewards Credit Card, British Airways American Express, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (1165)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Sellers says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:08

    Even on existing cards?
    My partner has the Plat issued a couple of weeks ago and is £300 away from 2k spend. Does this now mean she won’t get the bonus?

    • Jimbob says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:09

      I’m assuming people with current sign up bonus targets will be ok

  • Grant says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:10

    Yes. What I don’t know if how often you can do that. For example, on a £2k per month BAPP spend could you use the card for five months, earn your 2-41, and then cancel. Sign up again in month six and repeat the cycle?

    Probably a bit of a moot point since earning the Avios to make use of the 2-4-1s will be harder now.

    • barry cutters says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:18

      you can do it immediately .

      I have earned 4 in a year before

      • joe says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:30

        Barry do you mean 2 vouchers for you and 2 for partner/wife etc per year?

      • Ronal says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:32

        He probably means he earn’t 4 himself, as there isn’t a waiting time for the vouchers

  • Craig says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:13

    Is there a full update to T&Cs or is it just the 24 month statement on the application pages? Lot’s of supposition here to other loopholes being closed, but I guess we won’t really know until someone presses to test?

  • Dominic says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:14

    This is certainly a sudden change. The highly wishful part of me hopes that they could make some of the benefits of having the card more attractive in the first place, but perhaps I am being too hopeful… increased offers on earning rate, perhaps?

    Not overly fussed by the lack of churning – being able to get the BA Amex for 12 months, then return to the Gold. Also, if the BA Premium Plus stays as it is, the 2-4-1 voucher is worth it, anyway.

  • SimonW says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:16

    Refer, refer and refer again. It’s all gonna be OK. The rules have changed, but the game continues…..
    If anything, my wife will be getting a new Plat card every 2 months now, not every 8. Why wait at all?

  • BS says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:18

    Drat. I was due a churn on the BA Amex and I was being lazy (I like to think not overly taking the p…).

    Shame. This has been a nice little earner over the years, and has got me lounge access etc. through Amex on top. I guess things are going to have to change, or I’m actually going to have to accept the annual fee without large points kickbacks…gulp

  • Ragman says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:20

    Wow. If I understand this right then my whole CC strategy will have to change.
    I have a BA Prem which I only pay £35 a year instead of the £195 because I have had it for so long) I churn the Gold with my wife every six months ( she also has a BA Prem) .
    Once we have earned the Companion tickets on the 2 BA Cards we also get another card ( normally the Starwood) to get more miles. I probably spend £30-35k every year on Amex.
    I know a lot of people who have this as a strategy.
    Given that you need to keep the BA CC until you use the Companion ticket ( which we book a year in advance). I think that will have to stay in the wallet.
    I will now give serious consideration to the other cards/ airlines.
    Time for reflection me thinks

    • LewisB says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:22

      But will you keep the BAPP in the wallet or the BA Amex?

      • Ragman says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:37

        My immediate response is probably not once I have burnt my Avios. IMO the companion ticket is only worth it for Club or First longhaul. So I need circa 100k Avios. ATM we get two Companion Tickets a year which cost us £230 in CC fees.
        I need to look at my spend and my other options (I.e. Virgin)

    • Lumma says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:28

      I thought that AMEX only told you that you needed to keep the card you earned the 241 on but you only needed to have another AMEX to buy the ticket with?

    • Kipto says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:28

      You don’t need to keep the BA credit card until you use the Companion voucher

      • Alan says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:29

        But you do need to keep an AMEX card of some description

      • ed says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:32

        the T&C’s – are as follows “All Taxes, Fees and Charges must be paid for using the British Airways American Express Card”, while we know they’ve not enforced these previously. Going forward possible it might change?

        • LewisB says:
          21 Mar21 March 09:43

          It should be fine to earn the 241 on the BAPP then downgrade to the BA Amex, keep that in the wallet and pay the taxes on a amex card. If questioned on check in the BA Amex should be fine even if you used the BAPP to earn the 241. That’s the one part that’s unclear if they do start to enforce this rule. I can’t see how BA would know.

        • Rob says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:31

          No. And Amex does not do name verification so could use a friends etc even if they did.

      • Grant says:
        21 Mar21 March 09:33

        There appears to be some suggestion, on what basis I do not know, that the requirement to have a BA Amex at the time of travel on a 2-4-1 voucher may now be more rigorously enforced.

        You need to have an Amex of some description when booking with a 2-4-1 to pay fees and taxes.

