Good evening everyone. I was checking my American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card statement and spotted some important changes to the American Express Membership Rewards program terms. Doctor of Credit already wrote about the most exciting program change (American Express Gold Card Will Now Earn 4x at Restaurants Worldwide – Not Limited to USA), but I thought I would cover the other, less exciting, but still important changes. There are 4 pages of changes and details, so I will go through each page of the changes. Here are the main points from the first page:
- Effective immediately, you will not be able to add authorized users and have your authorized users have their own Membership Rewards account (separate from the primary Membership Rewards account).
- Starting on Thursday (June 6, 2019), the American Express Gold Card will now earn 4x at restaurants worldwide (instead of just restaurants in the United States). All other card bonus categories and caps remain the same.
- The Blue for Students Card will no longer earn Membership Rewards Points (I can’t even find any info on this card). You should convert this credit card to an AMEX EveryDay Credit Card.
- Effective September 1, 2019, you will need to pay your bill by the payment due date, otherwise you may forfeit any Membership Rewards Points earned that period.
- Effective September 1, 2019, your authorized user will need to wait at least 90 days before you can link their airline/hotel loyalty account to the primary Membership Rewards account. I believe this is American Express’s attempt to crack down on members selling their Membership Rewards Points by adding a buyer as an authorized user, then adding their airline/hotel loyalty account to the primary Membership Rewards account and then transferring Membership Rewards Points out of the primary account.
- Effective September 28, 2019, authorized users that have their own Membership Rewards account will have until October 31, 2019, to redeem their accumulate Membership Rewards Points. In addition, after September 28, 2019, all purchases made by authorized users will have their points post to the primary Membership Rewards account.
