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The American Express® Gold Card has just added new language that makes it markedly harder to qualify for a welcome offer. I have added this restriction to our Comprehensive Guide to American Express Application Rules, but here’s a look at the new language on their Offer Terms:
As you can see below, you’ll no longer qualify for a welcome offer if you’ve had the following Amex cards in the past:
- Premier Rewards Gold Card,
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab,
- the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
- or previous versions of these Cards
OFFER TERMS
You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Premier Rewards Gold Card, the Platinum Card®, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application.
Amex Referrals don’t have the language yet
Even though the Referral language doesn’t include the Amex Platinum exclusions… most people are getting Pop Up messages indicating that they don’t qualify.
What does this mean?
You can get an Amex Platinum welcome offer if you’ve had Gold, but not the other way around.
Amex recently added restrictions to their Delta cards that followed the same strategy. If you’ve had a more premium version of a card in the family, you’ll be restricted from qualifying for the welcome offer on a lower version within the family.
Simply put. It means that, if you think you’ll ever want both an Amex Gold or/and Amex Platinum in the future, you should start with the Amex Gold. This is your new best bet on being able to qualify for the welcome offer on both cards in the future. Assuming they don’t change the rules again.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see if they don’t add in restrictions to their Hilton and Marriott iterations as well.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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