From other hints that popped up last week and based on other changes internationally, most if not all changes will revolve around encouraging spend on the cards. I suspect some combination of possible new bonus categories, possible increased base earning, additional monthly, semi-annual, or annual credits, and/or targeted spend bonuses.
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
@Remedios wrote:You probably missed the one where Chase cards cure common cold and cholera.
Are you suggesting that "the cure" doesn't really work?
I have a Chase credit card and I don't have cholera.
@dragontears wrote:Maybe I am just pessimistic but I don't see Amex making changes that will just cost them $$ such as significantly increasing the earn/cash redemption rates, making credits easier to use, etc. Amex doesn't care about consumers, they care about making money.
I predict that most of the changes will be beneficial for <15% of people and they add a bunch more hard to use credits.
I don't know if you're pessimistic, because your prediction and my prediction of what they will actually do are pretty much the same, but I will just add that they don't want a bunch of people cancelling the card. And, they don't want it to have a longterm negative reputation or become an example of a white-elephant waste of money. They ultimately want to make money, but part of how they make money is by maintaining customer satisfaction. That said, I will be surprised if they make any huge or bold moves. I do think they will throw us a bone or two, simply for retention.
@Anonymous wrote:
Add Gold rewards to Platinum. Period.
They want people to have both of those cards, and many do, including me. It wouldn't do such customers any good, and it would encourage people to cancel one or the other.
You can't cancel both if you don't have both.
The people this would encourage to cancel a card are the subset who have both.
If I had Platinum but not Gold, and they changed it so Platinum was a copy of Gold (plus existing benefits that I won't use for a long time), I would just downgrade to Gold and pocket the $300 difference.
Well, I personally won't do that, because I just paid my AF in February, I don't want to mess up my CAP statement credits, and I think things will start getting back to normal before it's due again. Just talking about the overall direction this decision would push customers as a group.
And, if we are saying that Gold is a travel card (because MRs mostly translate into travel rewards), and of course Platinum is a travel card, then why wouldn't a lot of people cancel either or both cards anyway? If they're trying to prevent people from cancelling both cards, then does that presume people with only Gold will cancel Gold? The only people I'd see appreciating this decision are people who want a Platinum Card for some specific reason, and don't want both cards for some specific reason, but envy the Gold rewards. That is not very many people IMO.
There is not a decision tree where this is a good idea in either the short term or the long term ... JMO.
For $550/year, the "go big or go home" idea would be more like 8x MRs on category spend and 4x MRs on non-category.
But I think what will actually happen will be like a $10/month Doordash credit and maybe increase one of the reward categories by a MR per dollar.
I don't think it'll be a no, because I don't think Amex will even discuss anything like that. But bear in mind the AF in question. This is not a card that directly compares with, say, Amex Gold, which is 4x in category spend at less than half the AF. They could also leave the Schwab card as-is, since it already doesn't have a retention issue. Again for anybody reading this without full context, there is no way Amex will do something like this. I think what they do will be pretty minor.