Amex (USA) restricts bonus based on number of accounts opened/closed (June 2018)
Nov 8, 2018, 6:42 pm
#151
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Brooklyn
Programs: Delta Diamond, Bonvoy something good; sometimes other things too
Posts: 5,050
I wonder if having gotten the once in a lifetime pop up on the regular application had anything to do with me later getting the targeted mailer.
As a data point, assuming that the lack of a pop up and/or original receipt of the mailer means I’m not subject to Amex’s bonus screen: I have opened a number of new Amex cards, roughly one a year over the past 5 years or so, each with a sign-up bonus. Two of them (the old PRG being one of them) I closed a couple of years after opening, and several cards had been sock-drawered to some degree after having been open for a year or so, though none of them sock-drawered immediately after earning the sign-up bonus.
All of which sounds like potential red flags under the current screening processes, but it also probably helps that I have had at least one monthly transaction on all of my current accounts pretty much every month over the past year or so (excluding one very old Blue card which I’ve had for a long time and haven’t put any spend on in probably a decade), and I’ve also had substantial Amex spend overall this year, in the high 5 or low 6 digits.
Nov 14, 2018, 2:40 pm
#152
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 2
Hi, I've been holding off on applying for the Platinum card for the 100k offer. I can currently only find a 75k offer thru ingognito. I currently hold a Hilton Ascend card which I've had since 2006 (thru a No AF Hilton to Surpass to Ascend). I also NEVER get any amex cards to show on CardMatch and I've been looking for well over a year, including ingognito. To the best of everyone's knowledge and other DP's, should I just take the 75k sign up bonus? I feel that 100k will never come my way. Thanks!
Nov 14, 2018, 2:50 pm
#153
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 10,034
Hi, I've been holding off on applying for the Platinum card for the 100k offer. I can currently only find a 75k offer thru ingognito. I currently hold a Hilton Ascend card which I've had since 2006 (thru a No AF Hilton to Surpass to Ascend). I also NEVER get any amex cards to show on CardMatch and I've been looking for well over a year, including ingognito. To the best of everyone's knowledge and other DP's, should I just take the 75k sign up bonus? I feel that 100k will never come my way. Thanks!
Many have suggested that a few months after they start using a dormant card, the offers get much better.
Nov 14, 2018, 2:56 pm
#154
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 315
I think AmEx has every right to stop churners. My complaint is that all of my "churning" is because they change the rules of the card after I have signed up. Not my fault they killed the SPG value so I cancelled those, or that they converted the Citi Hilton into an AmEx Hilton and I already had a Hilton AmEx. But these changes mess up my credit because my length of time cards is open drops and number of new cards goes up. So I feel they owe me some points for that and don't feel the least bit bad when I open a different card and get another bonus.
Nov 14, 2018, 2:59 pm
#155
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 2
Yes, I use it pretty frequently for gas and and Hilton stays. I'm also using it for the $2k/20,000 point offer that I received. The majority of my other spend is spread across CSR, CF, and CFU.
Dec 2, 2018, 2:10 pm
#156
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: NYC, LAX, HKG
Posts: 286
AMEX Possibly Denying Bonuses w/o Pop-Up
Early October: applied for AMEX Gold. Pop-up message appeared, so I cancelled the application.
Late October: applied for AMEX Gold. Approved with no pop-up message. Assumed it was b/c I had increased my AMEX spend, as DoC indicates.
Early December: found out via chat that AMEX decided to deny my bonus even after NOT showing the pop-up message. Chat support gave me a specialist phone line to call in, and the phone representative confirmed the bonus was indeed denied. But he said he is not a specialist, and that there is no specialist phone department.
The reason for denial was because of the same standard pop-up reason - history of opening/closing cards, etc. Nothing to do with manufactured spend (I did not do that); I had not even completed minimum spend yet.
Chat representative said that the welcome offer was linked to my account, and then marketing department decided to deny it.
What's unacceptable is AMEX's inconsistent (and lack of) communication here. They have a pop-up system but seem to randomly display it.
Dec 2, 2018, 3:00 pm
#157
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Truth or Consequences, NM
Programs: HH Diamond, Marriott Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, UA Silver, Mobile Passport Unobtanium
Posts: 6,192
Possible datapoint here to support your statement.
Chat representative said that the welcome offer was linked to my account, and then marketing department decided to deny it.
What's unacceptable is AMEX's inconsistent (and lack of) communication here. They have a pop-up system but seem to randomly display it.
Chat representative said that the welcome offer was linked to my account, and then marketing department decided to deny it.
What's unacceptable is AMEX's inconsistent (and lack of) communication here. They have a pop-up system but seem to randomly display it.
Dec 2, 2018, 6:59 pm
#158
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: NYC, LAX, HKG
Posts: 286
I've seen a few other reports on reddit of similar circumstances. Very shady business practice to extend an offer and then retroactively (and secretly) retract it, particularly when people are spending money in the expectation that the offer will be met in good faith. You may want to consider filing a CFPB complaint on this.
Submitted a CFPB complaint and will post back what happens.
