【2025.10.23】Didn't expect it, but 5 months later AMEX is on another shutdown rampage. Today a large wave of people got closed, and the email reason is still signs of misuse. There were follow-up closures for some same-address accounts, and some newly shut accounts as well. I suspect the reason may be the same as last time. In any case, everyone should act within 24 hours of closure. First priority: transfer out all points.

  • You can call 800-668-2639, 800-639-1202, 800-551-1814, 800-297-3276, or 800-525-3355 directly. Try all the numbers. If you call several times, you may reach a rep willing to help transfer points. (Now, after each round, it gets harder to transfer points by phone. If daytime calling doesn't work, try nights; sometimes outsourced reps are more likely to help.)
  • You can use chat online. Don't mention the shutdown; just ask the rep to transfer points. You may need to try multiple times, since some reps can’t do it or are unwilling to help. (In this October wave, some group members also succeeded.)
  • If your AMEX Business Checking is still open (it is generally not from the same shutdown round, so it is still useful as backup), you can contact them to redeem MR, or complete it directly on their page. Point transfers to some major airlines are not available, and cash redemption is 0.8 cents per point. 800-297-3276. If you open one,
  • If you have an AMEX checking account (Rewards or business), pending points will post in 2-3 weeks after repayment, and you can then handle them (business checking can transfer points for some airlines and hotels). If you do not have an AMEX checking account, even if pending points post, you will not see them yourself; you can try calling to handle it, but it will be much harder.
  • If your annual fee was charged within 30 days, you can call AMEX support and ask for a Chase to return the annual fee. You must ask for a Chase—do not let the rep talk you out of it. If it doesn't work, hang up and call again. Phone: 800-528-4800
  • [New] Note: if you used MR to redeem a physical gift card, use it as soon as possible. Some people's gift card balances have been voided by AMEX.
  • We created an AMEX shutdown discussion group. If needed, add WeChat assistant uscards101 and note "AMEX shutdown group" to join.

If you were shut or had been shut before, see the article below for fight back steps.

Email is shown below.

【July 11, 2025】Unexpectedly, AMEX proactively refunded the annual fee for accounts force-closed within 30 days of fee assessment. Whether or not you had previously contacted AMEX for a refund, they refunded the full amount on their own. The account is now at a negative balance, and you can ask chat support to mail that check to your mailing address. At least the loss has been reduced a bit.

The details showed the date as June 27, but when I checked in early July, it still had not posted.

Actually, during this period I contacted support multiple times. Every time, after checking my account, support said the annual fee was non-refundable due to misuse. I suspect higher management decided this time to refund this part to everyone and calm things down.

2025 October Closure Record

  • Round 1: October 23, Thursday. Five months later, AMEX started another huge shutdown wave. Today many people got closed, and the email reason is still signs of misuse. There were follow-up closures at some same addresses and newly closed accounts. I suspect the reason is probably the same as last time.

2025 May Closure Record

  • Round 1: May 8, Thursday. Mostly follow-up closures. For users whose some accounts had already been closed, the remaining cards were also all closed.
  • Round 2: May 12, Monday. Another wave this time, and many users previously not affected were also closed. Some were also follow-up closures from the first round in May, and some at the same address who were fine last time were pulled in this time.
  • Round 3: May 14, Wednesday. No reports of credit cards being shut, but many people’s AMEX checking accounts were pulled in as follow-up closures.
  • Round 4: May 15, Thursday. Another major wave of credit card closures, but AMEX checking accounts were still open.
  • Round 5: May 19, Monday. Another major wave of credit card closures (including mine).
  • Round 6: May 27, Tuesday. Only a small number of people were closed; the impact was not very broad.

2025 April Closure Record

I finally had time to wrap up earlier DP and everyone's experience. What a dark April it was! There were 4 waves of closures in April. Is AMEX only active on Mondays and Wednesdays?

  • Round 1: April 21, Monday. Most of the cards closed were business cards, mostly those with a lot of Bilt Pay activity.
  • Round 2: April 23, Wednesday. Similar pattern; some cards that survived the first round were closed later.
  • Round 3: April 28, Monday. Closure patterns became more complex and more mixed.
  • Round 4: April 30, Wednesday. The scope widened further, and more group members and several of my friends were also closed.

The closure emails looked like this, and the reason was basically the same: signs of misuse. Also note that AMEX shutdown emails are delayed. A card can be closed at 6:00, and the AMEX email may only arrive at 8:00. So far, the earliest alert has been Apple Wallet: if you added your AMEX card there, you get an instant Apple Wallet pop-up notification when it gets closed. Earlier notice is always better. This is discussed later.

Based on group information and some online DP, these waves had the following traits:

  • [Most likely] Quite a few cards that had previously paid others' bills got closed. There were even cases where BP-processed cards were closed while other cards were still active.
  • Many high-point users were closed.
  • There may be a pattern where a few cards are reviewed and closed first, then other cards continue to be closed.
  • After closure, points cannot be transferred or used. Support will say that once the account is closed, points cannot be used.
  • There can be stragglers; one member survived with a Business Platinum card.
  • There is collateral effect: if one person in a household is closed, people at the same address may also be closed.
  • There were single-person personal cards closed even without any business card.
  • The reason customers received was signs of misuse.
  • Cloud-resident account openings.
  • There were also closures of cards with no BP activity and little card usage.

