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@Shadowfactor wrote:Didn't see this anywhere. Terrible news, hopefully it gets moved back to 5 when Covid ends and the economy stabilizes.
https://milestomemories.com/confirmed-american-express-does-have-a-new-4-card-limit/
Well that's unfortunate.
At least the charge cards are still separate (do they even have 10 charge products?).
No use complaining. They make the rules. We'll just have to figure out new strategies. I have plans that I will need to rethink.
Thankfully you guys have armed me so I can be proactive instead of having to react to my plan not working.
@Shadowfactor wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Shadowfactor wrote:Didn't see this anywhere. Terrible news, hopefully it gets moved back to 5 when Covid ends and the economy stabilizes.
https://milestomemories.com/confirmed-american-express-does-have-a-new-4-card-limit/
To be honest I would say it probably will remain at 4. Most average consumers are going to have 1, maybe 2 cards with Amex, and would go nowhere near the limit. Most who are at 4-5 cards are unprofitable churners or even if not churning, they are reward maximizing, which is also unprofitable. In short, no business reason for them to allow more cards IMO, as disappointing as we may find it.
4 seems to be a somewhat common number. BoA used to allow basically unlimited cards and IIRC they shut people off at 4 now for the most part. Maybe not 100% of the time but frequently. Maybe banks feel 4 is a good number.
You have 4 basic types of people in the credit card sphere.
The average consumer
the casual hobbyist which churns/maxizimes rewards. this group is the least profitable.
business people who earn a lot of rewards but don't know how to use them. They also spend a lot of money and don't care about maximizing earn/redemption potential.
The Heavy hitters. This group may be unprofitable at first but with enough volume, they become extremely profitable to a bank. There's only so many cards/categories you can push until you maximize them and have to switch to earning 1X which definitely earns the bank money. I know several of these people and they are doing mid 6-7 figures a month and I'd imagine that Atleast half of it is at the most basic reward category.
This change will not affect the first group but will largely affect 2-4 with 3 affected the most. Businesses usually have some sort of loyalty to an airline/hotel so that could potentially take 2 slots which only leaves you 2 slots on the personal side. This will push away some spend from that issuer in its most profitable group.
I know there's lots of other things to consider like risk and just how unprofitable group 2 is, but I don't see these changes lasting more then 2 years provided the economy recovers. It could be wishful thinking though.
Obviously I don't know and am just speculating, but I assume that a huge chunk of people who have 4 cards with a single bank are intentionally maximizing rewards and/or churning cards. Yes, when rules change it does always screw over some amount of legitimate consumers (in your example group 3), but apparently Amex has decided for now that it makes sense to do this. We will see how permanent it is.
Has there been any hint that Amex may force the 5+ revolver crowd to trim? Or, at least for now, do we seem to be grandfathered?
@wasCB14 wrote:Has there been any hint that Amex may force the 5+ revolver crowd to trim? Or, at least for now, do we seem to be grandfathered?
I don't think Amex can legally do that. And there's no real incentive for them to do so anyway. You already got the SUBs for the cards you have. I think this is an anti-SUB-churning measure, not going after long term card use.
@MrDisco99 wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:Has there been any hint that Amex may force the 5+ revolver crowd to trim? Or, at least for now, do we seem to be grandfathered?
I don't think Amex can legally do that. And there's no real incentive for them to do so anyway. You already got the SUBs for the cards you have. I think this is an anti-SUB-churning measure, not going after long term card use.
Well banks are pretty much free to close your account at any time for any (or no) reason, so, I don't think there's anything legally preventing Amex from retroactively applying the rules.
They probably won't because it's a crappy thing to do to your customers, but I don't think there's anything illegal about it.
Now Amex directly confirmed it on Twitter it seems to be the policy going forward in foreseeable future.
For some it does plays into the decision between downgrading vs canceling, doesn't it?
@FieryDance wrote:Now Amex directly confirmed it on Twitter it seems to be the policy going forward in foreseeable future.
For some it does plays into the decision between downgrading vs canceling, doesn't it?
I had vaguely considered a second BBP under a different TIN, but that is less likely now.
My BBP and Delta Platinum are fine as they are.
With Bonvoy and BCP I might continue to play the upgrade/downgrade game. I wish I could get a nice offer to PC my ED back to EDP (just for the bonus, not as a long-term nuisance with a transaction tracker and AF).
I might be willing to let go of 2 of (ED, BCP, Bonvoy) for another Delta bonus at some point...but I'm inclined to leave things as they are.
I have an excess of hotel points in general so I have no appetite for any Hilton products.
Yes my wife was recently declined due to already having 4 credit cards with them. I know of others as well.
Well that's a bummer, but it's not exactly like I need more cards. And honestly, as has been mentioned, other banks have a similar rule.
Which brings up the question, does anyone relly need 5 cards per issuer? Talk about point dilution.
Curious though, will they still offer to close an existing account to open the new one?
@Anonymous wrote:Well that's a bummer, but it's not exactly like I need more cards. And honestly, as has been mentioned, other banks have a similar rule.
Which brings up the question, does anyone relly need 5 cards per issuer? Talk about point dilution.
Curious though, will they still offer to close an existing account to open the new one?
Well, one reasonable case:
Hyatt $95 or $75
CSR
CFU
CF
Maybe an Ink card, a 2nd Freedom, or a United card