Dec 7, 2018, 3:49 pm
#159
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Truth or Consequences, NM
Programs: HH Diamond, Marriott Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, UA Silver, Mobile Passport Unobtanium
Posts: 6,192
Dec 9, 2018, 9:24 pm
#160
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
My wife applied for the Gold via my referral link and got the pop up warning that she won’t get the bonus. She only has 3 existing AMEX cards— BBP, Aspire and SPG Business, and closed the Platinum after 2 years in August. I wouldn’t say she abused the system at all. She got the BBP in August and has the SPG for about 3 years. She’s had the Hilton card for 3 years as well. I gotta say I’m surprised she wasn’t eligible for the Gold bonus since she just put about $5000 on the Hilton and BBP. Thw one thing I think may have counted against her is that she just upgraded her free Hilton to the Aspire 7 days ago. Maybe she should’ve applied for the Gold before upgrading. But maybe the Aspire 150k upgrade offer would’ve disappeared.
Dec 10, 2018, 1:45 pm
#161
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 262
My wife applied for the Gold via my referral link and got the pop up warning that she won’t get the bonus. She only has 3 existing AMEX cards— BBP, Aspire and SPG Business, and closed the Platinum after 2 years in August. I wouldn’t say she abused the system at all. She got the BBP in August and has the SPG for about 3 years. She’s had the Hilton card for 3 years as well. I gotta say I’m surprised she wasn’t eligible for the Gold bonus since she just put about $5000 on the Hilton and BBP. Thw one thing I think may have counted against her is that she just upgraded her free Hilton to the Aspire 7 days ago. Maybe she should’ve applied for the Gold before upgrading. But maybe the Aspire 150k upgrade offer would’ve disappeared.
Did wife close Platinum recently? There is no data point for the close account and how it relates to the pop up. The algorithm of the closed card might be different if the card was closed a month ago vs a year ago.
Dec 10, 2018, 4:03 pm
#162
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
Curious: how many months have there been spent on the Hilton and BBP? I read that some have to put consistent spend on AMEX cards for a month (wait for the statement to close) before not getting the pop up warning.
Did wife close Platinum recently? There is no data point for the close account and how it relates to the pop up. The algorithm of the closed card might be different if the card was closed a month ago vs a year ago.
Did wife close Platinum recently? There is no data point for the close account and how it relates to the pop up. The algorithm of the closed card might be different if the card was closed a month ago vs a year ago.
BBP is a relatively new card, since August. It has been used fairly regularly.
The free Hilton was inactive for about a year, but she started using it 11/3 when all the new promos for Hilton cards popped up (10x Amazon, 10k groceries). Statement closed 11/23. She applied for Gold and got pop up 12/9 so it has been more than a month since card has been used. The Aspire upgrade isn’t a new app, must for this purpose, I wonder if AMEX counts it as such.
I’m tempted to have her apply again soon since she put big spend on a couple cards very recently, but now based on recent reports, I’m worried that even if she doesn’t get pop up, she might still be denied bonus.
Dec 10, 2018, 4:37 pm
#163
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: IAH
Posts: 418
My wife applied for the Gold via my referral link and got the pop up warning that she won’t get the bonus. She only has 3 existing AMEX cards— BBP, Aspire and SPG Business, and closed the Platinum after 2 years in August. I wouldn’t say she abused the system at all. She got the BBP in August and has the SPG for about 3 years. She’s had the Hilton card for 3 years as well. I gotta say I’m surprised she wasn’t eligible for the Gold bonus since she just put about $5000 on the Hilton and BBP. Thw one thing I think may have counted against her is that she just upgraded her free Hilton to the Aspire 7 days ago. Maybe she should’ve applied for the Gold before upgrading. But maybe the Aspire 150k upgrade offer would’ve disappeared.
Dec 10, 2018, 6:13 pm
#164
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
No, it was the one saying her recent history of opening/closing, etc.
Dec 11, 2018, 4:17 pm
#165
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: FL
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Plat, IC Plat Amb, HH Diamond, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 1,299
Amex just denied me a bonus for the Gold card citing that I abuse their system.
My situation:
3 cards opened in the last 30 months (which is nothing)
Never closed an amex, never Manufacture spend, never returned anything other than maybe a flashlight on amazon.
Pop up did not appear. Rep confirmed bonus over the phone after applying.
Now all of the sudden they deny my sign up bonus. This is total bullcrap. I talked to a supervisor and he said: "It says here it is because you closed your amex account before 12 months to get the sign up bonus". So I told him: thats not true, I have never closed an amex account and I have had my amex cards for many years and all on time payments and never abused anything. He went to check and said: "that is weird, it is true, I dont know why the computed denied your bonus, I am going to open an investigation".
I am a really good amex customer, but even so, my hopes for this is 2/10. Banks and big corporations are ******.. So I will give them time to do their investigation and later do a CFPB claim.
My situation:
3 cards opened in the last 30 months (which is nothing)
Never closed an amex, never Manufacture spend, never returned anything other than maybe a flashlight on amazon.
Pop up did not appear. Rep confirmed bonus over the phone after applying.
Now all of the sudden they deny my sign up bonus. This is total bullcrap. I talked to a supervisor and he said: "It says here it is because you closed your amex account before 12 months to get the sign up bonus". So I told him: thats not true, I have never closed an amex account and I have had my amex cards for many years and all on time payments and never abused anything. He went to check and said: "that is weird, it is true, I dont know why the computed denied your bonus, I am going to open an investigation".
I am a really good amex customer, but even so, my hopes for this is 2/10. Banks and big corporations are ******.. So I will give them time to do their investigation and later do a CFPB claim.