Lost Amex Platinum Sign-Up Bonus, Need Advice

[hawkins]

Thing that kind of bothers me about all these SUBs is it encourages people to spend far more then what they might normally spend. I get that a 100k sub is very lucrative but I also think it drives people to do things that is not good like over spending. My own view is I want to have a card for a long term relationship not just give me a SUB and then I cancel in a few months or whatever. All I hear is oh they have a 75k or 100k SUB all you need to do is spend 5 or 10k to get it. There are TOO many people out there with a Platinum card that have no business having one. I have a relative in college that has a Platinum card for crying out loud. He makes like 10 or 15k max a year! Unless you have a Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs version which does require a butt ton on money to back it up in which case you can afford most things, the other versions are nothing. Purely my opinion of course.

[Anonymous]

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@iced wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@iced wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

thanks

yeah, seems like best thing is to cancel again..

I do attend Laker games and the Centurian lounge at Staples would come in handy, but I was also in it for the flights and without the 60,000 kickstart, seems like a lost cause 

they only asked why i wanted to close it and i said because I'm trying to make purchases to get the sign up bonus but i'm being blocked from pursuing the bonus.. after that, they didn't say or read anything. they just said okay and closed it.

when you canceled, did you have to pay the annual fee?

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You basically just confessed to Amex you're milking them for their bonus, and you're surprised they weren't interested in working with you?

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interesting take, however, i've been with AMEX for three years and my everyday card has a $4000 limit and the points from it haven't been a factor at all

kinda strange a company would offer 60,000 points and all those benefits for a $550 annual fee, and then consider themselves getting milked by customers who want all those points and benefits.. essentially, your position is that amex is saying "oh, you didn't get our charge card because you love us as a company, you just wanna use us for the benefits we dangled in front of you to sign up, so screw you!" 

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I imagine they see bonuses the same way I do - it's something to sweeten the pot a little bit for those who may be on the fence with getting a card for its permanent benefits. Sort of like how a dealer throws in a few incentives or discounts on a car. In this example, you're not buying the car for the incentives, you're buying the car for what it is and the incentives make it a little more appealing. In the credit world, somehow, somewhere, this concept got turned on its head and the churner was born.

The statement I would say is "we want you to use our card for travel and some other everyday purchases for years to come as we have benefits on the card that align with your spending and enhance your travel experience; as a bonus for joining our program, we'll give you some points to jumpstart your MR account".

Banks started adding spend requirements soon after introducing the SUB because it got abused so much when they didn't have them. It's still abused a lot and I wouldn't be surprised if we see spend requirements change in the next year or two to include long-term requirements. Think things like spend $3000/quarter for 6 quarters or spend $25,000 in the first year like some hotel/airline cards do for some of their perks.

A bank knows pretty fast that if people are only getting their card for the sign-up bonus, it's not a good customer fit. They don't want people who are just going to use the card for 3 months and stop; they want the long-time sticky customer.

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i agree with this.. i just think it's also clear i'm in it for the longhaul from my other account.. but i have seen long time customers do the churning, so i get it

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@blindambition wrote:

Sorry about the situation OP.

Amex has certainly changed, like most. I won’t get into whether good, or not. However, it is no longer a prestigious card to have. As stated, they want to charge that $550 to as many people as possible. They seem to cut corners where they can.

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So, are you saying people would pay $550/yr for Prestige?  No, people pay $550 a year for the benefits the card offers. That has nothing to do with the spending power on the card. Again, you’re paying for the benefits. 

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it's possible people get the card for prestige and benefits 

[Physh1]

All of this could have been averted by making a call to Amex & letting them know you'd be putting that spend through it so quickly. I use my Plat for a few hundred a month BUT the 2 times I planned on putting huge spend through it really quickly (once 3k & once 6k) I alerted them to it ahead of time & it was no issue. I think a quick phone call would have eased this from the beginning & your hasty closure of the card without thinking lost your SUB.

A clear head & reason would fix this...any new card popping thousands in spending right off the bat with a nearly immediate payment looks odd. Just my .02 worth.

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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the idea of them mitigating risks is funny to me.. in my opinion, banks are not extending revolving credit in good faith.. they're lending it to people they know will only make minimum payments and they're racking up on interest.. the only faith they have is in people not wanting to miss payments and incur late fees and mess up their credit with a late payment.. i know too many full-time students with no jobs, $7000 credit limits and making minimum payments with their student loans

if i lend $10,000 to a friend, it should be after researching that even if he went and borrowed another $10,000 from someone else, they'd still be able to pay me back.. if we have a contract, i wouldn't seek to take it back because they borrowed from someone else; i'd wait for a breach in our contract and then sue.. i shouldn't be loaning $10,000 if i'm not in a position to lose it.. 

while i disagree with your view that banks are the good guys, i do believe it's ridiculous for people to do things like, spend more than what's in their accounts and then get mad at overdraft fees and call banks evil.. 

with products like the centurian card, crafted for elite spenders, kinda hard to believe presitge is a meaningless concept 

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If you go in seeing them as the enemy in an exploitative relationship, then you're likely going to create a self-fulfilling prophecy when it does fail. I wouldn't say they're the good guys, but they're not the bad guys either. They're just a business who wants to make money, so it's nothing personal for them, and it shouldn't be for us either. It also doesn't have to be a predatory or adversarial relationship - there's plenty of symbiotic ones out there to be had where both you and the bank make their money off the relationship.

