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American Express has closed two Amex Rewards Credit Card variants

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One of the downsides of cancelling an American Express Preferred Rewards Gold credit card or Platinum charge card is that you are required to empty out your Membership Rewards points account.

The Preferred Rewards Gold credit card is free in year 1 and comes with a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points (read my Preferred Rewards Gold review here).

Platinum comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points (read my Platinum charge card review here).  These convert 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or many other airline schemes or at up to 1:3 into various hotel schemes.

Amex Rewards Credit Card

Having to close your Membership Rewards points account can lead to a dilemma over when to cancel.  You will be paying £11.66 per month after the free first year to keep an Amex Gold active and £50 for a Platinum.  However, this allows you to keep your Membership Rewards points where they are.  If you are forced to transfer them because you close the account, you may regret it later.

Because Amex points can be transferred to many different airline and hotel partners, they are more valuable than airline or hotel points.  You shouldn’t convert them until you need them.

Since late 2017, there has been a solution that:

lets you keep your Membership Rewards points account open, and

allows you to stop paying an annual fee for either the Gold or Platinum cards

You could apply for the little-known American Express Rewards Credit Card.

This card has NO ANNUAL FEE and lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

Unfortunately, the American Express Rewards Credit Card has just become a little less attractive.  Two of the three variants were closed last night.

What is the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

ARCC is a standard Amex-branded credit card.  It has no annual fee and no substantial benefits, except for the ability to collect Membership Rewards points at 1 point per £1 spent.

There WERE three versions of the card available:

a low interest rate version

a ‘0% interest on purchases’ version, and

a ‘standard’ version with the usual 22.9% interest rate and without a 0% offer on purchases

You can probably guess which two versions have been closed down.  Yes …. the one with the 9.9% interest rate and the one which offered 0% interest on purchases.

The one version which remains is the ‘standard’ one with a 5,000 Membership Rewards points bonus and a representative APR of 22.9% variable (click here).   You need to spend £2,000 within three months to receive the bonus.

It is unlikely that many (any?) Head for Points readers will qualify for the bonus because you cannot have held any personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.

Don’t worry about that.  You may still want to get this card even though you won’t get a bonus.

If you currently have an Amex Gold or Platinum card and want to cancel it but do not want to cash in your Membership Rewards points, this card is your answer.

Apply for the one remaining variant of the American Express Rewards Credit Card.  Once it is active, you can cancel your Gold charge or credit card or Platinum charge card safe in the knowledge that your Membership Rewards balance is safe.

The only ‘snag’ is that you will not have reset the 24 month clock on being able to reapply for any other personal American Express card (with the exception of British Airways Premium Plus) and receive another sign-up bonus.  In order to do that you need to close down your Membership Rewards account entirely.

For a lot of people, though, being able to keep your existing Membership Rewards balance alive will be more important.

You can apply for the remaining version of the American Express Rewards credit card here.

Tomorrow I will remind you why, for many people, this card is a better choice than the free British Airways American Express card.

best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Category

Amex Rewards Credit Card

Comments (76)

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

  • Alan says:
    15 Oct15 October 03:45

    I cancelled my Amex Gold reward card a year ago. I know if I apply for a new card I won’t get the welcome bonus. However if my wife who has an Amex Gold reward card ‘refers’ me get a new Amex Gold reward card, will she receive the referral bonus?

    FYI, in case it is relevant: we have both churned the Amex Gold card several times and always referred each other and collected the referral bonuses.

    • Polly says:
      15 Oct15 October 06:55

      Yes

    • Nick_C says:
      15 Oct15 October 11:29

      She will get the referral bonus. You can get a supplementary card for her on your account. Take it in turns to do this every six months and you will get 18000 MRs and four Lounge Pass entries every year.

  • Cuchlainn says:
    15 Oct15 October 05:08

    Slightly OT:
    OH has a Gold Rewards Amex CC which has now just started it’s first “paid” year. I am awaiting 10K MR bonus to be added before closing it. In addition OH has her Platinum Amex also collecting MR but this has only been running 6 weeks. She is primary account holder on both a/c’s.
    1. Can the Gold Rewards CC MR closing balance be transferred to her newly created Platinum MR “account” ?
    2. Can this request be done via Chat and pro-rata payment of “paid” year ( 11ish months ) be refunded / credited to the Platinum account ?

