After AMEX rolled out its once-per-lifetime welcome bonus policy for all personal credit cards, today it has started applying the same treatment to small-business cards. Previously, as long as you had not held the same card within the past 12 months, you could earn the welcome bonus again. Now, all AMEX business cards except AMEX SPG Business have added language similar to the personal-card welcome bonus exclusion.
Detailed Terms
Thanks to Milestomemories for spotting this. If you pull up the terms and conditions for, say, the AMEX Business Rewards Gold card, you’ll see:
Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.
The same language now appears on all the other cards as well. The only survivor is the AMEX SPG Business card. Its terms still use the old wording:
Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product within the last 12 months.
This may be because AMEX has an agreement with SPG, or it may simply be that they forgot to update the SPG card terms.
How Can You Get Around This Restriction?
Unfortunately, there is no broadly applicable way to bypass this restriction. The only known option right now is to wait for AMEX to send you a targeted offer that does not include this restriction, and then apply through that offer.
How Should I Respond?
The string of bad credit-card news this year is likely due to weak financial performance at several card issuers, which has led them to tighten budgets. Overall, this is not good news for points-and-miles enthusiasts. More bad news may still be coming, so it’s worth being mentally prepared. As for AMEX, now that the restriction is here, there is not much we can do about it. Unless future data points show that AMEX does not actually enforce this language, it is already too late to apply for this card. But if you are planning to apply for other cards, it may be best to do so sooner rather than later—you never know when the next unpleasant surprise will arrive. Apply early and enjoy early.
Will this make you speed up your credit-card applications? Share your thoughts in the comments.