The Road Ahead – Where We’re At and Going with New Amex Cards

New Amex Cards

My wife and I cancelled a stack of Amex cards a couple weekends ago.  I imagine some of you found this perplexing; this clearly included a few commenters.  Today’s the payoff – sort of – and I’m equally sure some of you will wrinkle brows at this one, too.  I’m confident my wife and I have our smallest Amex card portfolios since President Clinton was in office.  With slimmer profiles we have larger opportunities – that was part of our thought process.  Today, I’m describing our plan for new Amex cards for the rest of the year.  But to first set the scene, I’ll run down our current cards.

Amex Cards We Currently Hold

It turns out my wife and I each hold the exact same Amex card profile currently.  Both of us hold one of each of the following cards as primary cardholders:

• Schwab Platinum
• Gold
• Hilton Honors Surpass
• Delta Gold

We each pursued the Schwab Platinum card for a trio of purposes: the elevated welcome offer, cashing out Membership Rewards points, and the substantial benefits (including triple dipping certain ones across three calendar years).  Meanwhile, we obtained new Amex Gold cards last year via referral offers from each other.  Notably, we weren’t interested in welcome offers for these cards, opting to focus that spend on other opportunities while maintaining the flexibility to close these Golds if slot needs came along.  For now, though, we’re enjoying the ongoing benefits of these cards while we substantially subsidized the annual fees via referral bonuses.

The wife’s Delta Gold is from early last year, and we plan to cancel that one when the second cardmember year annual fee posts.  I recently picked up a Delta Gold for an elevated signup bonus, no annual fee, referral bonus, and 15% discount on Delta redemptions (just like the wife last year).  We’re each sticking with our Hilton Honors Surpass accounts through cardmember year one and planning to upgrade to Aspire in the summer.

What’s Next

Here’s where we’re aiming for this year.  I won’t attempt to go chronologically, as I expect that this order will change based on the availability of elevated and/or no-lifetime-language welcome offers at any time.  To an extent, we let the Amex game come to us.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant

While certainly below our Hilton interest, we’ve continued to find reliable value in the Marriott Bonvoy program.  Importantly, we’ve noticed considerable return on our previous Brilliant cards and the Platinum status it provided us.  I’ve achieved status upgrades fairly routinely, even when Nightly Upgrade Awards didn’t clear.  With a bit of homework and careful property selection, Marriott’s elite breakfast benefit has worked out swimmingly for us.

I’m crossing my fingers for a substantially-elevated welcome offer, something along the lines of the previous 185k signup bonus.  We’d lock ourselves into the two 85k cert offer if we were lucky enough for that to come around, too.  Therefore, I guess that means we’d be happy with a 170k-point offer, also.  The annual fee is considerable, but referral bonuses, Platinum status, and those easy-to-trigger $25 monthly dining credits make up for it.

Hilton Honors Surpass

My wife and I will each jump at another Hilton Honors Surpass welcome offer opportunity which comes with a free night certificate and more (usually points).  Despite all of the other Hilton Honors moves/devaluations, the certs remain the best of their kind.  The quarterly $50 Hilton credit brings us solid value, substantially covering the $150 annual fee before bringing a referral offer into the equation.  Plus, we have even more options for Aspires via upgrade next year.

Marriott Bonvoy Business

I may have to play the waiting game here, as the currently-elevated offer is one which doesn’t particularly draw my interest.  This bonus provides three 50k certs, down from the five 50k certs I got last year.  While I find these certs useful enough, I don’t find them handy to the point I’d accept only three in a welcome offer.  For what it’s worth, I’d take 125k point offer before three of those, but these days, even 125k points doesn’t move the needle for me.  Absent of five certs or a juiced points offer beyond 125k, I’ll probably sit this one out.

Business Gold

I’m intrigued to pursue a Business Gold welcome offer the next time the right points total comes around.  This is a cash play while picking up a few of the card’s benefits before upgrading to a Business Platinum at the optimal time to leverage that card’s benefits.  That time may be in the next few days, weeks, or months, depending when I can pull up the worthy offer.

Blue Business Cash or Plus

I’ve held each of these cards previously, but I’ve been so chock-full of other Amex credit cards since that I just haven’t had the space for either of these cards when certain attractive no-lifetime-language offers have come along.  Due to my cancellation efforts, I have plenty of room for either or both if/when the right one appears.  I don’t have any expectations on what I would/wouldn’t pursue.  I have an open mind for now.

Everyday, Please

Perhaps the biggest wild card (see what I did there) on this list is the Amex Everyday Preferred card (or whatever they want to call the new version).  You may recall that Amex removed these cards for new applications years ago, with the expectation (at least from some of us) that they would eventually return.  The wife and I each enjoyed holding the Preferred years ago, particularly the silly scheme earning extra points when completing 30 transactions within a statement period.  Sure, spending was capped for the best grocery category, but we had fun, nonetheless.  Since it’s been gone, I’ve built up (misplaced) expectations for a higher-annual-fee version with even more attractive earning – something which may not happen, even if the card miraculously returns.  If it does, though, my wife and I will jump onto such a card with a higher-than-average amount of zeal.

Conclusion

Of course, this is a work in progress.  I expect many changes to the above plan.  Indeed, I’ll happily tweak it, knowing that anything Amex does to convince a change means higher net rewards for us.  Everyday products and otherwise, I’m particularly watching for newly-available Amex cards.  The bank was so busy with many card refreshes last year, maybe we’ll see a slate of new Amex cards in 2026.  Even a few worthy ones would make me happy.  Your move, Amex, until it’s mine.

What new Amex cards are you planning to pick up this year?  Why?