    • Polly says:
      15 Oct15 October 07:02

      1. No, always worth asking, but they can be to the ARCC tho.
      2. Yes, they will refund the balance to anywhere you request. We certainly have transferred refunds to another card.

      • Cuchlainn says:
        15 Oct15 October 07:06

        Thanks Polly. I always thought that an individual only had 1 MR Points account nu have never seen any sign of an account number for it.

        • jc says:
          15 Oct15 October 09:50

          This is my understanding too. You can’t “transfer” the MR balance… because it’s already there in your one MR account.

          • jc says:
            15 Oct15 October 09:52

            To be fair there are situations where you could have multiple MR balances to your name, but unless your OH is in one of those situations, it’s moot.

    • Crafty says:
      15 Oct15 October 07:04

      Should be ok for both, yes.

      • Crafty says:
        15 Oct15 October 07:05

        To be clear given I’ve contradicted Polly – I have successfully done both.

        • Cuchlainn says:
          15 Oct15 October 07:07

          Thanks Crafty – will give it a whirl and report back.

        • Polly says:
          15 Oct15 October 07:15

          Wow, they didn’t for us. Smart! Will try next time to HUACA.

          • Crafty says:
            15 Oct15 October 21:01

            To clarify, what happened was that the two MR accounts were merged. You aren’t supposed to have had two separate accounts in the first place.

  • Andy Bridge says:
    15 Oct15 October 07:42

    I have Amex preferred gold card and intend cancelling before anniversary but have a negative balance as a result of Thomas Cook flights claim. If I open the rewards card can I transfer the membership points and the negative balance to use up without incurring the £140 fee?

    • John says:
      15 Oct15 October 08:57

      Yes, you can also ask for the money to be sent to you by cheque (or possibly bank transfer)

      • JPa says:
        15 Oct15 October 09:37

        Yes to both, you can transfer the negative balance to any other card on your account. If the new card is tied to the existing MR account, then you don’t even have to request that. If it opened as a new MR account then you do.

        Never sure why sometimes it links MR accounts between cards and other times it creates a new one.

  • Chelseafi says:
    15 Oct15 October 07:58

    So can I open an ARCC account, transfer my points from Bus Gold Account, cancel my Gold Bus card, then anytime in say 6 months get a new PRGC personal card and have 2 MR accounts going?

    • sloth says:
      15 Oct15 October 08:04

      no, its one MR account per person

      • Crafty says:
        15 Oct15 October 21:02

        Although that is how it’s supposed to work, in reality you may well end up with two MR accounts that you’ll have to later ask them to merge.

  • Novice says:
    15 Oct15 October 08:23

    Could anyone advise on BA Amex?

    If I apply for paid BAPP (£195) card, hit 3 month spent target and wait for Avios to transfer, can I then downgrade to free BA Amex and obtain partial refund of fee paid?

    Thanks

  • Edward Clifton-Brown says:
    15 Oct15 October 08:27

    You have 30 days after cancelling the card to redeem the membership reward points before they expire but beer in mind once the card is cancelled you cannot access your membership rewards account online and have to redeem by calling up.

    In order to keep the points alive you need to open the new card before you close the old one (Gold / Platinum) otherwise a separate membership rewards account will be opened and you will not be able to transfer the points from one to the other.

    • JPa says:
      15 Oct15 October 09:38

      I have transferred between different MR accounts in my own name before without issue.

  • Novice says:
    15 Oct15 October 08:44

    Thanks, but this is the BA card, so Avios transfer to BA exec club.

  • Andrew says:
    15 Oct15 October 09:06

    Weren’t all three essentially the same card but with a different sales strategy.

    Do you get the various shopping offers with this card?

    • Rob says:
      15 Oct15 October 09:10

      Technically yes – all looked the same with the same name, but advertised differently.

    • RussellH says:
      15 Oct15 October 11:07

      Yes, you get the usual run of money off offers on vastly overpriced clothing at London shops, plus, if you are lucky, some really useful ones like discounts at Morrisons / Sainsbury’s / Waitrose / WH Smith.
      My current favourite is Chef & Brewer, which is on this and my BA Amex cards. 10% off after deduction of my 25% shareholder discount.
      It is not ‘great’ food, but it is perfectly acceptable pub food in not unattractive surroundings.

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

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