American Express Membership Rewards - no more double MR points on hardware / home improvement after April!




Stefan Daystrom
Mar 19, 04, 6:17 pm
I just got my latest paper statement in the mail. After my MR point summary section, it has a section entitled "Earn More! New ways to earn points", but the first item in there actually tells you you'll earn LESS:

"Effective May 1,2004, eligible Cardmembers will no longer accurue two Membership Rewards points for virtually every dollar charged at stand-alone hardware and home improvement stores. Instead, Cardmembers will accrue one point for every dollar charged at such stores."

There's a lot of fine print after that, which boils down to saying that this "only" applies to about a dozen different AMEX / ONE / Fidelity branded cards (Green, Gold, Centurion, etc), and that double points will continue to accrue at the other kinds of stores they currently do (grocery stores, etc).

This is identified in the margin as MR Message 6195.

So far, I can't find anything about this online at the AMEX website. In fact, card signup pages there still tout that you'll earn double points at hardware / home improvement stores. But I presume since this is in my printed monthly statement it overrides unupdated info on their website...


singlemalt
Mar 24, 04, 6:45 pm
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Stefan Daystrom:
So far, I can't find anything about this online at the AMEX website. In fact, card signup pages there still tout that you'll earn double points at hardware / home improvement stores.</font>

I think they've updated their website - I can't find any reference to awarding double points for home improvement stores:

http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,16938,00.asp

I called Amex to verify - it ends 4/30. This was my biggest source of HHonors points (MR-&gt;HA-&gt;HH) - I had a commercial roofing supplier that, for some reason, coded as a home improvement store. Time to kiss the card goodbye.

jwhite4
Mar 24, 04, 10:42 pm
My guess is that with expansion of those stores (selling appliances, installation/home improvement services), lots of big ticket purchases costing them lots of points.

Jeff


singlemalt
Mar 25, 04, 10:33 am
Well, I tried to cancel the card. My annual membership fees were on this month's statement - they offered to give me a credit for the amount ($140). Looks like I'm keeping the card for another year, but using it won't be nearly as lucrative.

SeoulMan
Apr 16, 04, 5:08 pm
Both the AMEX site and Delta SkyMiles site today continue to say:
You can automatically earn two miles for every eligible dollar you spend at:
• Delta Air Lines
• Stand-alone supermarkets
• Gas stations
• Drugstores
• Home improvement and hardware stores
(That's 2 DL SkyMiles per dollar, with no mention of any change on May 1st)
http://www.delta.com/skymiles/getmiles/creditcard_partners/index.jsp
https://www124.americanexpress.com/cards/delta/classic/earning.jsp



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