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I have recently taken out the AMEX Nectar card and am looking to follow the strategy suggested in the article “How a couple can earn 186,875 Avios if they are new to Amex”. I have never held an AMEX and I’ve just triggered the nectar bonus. So I was wondering if anyone could suggest the timescales I should be working to in terms of moving towards the Platinum and BAPP?
I’m about to refer my partner for the AMEX Nectar, but other than that I’m at a bit of a loss.Any help greatly appreciated
When you say timescales, do you mean between applying for your next Amex card? That will be very much down to each individuals credit profile so almost impossible to advise. Assuming you can hit targets pretty much immediately (big assumption) I would suggest at least 3 months bewteen applications but ideally more like 6+.
It is also worth bearing in mind that I think Amex have a ceiling credit limit they will allow someone to have across all their Amex cards, so if you find you get 20k on one (for example), you might be better off reducing it to 10k before applying for the next.
Also look at the minimum income requirements, not to mention the changes just announced for the BAPP. Consider whether your partner would be better getting the gold MR card than the Nectar one, which for me has better benefits than Nectar without the hefty fee which comes with the Platinum.
Per @NorthernLass you are not clear on your tolerance for paying the full fee if prorata refunds were to come in.
Assuming not an issue (but definitely a very valid point)
According to my personal tracking, an uplift in Amex Plat and Marriott sign-up bonus is due up next after the business card bonuses are finished (which was last week???). So for you I would wait for the next sign-up bonus for Plat/BAPP as I believe they are soon, and people always kick themselves if they miss it by a day.
For your partner, given the Rob strategy starting card is Nector OR Marriott and I believe the Marriott bonus is up soon. You might be interested in the Marriott card if the bonus is good (can be converted to Avios I think). So I would also wait a bit before referring your partner. Unless you are sure you defo want the nectar card then in which case go ahead and refer.
By the way, I have zero knowledge of when the bonus uplifts are, but they tend to follow a pattern (see below), so my suggestion is based on the past which is not a representation of the future blah blah blah. Here is a very ugly pasting of my tracking:
Bonus start end
BAPP 40k 25-Feb-22 28-Feb-22
Plat 60k 20-Aug-22 11-Oct-22
Amex Gold 30k 12-Oct-22 07-Nov-22
BAPP 70k 12-Jan-23 21-Feb-23
Gold Business 60k 22-Feb-23 30-Mar-23
Plat business 120k 22-Feb-23 30-Mar-23
Plat 60k for 6k over 6 months +200 credit 12-Apr-23 13-Jun-23
Marrioitt 40k plus one free night 13-Apr-23 30-May-23
Amex Gold 25k plus prize draw 14-Jun-23 08-Aug-23
Plat business 40k points plus £100 credit (12k spend) 15-Jun-23 18-Jul-23
BAPP 60k 31-Aug-23 10-Oct-23
Amex Plat 75k + 25k (after 15 months) 11-Oct-23 09-Jan-24
Marrioitt 40k 13-Oct-23 14-Nov-23
Amex Gold 30k 11-Oct-23 09-Jan-24
Amex Bus Gold and Plat “Spend £12k/80k then 14 months later 40k
Spend £6k/ 40k then 14 months later 20k” 21-Feb-24 09-Apr-24Don’t forget as well that if you decide to go for gold MR rather than platinum, any other personal Amex would preclude you from a SUB.
Thanks CarpalTravel, NorthernLass, and Reney for your input. I clearly have a bit more planning to do!
I’m going to leave it around six months before I think about moving cards and will of course consider lowering credit limits. I’m also going to hang fire on referring my partner and wait for a bonus on either the gold MR card or the Marriot.
Thanks again
As has been mentioned already, the end of prorata refunds will bump up the cost of maxing out SUB’s as a couple so may be better to stagger this over a couple of years so you’re each only holding cards that you can get value from at that moment.
Amex are also tightening up on their lending criteria so may not approve you for 3 cards in a short period so would be wise to consider if BAPP or Plat suits you best as 2nd card. The positive news is with the fee hikes & churning rules in place they do seem prepared to offer bigger SUB’s for the BAPP & Plat fairly frequently so I would hang fire till there’s a good offer before applying (the spend targets have increased for SUB’s though so worth planning any big ticket purchases to coincide).
One final note of caution, Amex also seem to be clamping down on multiple cross referrals so you may only be able to refer each other for 1 or 2 cards each so worth doing from a card that offers higher referral reward like Plat & BAPP (again there are semi regular promotions).
When you say timescales, do you mean between applying for your next Amex card? That will be very much down to each individuals credit profile so almost impossible to advise. Assuming you can hit targets pretty much immediately (big assumption) I would suggest at least 3 months bewteen applications but ideally more like 6+.
Worth bearing this in mind. I’ve hit a bump on our path as P2 applied for Amex Gold and was refused from my referral after 1.5 months from Nectar, even though she did the ‘Amex pre check’ which said she would be OK to apply – I understand this is dependent on the credit check, so not a guarantee.
We are a bit baffled as to why she failed as she had a look at her credit score via the bank website and it was at the top end of ‘good’ on their scale, but has never had any form of bad credit history before and is on the same joint Account/Mortgage as me.
1.5 months between new credit cards might be a bit soon. their models might interpret that as deteriorating circumstances and you need the credit line to meet needs rather than you want points.
you don’t have any buy now pay later by any chance do you, or carrying a large balance on another card stoozing?
1.5 months between new credit cards might be a bit soon. their models might interpret that as deteriorating circumstances and you need the credit line to meet needs rather than you want points.
you don’t have any buy now pay later by any chance do you, or carrying a large balance on another card stoozing?
Just to be clear the 1.5 months was from when I first got the Nectar and made the referral. P2 hasn’t had any other Credit Cards (Amex or any other) prior to this so should be seen as a new application in her name – or do they count it from the same address and link them?
We have no buy now pay later or large balances elsewhere. May see if P2 will call Amex but doubt they will give specific details?
It’s a bit of a downer as I’m ‘stuck’ on Nectar (albeit with 1.25 Avios/£) now until we can work out a way forward. We had a few big payments in the pipeline that was going to go on P2 Gold and eventually P1 BAPP towards the end of the year – assuming the happy path!
Does p2 meet the income requirement? if she doesn’t have any credit card, is her credit history quite thin?
She does meet the income requirement.
She has never had a CC before (and I’ve not had one for many years before I got the Nectar in March) so I guess that her history for that side of things may be less. Doing the soft credit check via the bank shows her at the top end of the ‘good’ scale, so thought this should be enough especially as the pre check indicated it would but I guess not.
Looks like we will have to skip her in the ‘churn’ for this card and go for P1 BAPP later on in the year when a better SUB hits – then maybe try agin at some point next year for her when we have looked into it some more.
Well it sounds like you had a bit more credit history (although I would have thought the mortgage would help), also you went for the Nectar card whereas P2 applied for the Gold which is more “premium”. I wonder if you would have had better luck if she went for the nectar instead of the Gold… a bit late now. Also Nectar disqualify you for Gold bonus.
Well worth P2 getting more information from Amex on the decline, which might give you some insight. If indeed her credit file is too thin there are things you can do to improve that.
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