American Express brings back a minimum income requirement for its cards

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• Alistair says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:33

  Are these requirements effective immediately?

  • Rob says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:14

    From yesterday, they show during ‘the application journey’ apparently.

    • anastasia_bvh says:

      20 Jul20 July 08:17

      Are these purely for people who are applying or will they be retroactively applied to cards that have already been approved?

      • Rob says:

        20 Jul20 July 08:41

        If you’re approved, you’re approved.

• Jonathan says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:33

  I’ve just checked, and these requirements haven’t yet hit their website, or nothing is mentioned at all about minimum income criteria under eligibility.

  It does baffle is to why some who have work full time are excluded from this, in a similar situation many years ago, first direct (who many of us have accounts with) required at least £1500 per month going into your account (not the only requirement to waive their £10 monthly fee that most avoid, but still an issue for some) then they lowered it £1000 per month meaning just about anyone who worked full time would be eligible, when it was £1500 per month, wages were far lower, and there wasn’t a (noticeable) difference between the wages of a 18y/o worker vs a 25y/o worker

  Although some of the minimum income criteria half makes sense, it’s half just making problems pointlessly at the same time, a responsible lender is never going to give you a high credit limit if your credit score isn’t good, the likes of Amex might not go anywhere near you !

  • Rob says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:14

    They are on the application form, apparently.

  • sayling says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:48

    First Direct have a £10 monthly fee?

    • QFFlyer says:

      20 Jul20 July 11:05

      They used to, it was binned years ago.

  • QFFlyer says:

    20 Jul20 July 11:04

    They’re on the application forms, just had a look now.

• novelty-socks says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:55

  Haha, did Amex hear that I’ve just been made redundant?

  In all seriousness, presumably there is some leeway for people in situations like mine?

  • Ben says:

    20 Jul20 July 10:32

    It likely will be for new applications, not existing cardholders. Would be rather daft to throw away membership fees from approved members with a track record of paying their monthly statements.

• anastasia_bvh says:

  20 Jul20 July 07:58

  I am the main account holder on a BA premium plus card. I have recently had to take a break from working (freelance) due to significant health issues, so my income will not match up to £35,000 this year. My husband is a supplementary account holder and has an exceedingly good income, so we can easily pay our bills every month. What would we do in this kind of situation? Would it be enough to switch him to the primary account holder (if that’s possible). Thanks!

  • Rob says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:13

    No-one is going to take away an existing card which you have shown you can afford to repay.

    • anastasia_bvh says:

      20 Jul20 July 08:17

      Oh phew, thank you!

• Karl says:

  20 Jul20 July 08:02

  This seems to have been in place for a little while as my retired parents were both rejected for Golds about a month or so ago.

  They’re no credit risk as they own about £700k worth of property outright. Their income is about £15k each (hence the rejection based on the noted figures) but with about £200k of savings, their spending power is far greater than me and my other half who both comfortably qualify for the premium cards.

  • JDB says:

    20 Jul20 July 09:01

    The thing is that even though you parents have assets, Amex really does not wish to be in the position of needing to force a sale to get paid, so income is their focus.

    • Karl says:

      20 Jul20 July 11:20

      Which is fair enough although perhaps it could be better managed by having a lower credit limit to reflect their lower income. The vast majority of other credit card companies would do this rather than a flat rejection.
      Also seems a bit daft that instantly accessible savings/investments aren’t taken into account.

      • LittleNick says:

        20 Jul20 July 13:45

        +1, Cash in the bank is liquid assets that can be used to clear any debts very quickly, no sale required. Very bizarre this also is not taken into account if you do not meet the income requirement. Low income but high cash assets should allow you imho to meet the requirement.

• James says:

  20 Jul20 July 08:09

  There was an article recently about whether lifetime gold made sense. Now you can earn lifetime gold during your working life and then have your BA Premium Amex taken away when you retire and not have access to companion vouchers that open up additional Business Class seats (as well as saving on the 170k avios required for US / Canada). So less incentive to use BA for business class flights during your working life?

  • James C says:

    20 Jul20 July 09:56

    A bit of a stretch. If you are an existing cardholder in retirement you are unaffected. But in all that strategy you carry risk of programme changes and remember that Gold for Life is explicitly defined as for the lifetime of the scheme not your lifetime in the BAEC T&Cs so that’s not certain either.

• Ben says:

  20 Jul20 July 08:12

  Quite possibly to do with them firming up target markets on the back of consumer duty coming in

  • Rob says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:12

    Yes, I thought that. Letting low earners take a card with a high annual fee isn’t necessarily acting in their best interests.

    • Stu_N says:

      20 Jul20 July 08:39

      I thought this as well. It’s not just the annual fee though. You need to be spending a decent amount on a BAPP to get any benefit over the basic card and Platinum is a lifestyle product that requires a decent level of travel spend to get value from the benefits. Giving these cards to people without significant discressionary spend is hard to justify. If anything I’d expect the criteria to get even tougher over time.

• Nigel F. says:

  20 Jul20 July 08:37

  So many sob stories here. My heart bleeds.

  • Brian says:

    20 Jul20 July 08:58

    Thanks for that useful information.

  • Ben says:

    20 Jul20 July 10:33

    I didn’t know coal could bleed?

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