My understanding is you can only have five amex credit cards at a time. However you can still appy for charge cards if you have five credit cards. My question is this. If I have three amex revolvers and two charge cards can I still apply for more revolvers or in that scenario do the charge cards count towards the five? My understanding was I can have five revolvers and the charge cards just don't count towards that five card limit .
Reason I ask is that I am getting the popup on the marriott brilliance card. Amex is willing to give me the card just not the SUB. I don't do BTs with amex and don't have a negative history with them so I think the issue I am having is that a long time ago I had the SPG card (I also have had marriott cards with chase but this is before they switched to the bonvoy program). I have a noAF hilton card that I can close if it would help since I don't use it, but all my other amex cards get regular to heavy use.
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@red259 wrote:My understanding is you can only have five amex credit cards at a time. However you can still appy for charge cards if you have five credit cards. My question is this. If I have three amex revolvers and two charge cards can I still apply for more revolvers or in that scenario do the charge cards count towards the five? My understanding was I can have five revolvers and the charge cards just don't count towards that five card limit .
Reason I ask is that I am getting the popup on the marriott brilliance card. Amex is willing to give me the card just not the SUB. I don't do BTs with amex and don't have a negative history with them so I think the issue I am having is that a long time ago I had the SPG card (I also have had marriott cards with chase but this is before they switched to the bonvoy program). I have a noAF hilton card that I can close if it would help since I don't use it, but all my other amex cards get regular to heavy use.
Correct. You are eligible for a revolver based on your current card count. I had EDP, BCP, and BBP, along with Gold and Plat, and was able to pick up a BCE while holding those.
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@red259 wrote:My understanding is you can only have five amex credit cards at a time. However you can still appy for charge cards if you have five credit cards. My question is this. If I have three amex revolvers and two charge cards can I still apply for more revolvers or in that scenario do the charge cards count towards the five? My understanding was I can have five revolvers and the charge cards just don't count towards that five card limit .
Reason I ask is that I am getting the popup on the marriott brilliance card. Amex is willing to give me the card just not the SUB. I don't do BTs with amex and don't have a negative history with them so I think the issue I am having is that a long time ago I had the SPG card (I also have had marriott cards with chase but this is before they switched to the bonvoy program). I have a noAF hilton card that I can close if it would help since I don't use it, but all my other amex cards get regular to heavy use.
Yes you can get 2 more revolvers.
I don't think the popup has anything to do with the number of revolvers you have.
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I don't think the popup has anything to do with the number of revolvers you have.
This has been my personal experience. Over the past year, I occasionally tested applying for what would be a sixth Amex revolver - for science! - but always hit the pop-up and canceled my application. I closed one of my revolvers and waited at least 30 days, which is what people on reddit's churning sub recommend if wanting to avoid recon, but still got the pop-up.
In the past, I had been denied for a fifth Amex revolver - which brings up another point, for most it seems like the limit is five, but some have more and some can't get a fifth - and the denial letter specifically said I had the maximum number of Amex cards. I had four at the time and hadn't held a fifth yet. I was approved for a fifth around a year later, so the limit was four and is now five, for me.
We already know Amex determines sign-up bonus eligibility before the application is submitted, my personal experiences just add that they don't seem to factor in number of cards until an application has been submitted.
Also, returning to op's idea of getting the card without a sign-up bonus - my advice is to give it some more time and effort. The card I was after for the past year, especially the past few months when I have been at four revolvers, was the Delta Gold Business. I had tried multiple times when it was at the elevated 75k bonus. I even tried a few days ago when it was at 55k, thinking they might give me the regular bonus, but got the pop-up. Then two days later I saw a post with public links to an even better offer at 90k, with many comments saying they had been in pop-up jail but were approved. I tried again and was approved with no pop-up. I have heard of similar happening with other co-branded cards, such as people searching their e-mails for offers and sometimes already having a link that will bypass the pop-up. This isn't anything against Amex policy, it's just the games that Amex plays - sometimes one logs into Amex to apply and gets the pop-up, then they click on a link sent to them and are approved with no pop-up, or log into an affiliate account (e.g. Marriott) and see an offer there that also doesn't lead to the pop-up. As always, at the end of the day, you do you, if you're sure you're OK foregoing the sign-up bonus, 100% your call - but definitely try to get your way in while still earning the bonus, if you can.
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@coldfusion wrote:
Right around the time that the pandemic really got spun up in the spring of 2020 AMEX temporarily downgraded their default from 5 to 4 max revolvers but allowed those who already held more than 4 and they viewed as financially stable to keep all of them. If you had first applied for that 5th card somewhere around 2H2020-1H2021 timeframe that would explain your initial denial and later approval.
I looked through old posts and I was denied in May of 2021 and didn't try for a fifth again until January of 2022. I recall there being confusion at the time, seems much clearer in hindsight.
By saying default, I know some are able to hold more than five, but have people been limited to less than five since 2021, or has that gone away?
@okurosetta wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I don't think the popup has anything to do with the number of revolvers you have.This has been my personal experience. Over the past year, I occasionally tested applying for what would be a sixth Amex revolver - for science! - but always hit the pop-up and canceled my application. I closed one of my revolvers and waited at least 30 days, which is what people on reddit's churning sub recommend if wanting to avoid recon, but still got the pop-up.
In the past, I had been denied for a fifth Amex revolver - which brings up another point, for most it seems like the limit is five, but some have more and some can't get a fifth - and the denial letter specifically said I had the maximum number of Amex cards. I had four at the time and hadn't held a fifth yet. I was approved for a fifth around a year later, so the limit was four and is now five, for me.
We already know Amex determines sign-up bonus eligibility before the application is submitted, my personal experiences just add that they don't seem to factor in number of cards until an application has been submitted.
Also, returning to op's idea of getting the card without a sign-up bonus - my advice is to give it some more time and effort. The card I was after for the past year, especially the past few months when I have been at four revolvers, was the Delta Gold Business. I had tried multiple times when it was at the elevated 75k bonus. I even tried a few days ago when it was at 55k, thinking they might give me the regular bonus, but got the pop-up. Then two days later I saw a post with public links to an even better offer at 90k, with many comments saying they had been in pop-up jail but were approved. I tried again and was approved with no pop-up. I have heard of similar happening with other co-branded cards, such as people searching their e-mails for offers and sometimes already having a link that will bypass the pop-up. This isn't anything against Amex policy, it's just the games that Amex plays - sometimes one logs into Amex to apply and gets the pop-up, then they click on a link sent to them and are approved with no pop-up, or log into an affiliate account (e.g. Marriott) and see an offer there that also doesn't lead to the pop-up. As always, at the end of the day, you do you, if you're sure you're OK foregoing the sign-up bonus, 100% your call - but definitely try to get your way in while still earning the bonus, if you can.
When I search my emails I see signup offers for the cards but they are emailed to me by Marriott not Amex. Are you talking about emails directly from Amex or is it possible that these emails from Marriott may also be bypassing it?
@red259 wrote:
When I search my emails I see signup offers for the cards but they are emailed to me by Marriott not Amex. Are you talking about emails directly from Amex or is it possible that these emails from Marriott may also be bypassing it?
They would be from Marriott, definitely worth trying especially if the offers are decent!