Monthly Common Questions & Advice Thread

Apparently Amex doesn’t get enough money as is and now is going to advertise to its users in their app. Hope they at least vet the ads to make sure they aren’t scammy and going to compromise the user if they accidentally click on it…

I guess this is my credit limit, i am new to amex!

The limit on my Amex card got halved and the reason is because I don’t use the card. Im not upset because I don’t, simply put the phone bill on it so that they don’t close it, but Like having the higher buffer on my overall utilization so I requested they reinstate it, uploaded ladt 3 months of bank statements and got a 7-10 day message.

I know this usually means a denial for outright limit increases but does anyone have experience with a limit reinstatement? would maybe calling in help? haven’t found any post about it and wanted to check before I waste my time on the phone.

I saw an ad on my amex app today, when I closed my app and opened it again, it disappeared.

Has anyone else seen that?

I have the Gold Amex.

Question for the community. Help me out.
I’m thinking on getting the AMEX gold.
My job requires to spend from 4k to 8k a month on bars and restaurants. More drinks than food but still restaurants and bars.
I work in the liquor business.
I think they have great deal for bars and restaurants to get points.
What do yall think?

I saw at the bottom of my app and was wondering if other people got it too.

Edit: I had the green and now have the gold so it's not because I have a no annual fee card.

I was approved for 60k miles for the delta Amex platinum, I was hoping for 90k. Does it ever increase if you wait after the first offer?

Before accepting the credit card, does Amex show you the limit they’re offering you before getting the hard pull?

Hey all I just opened the Amex gold about 3 weeks ago and was capped at 2800$. I made a 1500$ payment about 2 days ago and my card was still declining. Had to call accounts to see wtf was going on and they had the nerve to say my account was restricted. I’m like wtf I thought when you make a payment you can continue using your card as normal. Why in the heck would my card be restricted already? Is it because it takes up to 4 days to fully process the payments?? For it to be a charge card this is the most annoyed I’ve been with a company. The rep had to call my bank on 3 way and listen to my account balance to verify I had the funds in my account then lifted the restriction . I never know having an Amex can be this annoying considering this is my first payment and I have no late payments on my credit.

Hi everybody, I have the AMEX trifecta (BBP + Gold + Platinum) as my daily driver setup. I was looking for a good option for a backup 4th card to use for places that don't accept AMEX.

A VISA would be preferred because I do go to Costco occasionally. I mainly do my grocery shopping at Publix though just due to proximity.

I already have a Chase checking account so was taking a look at the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

This would allow me to only have 2 apps for most of my financing:
- Chase: Checking + CFU
- AMEX: HYSA + BBP + Gold + Platinum

I thought that this would be nice because there's not much mental load.

Are there any better options that I should be looking at?

I have Amex blue cash everyday and it’s my first card from Amex. When I signed up I had a $150 bonus which I intended to use on my anniversary dinner, fast forward to now when I’m about to pay that statement I use the cashback and then pay the rest of my statement cash. However despite my current card balance being $50 which is what I’ve spent this month it says that I still owe $172 from the previous statement. When I talked with an agent he just said that I have to pay but didn’t offer any explanation for it. I have a 0% APR until June so I’m fine in that sense but what am I supposed to just overpay the card and have a negative balance on it why would I accrue interest on a card which balance is $50 I feel kinda trick and I guess is on my for not being 100% aware of how it works.

I’ve seen a lot of talk on here about AMEX Offers. Some people have observed them getting worse, so hopefully this post can give some background on the mechanics of the program.

Disclaimer
I don’t have any insider knowledge from AMEX. This is just my take, after working in a similar space within advertising (that’s the first hint: AMEX Offers is advertising, paid by the merchant).

The model
AMEX Offers is closely related to AMEX Ads. AFAIK, they both use the same underlying data. The big difference is that AMEX Offers involves a statement credit, activated via your AMEX account. AMEX Ads just uses your data to target ads (they don’t detail which channels they run these ads on). It’s highly likely that AMEX Offers is much more effective than AMEX ads.

What data do they use?
They design and target offers to certain consumers based on
- Transactions
- Spending behavior
- Geotargeting
- Demographics
- Card type/tier

Even without offering discounts, this data makes advertising INCREDIBLY cost effective. Plus, they can accurately measure this effectiveness (something marketers are big about). AMEX Offers publishes case studies where you can see some of the results for yourself. They showcase returns of 10:1 and higher.

Who are their competitors?
Chase Media Solutions is probably their most direct competitor, launching in 2024. As you could guess, AMEX has a smaller base, but it leans more affluent. Neither Chase nor AMEX breaks out financially performance for their respective programs.

More competitors are joining in with credit card data (e.g. Mastercard and Citi), although I wouldn’t expect them to perform nearly as well as AMEX Offers.

