Declined for Amex Rewards credit card – options

[mhuk01]

I applied for an Amex Rewards credit card, so that I can cancel my Platinum but keep the 80k points I have there. Unfortunately for some reason he application was declined. What are my options? I don’t want to keep the Platinum card long term and want to cancel for a pro-rata refund, however obviously don’t want to lose the 80k points!
Thanks for your help.

[Peter K]

Any reason why you don’t want to cash in the points for a reward (Avios, Marriott etc)?

With a platinum card they are costing you about £48 a month to keep alive.

Another option is to see if you can downgrade to a gold card.

[mhuk01]

Peter K wrote:

Any reason why you don’t want to cash in the points for a reward (Avios, Marriott etc)?

With a platinum card they are costing you about £48 a month to keep alive.

Another option is to see if you can downgrade to a gold card.

Presumably downgrading to the gold card would still have an annual fee? Yes I could just convert to Avios, probably the easiest option (it just removes flexibility for the future).

[Harrier25]

Amex Gold is fee free for the 1st year.

[mhuk01]

Harrier25 wrote:

Amex Gold is fee free for the 1st year.

Oh yes that’s right. So I can go on the online chat and ask to ‘downgrade’ the platinum card to the gold card? Do the points just transfer across? Also to add, I’ve definitely had a gold card in the past so not sure if it would be fee free for the first year of a new one?

[BJ]

Ask to switch cards, sounds better than asking for a downgrade. Note that thry can decline duch requests too.

[Harrier25]

mhuk01 wrote:

I’ve definitely had a gold card in the past so not sure if it would be fee free for the first year of a new one?

It will still be free for the 1st year. To be honest, I’d explore the points bonus retention route first and see where the conversion takes you, either on the chat or over the phone. It has been known that the Preferred Rewards Gold card is offered as a client retention tool. This to most is unacceptable when they’re trying to get 50,000 bonus MR points, but probably wouldn’t be unacceptable to you.