I don't pay a penny in interest to Chase or American Express each year but I'm probably twice as appealing of a customer to them as someone who does. Why? I use the cards regularly, pay in full, and keep them for years. They're making money off the merchant fees and I've demonstrated myself to be minimal risk. I'm making money off MR/UR points and getting some additional benefits to boot. Everyone's winning and everyone's happy.

There's no good guys and bad guys; instead, there's responsible parties who own their decisions and irresponsible ones who don't.

The Centurion card is an example of their advertising campaign to make themselves seem prestigious. Step back for a moment and ask yourself why you think it's prestigious. Because someone famous uses it? Because someone wealthy uses it? Because it's invite-only? Because it's expensive? Do any of these really sound like objectively rational reasons to believe something more worthy? There's also examples of each one of those questions answered by another product or service that nobody considers presitigious, so the only explanation that remains is suggestive.

They know this works on some people though, so they push the "prestige" angle. The Centurion is the bait, the Platinum is the hook, and you're the fish.

[counticecream]

It’s so offputting to see the talk about the Platinum not being a prestigious card because it’s not reserved for the upper echelon of consumers anymore. It’s an odd thing to worry about. As long as people understand the AF and see their subjective value in the card that they are applying for and have the money to pay it all off, is it really that big of an issue?

More to the OP’s original question, I do believe that the SUB may be gone for good, but I hope you do call CS and see if anything can be done. I was on the phone with a very nice rep last night who went through all of my benefits and explained them to me, helped me enroll, and also explained the guidelines for getting the SUB in detail. Along with calling AMEX, you can check your spending power on the app or website. Although the rep did say if you are denied for a large purchase there, calling is the next step. GL, OP!

[Anonymous]

First month on Gold card I spent 3,255.70 with no US credit file. First month on Platinum I spent $2697 plus the annual fee, on a thin US file. After a while I saw that my check spending wouldn't even approve $500, so I sent a partial payment as soon as the statement closed.

My own spending on the card tends to be purchases from $100 to $1000, retail, online and online travel bookings. For me, anyway, this sort of spending and quick payment made their algorithm work for me pretty quickly. 

[NRB525]

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@CJ7 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
The color of the card has no influence on its spending power.

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There was a time when it did.  In the day, I believe the Gold was backed by at least 25K

through a separate financial institution.  If someone whipped out their Platinum to pay for something,

it meant they had excellent credit and significant resources and could basically buy the whole store

or even a car with it.  It was a thing of prestige.  Now, they'll dole one out to anyone with a 650 score and

$550 they're willing to part with.  And get assigned some laughable internal limit.

Imagine if one or more of your major revolvers cut your limit because they saw a new auto loan on your report.

People would be fuming.  But when AX does it to a charge card, it's somehow OK because it's mitigating risk.

The next time I see someone insert their Platinum into the chip reader, I'll know there's a decent chance that

any card in my wallet actually has more buying power.  So much for prestige.

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Not sure what time period this might be. I had a Gold card in the 1980's and doubt AMEX had any intention of letting me run up $25k of charges on the card.

If I compare my limited observation of what people ahead of me use at the cash register, to the availability of the Gold and Platinum, I am more inclined to think a person using a Gold or Platinum understands the AF has some benefit.

The flip side of AMEX cutting a limit to mitigate risk is, they are the easiest lender to grow credit limits with on revolvers. It is all profile dependent. If an auto loan shows up and causes their algorithm to pull back a bit, there is probably some mix of factors in a file to lead to that risk reduction.

[wasCB14]

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@NRB525 wrote:
The flip side of AMEX cutting a limit to mitigate risk is, they are the easiest lender to grow credit limits with on revolvers. It is all profile dependent. If an auto loan shows up and causes their algorithm to pull back a bit, there is probably some mix of factors in a file to lead to that risk reduction.

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Maybe I missed it, but what was the amount of the auto loan? The maturity? And does a credit report show the interest rate of an auto loan?

Although mortgage and credit card defaults have been fairly low, auto loan defaults have been steadily rising. The average size of a loan has risen, as has the average maturity. People are more likely to be buying cars they can't really afford.

While I wouldn't have expected a new car loan to likely curtail charge card spending power so sharply, this seems like a time when auto loans might cause much more concern than in the past.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

the rep did attempt a temporary increase, but she said ultimately, my car purchase hindered it

i will reach out to executive office

i will update you all if anything changes

from what i'm reading, the terms say they "may" not give the points if i cancel within the first 12 months; it does not say it's set in stone that i can't get them

funny, waited til i was going to spend $5000 to apply for this card and then get blocked from spending $5000.. i personally think there should be a minimum spending power of $5000, no matter what, if they decide you're approved 

either way, i've accepted i made a mistake and moving on; live and learn 

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My first Amex I had q 3k spend requirement on a 1k limit.  I just made payments multiple times a week

  Now when I get new Amex cards they give me 30k limits.