topic Re: AmEx Schizophrenia in Credit Cards

AmEx Schizophrenia

MarkintheHV — Fri, 19 May 2023 14:38:51 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, my Blue Cash Preferred hit the one year mark, and annual fee posted. I called to see if there were any incentives to keep the card, and was told no. At that time, I told the CSR to downgrade to the Blue Cash Everyday. Once I got the Blue Cash Everyday, and activated it, then the Amex website starts offering me $75 statement credit to upgrade back to the Blue Cash Preferred!

It would have been a lot easier if they would have offered the incentive to keep the card when I asked.

Re: AmEx Schizophrenia

OmarGB9 — Fri, 19 May 2023 14:50:55 GMT

It's interesting that they immediately gave you an upgrade offer.

Re: AmEx Schizophrenia

Sage512 — Fri, 19 May 2023 22:58:40 GMT

I recently downgraded my Amex Delta Gold to the Blue, no offered incentive to stay. Now I am seeing 10K upgrade offers to go back to Gold.

Re: AmEx Schizophrenia

DONZI — Sat, 20 May 2023 00:01:00 GMT

It's a TRAP ?

..gaming clawback and have to downgrade again.

Re: AmEx Schizophrenia

RDO — Sat, 20 May 2023 04:34:44 GMT

@Sage512 wrote:
I recently downgraded my Amex Delta Gold to the Blue, no offered incentive to stay. Now I am seeing 10K upgrade offers to go back to Gold.

Same for me , except amex is offering 20k in points to go back to gold

Re: AmEx Schizophrenia

UncleB — Sat, 20 May 2023 19:26:56 GMT

@DONZI wrote:
It's a TRAP ?

..gaming clawback and have to downgrade again.

Nah, it's legit.

I got a similar offer when I downgraded my EDP to an ED a couple of years ago... in my case, it was a few months (3-4) after the downgrade. I took the offer, and I got the points after the required spend was done.

There is one small detail to watch for, though... the fine-print usually states they can clawback the bonus if you downgrade before a year is up, and that year starts when you take the offer. This means you will have to keep the card for an additional year (since next year's renewal will be before the year is up on the bonus offer). In my case the offer was good enough that it was still worth it. That said, I'll be downgrading my EDP (again) next January.

Re: AmEx Schizophrenia

crystal626 — Sun, 21 May 2023 06:58:23 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@DONZI wrote:
It's a TRAP ?

..gaming clawback and have to downgrade again.
Nah, it's legit.

I got a similar offer when I downgraded my EDP to an ED a couple of years ago... in my case, it was a few months (3-4) after the downgrade. I took the offer, and I got the points after the required spend was done.

There is one small detail to watch for, though... the fine-print usually states they can clawback the bonus if you downgrade before a year is up, and that year starts when you take the offer. This means you will have to keep the card for an additional year (since next year's renewal will be before the year is up on the bonus offer). In my case the offer was good enough that it was still worth it. That said, I'll be downgrading my EDP (again) next January.

I am confused by what you mean here. I've gotten the upgrade from BCE to BCP offer twice now and both times I downgraded back to BCE 366 days later and was pro-rated the difference in the AF without issue. Even better, both times they waived the AF as part of the offer. I still had no pushback when downgrading and no clawback of the $75 they gave me on top of the waived AF. I'm actually waiting for an offer to pop up on my account offering the waived AF before I upgrade a third time as they're currently offering $75 for $1K spend but with no waived AF. I was always under the impression that when the AF posts, you're good to go.

Re: AmEx Schizophrenia

UncleB — Sun, 21 May 2023 07:42:50 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@DONZI wrote:
It's a TRAP ?

..gaming clawback and have to downgrade again.
Nah, it's legit.

I got a similar offer when I downgraded my EDP to an ED a couple of years ago... in my case, it was a few months (3-4) after the downgrade. I took the offer, and I got the points after the required spend was done.

There is one small detail to watch for, though... the fine-print usually states they can clawback the bonus if you downgrade before a year is up, and that year starts when you take the offer. This means you will have to keep the card for an additional year (since next year's renewal will be before the year is up on the bonus offer). In my case the offer was good enough that it was still worth it. That said, I'll be downgrading my EDP (again) next January.
I am confused by what you mean here. I've gotten the upgrade from BCE to BCP offer twice now and both times I downgraded back to BCE 366 days later and was pro-rated the difference in the AF without issue. Even better, both times they waived the AF as part of the offer. I still had no pushback when downgrading and no clawback of the $75 they gave me on top of the waived AF. I'm actually waiting for an offer to pop up on my account offering the waived AF before I upgrade a third time as they're currently offering $75 for $1K spend but with no waived AF. I was always under the impression that when the AF posts, you're good to go.

Both times I've taken an upgrade offer was several months after my account anniversary, so I was charged a prorated AF at the time of the upgrade and some months later (less than a full year) I was charged the 'regular' annual fee, which I had to pay or else my bonus could have been clawed back.

In my case I guess I could have done a downgrade at day 366 and received a prorated refund on the AF (the 30 day limit seems to only apply to account cancellations) but I didn't bother, since by that time I was already several months into the following account year (and had already paid the AF months earlier) and it didn't seem worth it.

In any case, the important part is that after an upgrade when the next full AF is charged it must be paid if a full year hasn't passed since the upgrade was accepted or else the bonus can be clawed back. What one chooses to do on day 366 after the upgrade with downgrading (or not) is irrelevant so long as the upgrade is retained for at least 365 days.