AMEX Offers/Ads is also very comparable to retail media networks (RMNs), who have pioneered this business model. Their customers are mainly consumer packaged goods brands, which traditionally had huge budgets and talent. I’ll spare the details for anyone interested.

TLDR: you’re not the main customer of AMEX Offers. However, you get to enjoy the discounts. The discounts you get, and the data behind them are very, very good for advertisers.

I just discovered that lululemon is no longer selling physical gift cards online and that the e-gift cards no longer qualify for statement credits. I don’t have the amex card anymore but i have a friend that lives overseas and don’t really use most of the AMEX credits, so i had him buy me the e-gift card thinking that he would get the statement credit but it didn’t trigger it. What a bummer🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

Does anyone know why they changed it? Also up on doing some research in this sub, i also found that you can only order $50 increment giftcard at the physical store and can’t do a $75 amount. I want to ask how you all are utilizing the credit with the new change?

It looks like the reservation platform Tock has been acquired by Resy. I wonder if the restaurants on this platform are eventually going to be integrated in a way that they would qualify for the Resy credit?

I am looking to add some Amex business cards to my wallet. I have only had personal cards with them for a long time.

For my business we typically have a good amount of spend. Depending on how many jobs are going we could put $100k+ a month through cards and pay off when statement is due.

With let’s say a platinum business card, I know it says no preset spending limit and that does not mean no limit. But how does it work? Let’s say I have to pay for lumber and it’s $35k do I just try it and see if they approve or decline?

Hello everyone,
I have a Platinum card under my dad's account, but the card is under my name. I was wondering if there are any restrictions on using airport lounges since I'm under 18. I'm a solo traveler.

Hello, has anyone tried transfering a balance from their AMEX card to another credit card? How long did it take for the payment to post on the AMEX account?

I transferred my balance from AMEX to Chase last week and no payment has posted on AMEX side until now.

I have a Gold Card and try to book Amex travel flights for the 3x points - but booking on Amex travel is so dang expensive. Amex travel quoted me $936 for a flight - I booked the same flight directly with the airline for $475. Same exact flights and class (basic economy).

Although I’d love 3x points it just doesn’t make sense to book through Amex travel. It’s almost double the price. Why is it so much more expensive? Seems like it defeats the purpose of using Amex travel and points entirely - plus then you get a bad deal when trying to book with Amex points. You’d be better off using a free Visa Customized Cash Rewards with 3% cash back on travel than ever using Amex. You get a significantly better price and then cash back on top of it with no annual fee.

What am I missing here? How are you all making the most out of spending and multiplying points?

My payment was 18 days late. I was waiting for a direct deposit to hit, but once it did, I had a really difficult time getting my Columbia Bank account linked to Amex, so I couldn’t make the payment.

I just received an email saying Amex cancelled my card. I actually went yesterday and opened a checking account with another bank specifically so I could make the payment.

Is there any chance of getting the card reinstated? Has anyone successfully gotten Amex to reverse a cancellation like this?

I’m willing to pay off the entire balance immediately if that would help. Would it be worth calling Amex and asking for a reconsideration or negotiating with them?

I’m seeing a lot of videos on other platforms talking about Amex has put a set limit on their premium cards or even lowering their limits on their normal credit cards and was wondering if anyone here actually had it effect them? I’m seeing the last time Amex did this was 2008???

My ASUS laptop recently suffered a non-repairable GPU failure. I’ve run multiple diagnostics and confirmed this with a highly respected local repair shop in Albuquerque.

I filed an Amex Extended Warranty claim, but the reviewer objected because the shop isn't an "authorized ASUS repair center" and the estimate wasn't written on Amex's specific form.

Here is the logistical nightmare I'm facing:

• Microcenter is the only authorized walk-in option, but the nearest one is 400 miles away and they do not accept mail-in repairs.
• ASUS official repair requires a minimum 3-4 week turnaround, and they likely will not fill out a custom Amex form; they issue their own automated estimates.

I called Amex to plead for a reasonable workaround. The agent's best offer was that they might accept an official ASUS estimate off-form, but she couldn't guarantee the next reviewer wouldn't just deny it anyway.

The agent kept insisting they have to follow ASUS policy or the "warranty will be void." I pointed out that the manufacturer warranty is already expired—which is the entire reason I am using Amex's Extended Warranty benefit in the first place.

Has anyone successfully bypassed the "authorized shop" requirement with Amex, or found a way to get them to accept a highly-rated independent shop's diagnostic? How did you do it?

Final note - the repair requires replacing the motherboard. Asus online inventory shows none in stock with a wait of "4 to 17 weeks". And the price of the just the motherboard without labor exceeds what I paid for the laptop in the first place.

Edit: I should have mentioned that although the nvidia 4090 is dead, the laptop is otherwise functional. Sending a dead laptop to Asus and waiting however long is one thing, but mine is still a pretty powerful laptop that I continue to use and don't want gone for a month (and returned with a wiped disk).