Tag Archives: American Express Membership Rewards Points

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American Express Changes: No Cash Advance Fee for Precious Metal Coins, Bullion, and Digital Precious Metals Products

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.

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American Express Business Platinum Card Changes: $179 CLEAR Credit & Centurion Lounge Guest Access Policy

Good morning everyone, I hope your Fourth of July weekend is going well.  I know there has been a lot of news this week about the American Express Platinum Cards, but I still wanted to share the details of the changes that were posted to my American Express Business Platinum Card.  I don’t have any other varieties or flavors of Platinum Cards, so I am not sure if these changes apply to all Platinum Cards or only to the Business Platinum Card.  To start, American Express is revising / clarifying the language regarding additional card members and how refunds are handled if you cancel an authorized user / employee card.  These changes mention the Cardmember Agreement which can be found here, then click on Small Business Cards, and then click on the Business Platinum Card.

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My Surprisingly Simple Experience with AMEX Business Platinum 35% Membership Rewards Point Rebate

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  2 years ago, I wrote My Disappointing Experience with AMEX Business Platinum 35% Membership Rewards Point Rebate.  In that post, I shared my negative experience using the 35% Airline Bonus benefit that is available on the American Express Business Platinum Charge Card.  Long story short, the automatic 35% rebate never showed up, so I contacted AMEX to resolve the issue and the AMEX rep gave me the wrong rebate amount (fewer points than I was supposed to receive).  I then contacted AMEX via Twitter to resolve the issue.  Since that negative experience, I did not trust / use the 35% Airline Bonus benefit until April 2021.  Thankfully, I had a much better experience that was surprising simple and straightforward.  If you have the AMEX Biz Plat and haven’t used this benefit in a while, I think it is time to give it another shot.

As a reminder, the 35% Airline Bonus benefit allows you to get a 35% rebate on the number of American Express Membership Rewards Points you redeem toward any flight on your selected airline or any business / first class flight on any airline.  You can receive up to 500,000 rebated points per calendar year (maxed out when you redeem 1.43 million points).

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On My Mind: Using Chase Sapphire Reserve for Restaurants & Grocery Purchases Instead of AMEX Gold

Good evening everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few weeks ago, I started using my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card as my go to restaurant and grocery store card.  Both categories earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points on the CSR.  That sounds pretty good until I explain that I could use my American Express Gold Card to earn 4x American Express Membership Rewards Points on those same categories.  Why would I want to earn 3x instead of 4x?  The answer is simple: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points are much easier for me to redeem.

As you can see by these screenshots that I took today, I only have 1,235 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, compared to 364K Citi ThankYou Points and 479K American Express Membership Rewards Points.  Let me dig a little deeper into the reasons why the points balances are so different.

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American Express Changes: $25 Account Reopening Fee, Forfeiting Points on Late Payments & Old Blue Cash Redemptions

Good afternoon everyone.  I was reviewing my recent American Express credit card statements and spotted a few changes that I wanted you to be aware of.  The first 2 changes were shown on my American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card and the last change was specific to my AMEX Old Blue Cash Credit Card (no longer available).  The first 2 changes affect small business credit and charge cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards Points.  With that said, let’s go through the first change.

Effectively immediately, if your American Express card is closed (presumably by you), then you change your mind and want to reopen the card, you will now have to pay a $25 reopening fee.  Before you close your card, call American Express to see if you can get a retention offer, see if you can convert that card to another card, and redeem any points tied to that card.  If you do those steps, you should not need to reopen an account and incur the $25 reopening fee.

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