Originally Posted by
crazyhorse
The saga continues! After I had my 25K points clawed back for downgrading to the EveryDay card, I received an offer to upgrade for 40K. I accepted, met the minimum spend and received 40K. Dont plan to downgrade until I am atleast 14-15 months past the date from receiving the bonus.
However, today I decided to apply for Hilton Card with the 70K + 1 free night offer (where the page said I was pre-approved) and got the dreaded message saying I am not eligible to receive the bonus. I quickly canceled the application. Does this mean I am now in some kind of blacklist? How long am I blocked?
The title of the giant thread about the no-bonus popup gives a clue:
Amex (USA) restricts bonus based on number of accounts opened/closed (June 2018)
The contents of the thread give much more clues.
If the count upgrades as "accounts opened", it could be as simple as because you did two upgrades in the past 24 months, that's your limit.
You should be aware that most banks these days have "anti-churning" measures in place. And some banks have limits on how many cards you can apply for in a given time (and, again, Amex might count upgrades in such limits, who knows).
Btw, "pre-approval" is simply a credit determination, not a signup bonus determination. Amex is often happy to have you open a card,, as long as it can deny you a signup bonus. Ie, "anti-churning" measures. Some other banks, though, deny your for the card outright if you aren't eligible for the bonus, or if you fail their "anti-churning" measures. So it could be considered "less harsh" of Amex to only warn you that it's denying you the bonus, and give you chance to not apply, compared to other banks which simply act without warning.