        • Genghis says:
          21 Mar21 March 09:58

          Pure speculation! It would require BA to enforce it (is it possible using the BIN or do other series use the same BINs?)

  • Dominic says:
    21 Mar21 March 09:24

    Must say that the amount of people commenting saying that there is no point in them having an Amex now speaks volumes. If your only way of making an Amex useful was to churn churn churn, you are not the type of customer that Amex needs.

    Those that benefited from churning, whilst also continually spending large sums of money are the people that Amex needs; not those that spend to get a bonus and then stop.

    • Craig says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:31

      There are those of us that sit somewhere in-between, we keep three paid cards rolling year after year and top-up using other bonuses. We also advocate Amex to friends and colleagues, yes there’s something in it for us but also it can get people started on the same path. I’m probably responsible for Amex having around 30 customers they perhaps wouldn’t have done otherwise and I’m fairly certain most of them still are. I never mention the unspeakable strategy to them. I think there will still be a way forward; we probably spend around £35k a year across cards, however, it will need some careful thought as to how to maximise the rewards.

    • Freddy says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:31

      I churned and continued to spend 20-30k per year on amex. I’m of the view it’s not worth the hassle purely for the points based on spend especially when card fees are taken into account

    • Lumma says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:42

      The worst part in my opinion is that you can’t get the bonus from other families of card – I was thinking of getting the SPG card soon but now won’t as I won’t get a sign-up bonus

      Similarly, unless I’m going to get rid of every AMEX card I have (I’ve got an amex red card from 2006 which I keep as I get the best AMEX offers on it), I’m probably never going to give Platinum a try as I can’t effectively reduce the first year annual fee with a sign-up bonus

      One thing I hope they might have in the pipeline is more anniversary bonuses like the 10,000 points for £15k on gold l, to reward loyalty and high spend

      • Genghis says:
        21 Mar21 March 10:00

        Yep. First thoughts are perhaps Amex Gold for two years (basically paying 140/2 = £70 annual fee and switch to partner with BAPPs thrown in there as and when. I don’t generate too many external referrals. I’ll do the full numbers analysis in due course but I don’t think I’ll be doing regular Plats at £450 pa.

      • Doug M says:
        21 Mar21 March 10:02

        If things appear in offers you want and can use the £450 sort of comes back to. I got £200 of Amex Travel twice in the last year (once may have been on BAPP, but you get the idea), and each time been able to find flight through them at same cost as with airline. Prefer to book direct with airline, but £200 is well worth hassle of travel agent. Took a friend to Amex Stadium this week for Q&A with the Brighton manager, whilst free it was easily worth £100 to me as an experience. Couple of referrals, bit of lounge use the Platinum can make sense. It’s just thinking about it’s real value and not going no way am I paying £450 for a credit card, well charge but you know what I mean.

    • Doug M says:
      21 Mar21 March 09:56

      My thoughts exactly. Amex looking to switch things in the era of fees cap on BA Amex, shift to a more spend orientated customer base, and weed out the multiple churners. Understandable, sadly feel I may be in the weeded out section.
      I guess the follow on from this should IT be capable will be limited referrals for same person. Otherwise you just refer partner and they cancel, repeat every two months on the Platinum whilst doing a much slower 24 month+ switch between partners on the BA Amex for the 2-4-1.
      My guess is this will drastically reduce the Amex cards in circulation, and the spend, but lead to better per card numbers for Amex. Could be be quite damaging to the scale of Amex use in the UK? Or are we churners a small subset not understanding the real world pattern of use.

      • Polly says:
        21 Mar21 March 10:09

        We are 5% of amex base customers. So they don’t really need us v the huge biz spenders out there.
        Also such regular referring and cancelling, say every 2 months, would def damage the credit rating.

        • Doug M says:
          21 Mar21 March 10:52

          I don’t care about my credit rating. Amex seem to care about your relationship with them, not what Experian or whoever think. Cancel a few cards and wait 3 or 4 months and credit rating repairs in my experience.

        • Symon says:
          21 Mar21 March 22:27

          I disagree. The more people holding the card, even for short periods, increases it’s usage and visibility. Fewer active users will impact on acceptance rates. And Amex can’t piggyback on another network like Diners has done to increase acceptability. I’d also like to know if is this the start of Amex reducing their exposure to a post-Brexit UK.

    • Bazza says:
      21 Mar21 March 22:06

      They also not the big spenders who earn rob any money do I’m sure he won’t miss them

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