American Express Updates Their Credit Card Terms
Reader Stephen alerted me to the fact that American Express has updated some of their credit card terms. The changes are focused on the earning side of things. It doesn’t seem to be a huge difference, just new verbiage. But it is unlikely they would change it for no reason so we can speculate on why.
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New American Express Credit Card Terms
Your Cardmember Agreement will be amended as follows:
A. Effective Immediately, the How you receive additional miles section in the Supplement to the Cardmember Agreement is amended by deleting the following paragraphs:
“Purchases made through a third-party payment account or on an online marketplace (with multiple retailers) will not receive additional miles. Merchants are typically assigned codes and categorized based on what they primarily sell. A purchase will not receive additional miles if the merchant, or a particular merchant location, uses a code that is not eligible for additional miles. For questions about additional miles on a purchase, call the number on the back of your Card.
A purchase may not receive additional miles if the merchant submits the purchase using a mobile or wireless card reader or if you use a mobile or digital wallet. Please visit americanexpress.com/rewardsinfo for more information about rewards.”
And replacing with the following paragraphs:
“Merchants are assigned codes based on what they primarily sell. We group certain merchant codes into categories that are eligible for additional miles. A purchase with a merchant will not receive additional miles if the merchant’s code is not included in a reward category. You may not receive additional miles if we receive inaccurate information or are otherwise unable to identify your purchase as eligible for a reward category.
For example, you may not receive additional miles when: a merchant uses a third-party to sell their products or services; or a merchant uses a third-party to process or submit your transaction to us (e.g., using mobile or wireless card readers); or you choose to make a purchase using a third-party payment account or make a purchase using a
mobile or digital wallet.
For questions about additional miles on a purchase, call the number on the back of your Card. Please visit americanexpress.com/rewards-info for more information about rewards.”
My Thoughts
These two things sound pretty similar but American Express is getting a little more detailed in the update. I wonder if this stems from issues from locations using card readers. I know many people have had issues with the Amex Gold card coding 4X on certain restaurants because some small locations use card readers etc. It is a problem Mastcard and Visa seem to have no issues with but Amex continues to struggle. Are they beefing up the terms to deny these earning disputes?
Another potential issue they could be looking to address are certain apps, something like Fluz. Are they looking to end a potential work around for bonus points?
Let me know what you think the changes mean in the comments. Knowing Amex they have a purpose for doing it.
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I have found that VRBO is coded as professional services and not travel. When I’ve called (Chase, not AMEX) to get the bonus points in the past, Chase has agreed until recently – pointing out the coding issue and not willing to change it. So, AMEX may be trying to address customers calling in to address vendor coding and has decided to get tougher about it.
That seems likely. This gives the reps more power to deny the courtesy points.
I think they’re setting it up to avoid “questionable” charges where they don’t have L3 data, for example at some grocery stores. They say no points on GCs, etc. and now if they can’t tell it’s valid, they can withhold points.
“ You may not receive additional miles …are otherwise unable to identify your purchase as eligible for a reward category.”
Great catch – that could be a problem going forward. The Hilton 12X points being held for review come to mind.
To me is sounds AMEX is just throwing in more technical fine print details for more reasons to avoid award points, hoping the masses will not realise the minor change has occured to their point earnings. More so now with COVID many, including myself are moving to touchless payments. I have used Paypal, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, tap/scan to pay, etc much more in the past 3 months then ever before. The new terms sound to me unless I physically stick or swipe my card into the card reader they could deny “additional” points on purchases? In practice I understand if the card normal offers 2x points on grocery but they offer additional bonus points of 6x basically if you use google pay (or other touchless/3rd party) you will only earn the basic 2x points Vs. If you physically insert your card you will then be eligible to earn the full 6x addition bonus points?
Mike that is kind of what I was thinking too. If they take it that far, going past the spirit of how things should work, it would be very customer unfriendly. Hopefully it doesn’t go that far but with Amex you just don’t know these days.
@The Brain,
Amex has enough “brains” at the table and if they don’t then they certainly have enough $$$ to hire someone smart enough to figure out these “creative ways to game” as you call it.
I don’t care how many points Amex loses to folks who play by the rules they’ve created and is still winning in spite of them. To those like myself who will continue to find “creative ways to game” I say carry on because I know I will.
Think I’m going to shed a tear over Amex having to cough up a few more points?…hah! yea, right. I hope folks continue on with bleeding them for every point they can.
Well said Randy! I think you just coined a new word “Brains”. We now have the Karen & Brains running around. Why would Brains even want to follow these post other then to be haters? The non-brains follow to catch the latest deals and the many ways to maximum points (aka game) for free travel.
To me I think the main thing is eliminating any requests for bonus points if the vendor in a category doesn’t submit the proper coding which makes sense due to all the different bonus categories in 2020.
Also I do think Amex is trying to shut down the people gaming the system by using 3rd party payment methods. Again that is reasonable since If Amex never intended to award bonus points/miles they shouldn’t have to just because someone found a creative way to game things. I applaud them for cutting out scum that try these tricks.
I do wonder if this will flow over into stuff that should be coding properly. How is a card holder supposed to know if a restaurant codes properly or not until after the purchase? If they have no recourse then they may just move onto another card they know will code properly. I know a lot of people are giving up the extra point per dollar and going with the CSR instead of the Gold card for this very reason.
With the rise of digital wallets I wonder if that will play a factor at all as well. Only time will tell but that would be a bad move on their part for sure.