American Express and Military

[teddybearkelli1]

My DH has had his amex for years and we just realized he is eligible to have annual fee waived since he is active military. We called last week to get the status, since we were just billed. In the meantime today, we received an email saying his APR was dropped to 0% retroactively. Odd thing is, they sent me an email on my account that I just opened in March, stating they were doing the same for me. Is this correct, to do this for spouses too - even though we are not on eachothers accounts. I sure don't want to call them and have them rescind a 0 APR - even though I don't carry a balance, the waiver of annual fees will be nice.

[myjourney]

Bump for help 

[birjest]

I will gladly answer this question. I am a naval officer, active duty for 22 years. There was a conversation about active duty military being able to get the AMEX Plat card with the af waived. Since I have the PRG, I was on the fence line about giving up my PRG due to the 2x for gas and groceries. So, I called to waived my PRG and 2 days later, I received an email stating that they will waived, reimburse, and drop my Costco card interest rate to 0%. Welllll, I was still tempting to get that Platinum card, so I called to informed them that I was eligible for an upgrade to Plat and will the fees be waived for the primary users and the AU. The rep confirmed my active duty status, informed me that the cards has been upgraded to Plat and that the AF of $625 will be waived. I logged on then Wednesday, and it had the Platinum cards displayed.
Sure, I could have app for the 25,000 points sign up, but in my eyes, it cost me no HP or AF for the card. Now beat that with a stick!!

[09Lexie]

@birjest

Thank you for your reply and for your service!

[teddybearkelli1]

But they do this for spousal accounts too, even though my active duty spouse isn't on my account?

[resilient]

I'm AD military too, and I had HSBC do this back in 2005.....I checked my credit report, and they attached the following to comments "Recalled to active duty military". They did not remove it when I called. Not s ure of the affect it had on my credit, if any.

[birjest]

Well, no one can truly answer for Amex. I can only say that having your husband military status, link you as a military spouse(obviously) , thus treating you as such. Call Amex for more details!!!

[kevinjjc]

I soooo wish that I knew about this perk when I was active duty! If I had known, I would have been an AmEx cardmember back then. Spread the word!!!

[devastatah]

I plan to do this as well as I am an active duty Army Officer. I thought they only adjusted rates and waived fees if you were deploying thru SCRA. If they adjust simply because of your service then that will definitely bump them up in my eyes. Not Navy Federal Status of course but puts them in a different category with me. 

[resilient]

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@devastatah wrote:

I plan to do this as well as I am an active duty Army Officer. I thought they only adjusted rates and waived fees if you were deploying thru SCRA. If they adjust simply because of your service then that will definitely bump them up in my eyes. Not Navy Federal Status of course but puts them in a different category with me. 

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Small world. I'm an AD Army Officer too. And some businesses usually only adjust the rate and waive fees if you've had the account before joining active duty; some will just do it. I had an HSBC card, and they added an extra status on my credit report that I didn't like "Recalled to active military duty". Not sure if it affected my score, but it dropped my rate to 0% and payments were $2 a month.