Good evening everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. I was just reviewing my recent American Express statements and saw a few changes regarding cash advance fees, earning bonus points on meal-kit delivery services, losing points when you close an account, late payment fees and the Centurion Lounge Guest Access Policy. The most interesting change is regarding cash advance fees. Effective October 1, 2021 (aka now), “precious metal coins or bullion and digital precious metals products” are no longer considered as a cash advance, so those purchases should earn points, miles, and cash back. This is great news if you buy coins from the US Mint (to keep or resell). As you might remember, American Express added precious metal coins or bullion and digital precious metals products to their definition of cash advance effective January 15, 2021. It is good to see American Express changing their mind regarding precious metal coins and bullion.
The rest of the changes are not as exciting but I will include them below. If you have been using meal-kit delivery services to earn bonus points as a supermarket category, those charges will no longer code as a supermarket, so you will not earn bonus miles, points, or cash back for those purchases.
Effective January 13, 2022, if you close your last American Express Membership Rewards Points earning card, you will immediately lose all of your points. If you still have at least 1 other American Express Membership Rewards Points earning card, your points will be safe.
Here are more details regarding meal-kit delivery services. Looks like convenience stores (like 7-Eleven and AMPM) are also excluded from the supermarket category.
Here are more details regarding losing all your points if you close your last American Express Membership Rewards Points earning card. There is a 30 day grace period to use your points after closing your account, but that is only for Corporate Cards.
Effective immediately, your first late payment fee will be $39 and then each subsequent occurrence, the fee will be $39 or 2.99% of any past due Pay In Full amounts. Make sure to pay your bills on time.
Last but not least, here is a reminder of the Centurion Lounge Guest Access Policy. As if paying $695 in annual fees is not enough, you will have to spend $75,000 in calendar year 2022 in order to bring up to 2 guests into Centurion Lounges, starting in 2023. I’m not a fan of this policy and hope American Express changes their mind before 2023, otherwise you might start to get a lot of angry cardholders (and closed accounts)
If you have any questions about any of these changes, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Good catch! Thanks
Thank you Francis :)
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I am a big fan of Amex making Centurion lounges more exclusive. When I need a break and the lounge is overflowing I am not happy. I easily spend enough in a month to bring in guests so it works for me. I believe the whole concept of their lounge is exclusivity so anything that keeps me from standing in line at the entrance is in line with that concept.
Hi Charles, even though I’m not a fan of spending my way to Centurion Lounge guest access, I can understand the appeal to those that do / can / will spend the $75k to unlock that benefit. It’s probably more cost effective just to pay for additional authorized users than it would be for me to spend $75k on this card.