In short, there seems to be a strong link with BP, but there are also many isolated cases with no clear closure pattern. If you do not have BP activity, but you have a large point balance that comes from not-so-normal sources (for example, elevatoring, NLL, lots of secondary cards, one card being used across many spend channels, etc.), you should still be careful.

After-closure Suggestions

General

  • If a closed card has a balance, it still needs to be paid off. The card shows as canceled, but the pay balance function is still available.
  • If you want to try to see whether it can be revived, don't waste time with front-line support—just keep asking to be transferred to a supervisor. There is a chance they might know why the account was shut; if it was an accidental closure, it might be restored (not confirmed, and I haven't seen any DP yet).
  • If one of your cards is closed, it will show as “closed by bank” on your credit report, which may slightly reduce your credit score. If you only have a few cards, one shutdown wave can have a noticeable impact.

    • Membership Rewards card shutdown

    An MR account has a built-in feature: as long as you still have at least one card that earns MR, your MR remains active. In addition, if you have an AMEX checking account, that account can also earn MR, so your MR stays active too. If all of them are shut, in theory a new MR card added within 30 days can be reinstated.

    If an enrollee later cancels enrolment, Points already earned that have not been redeemed for rewards or transferred to any participating Frequent Customer Programme, can be carried over for up to 30 days after cancellation. Any Points not redeemed by the end of 30 days after cancellation will be forfeited.

    If a few of your MR cards are shut and you still have other MR cards or an AMEX checking account, your MR is still valid. That said, this doesn't guarantee you'll stay open in the next shutdown wave. So consider transferring MR to airline miles; once transferred, MR is not clawed back. If you have an AMEX Platinum Schwab card, you can also consider redeeming for cash at 1.1 cents per point.

    If all MR-related cards are closed, here is what to do:

    1. First, check whether you have any missed accounts that were not shut (especially business cards may slip through), so you can transfer out MR more quickly.
    2. Check whether your AMEX checking account has been closed. If it is still open, MR can continue to be preserved.
    3. Call right away within 24 hours and request a point transfer; if one CSR can't help, call a few more. There is usually someone willing to do it (community experience).
    4. You can call directly at 800-668-2639, 800-639-1202, 800-551-1814, 800-297-3276, or 800-525-3355.
    5. The rep can still see your MR Balance and process it. Transfers may be declined after 24 hours, so the sooner you know you're shut, the better.
    6. Airline or hotel transfer partners must be ones you added before; you cannot add new ones.

    If you successfully transfer them, congratulations—you at least got your MR points. As for whether AMEX cards can be reopened later, that remains unclear.

    If none of the above works, some people in the group suggest immediately applying for a new AMEX MR card, such as Business PlatinumGold, Platinum, Gold, and so on. If approved, transfer points as soon as possible. An AMEX checking account can also buy you some extra time before expiration.

    • A friend tried applying for a new MR card and an AMEX checking account, but both were denied because they had been closed by AMEX before. So we don’t know how other successful cases were done.
    • Someone in the group applied directly for Green; it was approved, but the MR balance still showed 0.

    Other cards shutdown

    • Cashback cards like Blue cash: most people currently report that rewards cannot be redeemed, giving a sense that points were taken.
    • Co-branded cards like Hilton and Delta: because these points are not held by Amex and instead sit in airline and hotel program accounts, Amex cannot control them. These points should not be affected.

    Not yet shutdown

    If you haven't been shut yet, my suggestions are below:

    • Try to pay off all high balances to lower your risk score. Consider reducing Amex spending, especially large purchases.
    • Don't apply for many new cards in the near term; lie low for a while.
    • If you have a sign-up bonus you haven't received yet, try to stretch out the minimum-spend completion period. It may be better to wait until this wave cools down.
    • If you have confirmed mileage, transfer part or all of it now.
    • Recommend adding the airline and hotel transfer partners you want to use in advance, so if you get shut, you can transfer out right away.

    Channels that work best for getting out

    Quick summary for reference:

    • Schwab: 1.1 redemption to cash—at this point, cash is still king.
    • Platinum business: 35% MR rebate on ticket redemption; if you sell tickets to brokers, value is roughly 1.35 cents per point to 1.4 cents per point.

    Below are a few transfer partners:

    • ANA: 3-year hard expiration with no renewal. However, round-trip redemptions are pretty good, although hard to find. This year they are changing to allow one-way redemptions, which should improve things. It is not suitable for selling to others; it can be shut quickly.
    • AC: No expiration, but redemption is average. AC has slightly lower transfer risk than ANA.
    • Delta: No expiration, but value is not great. If you mainly fly domestically in the U.S., it can still work.
    • BA: Avios is fairly flexible, but one-way economy is the best value; business class and connections can consume a large amount of points.

    Discussion group

    For deeper discussion, you can join the group (the group is full at 200 members and cannot be joined by QR code. If you need to join, add WeChat assistant: uscards101, and include the note “AMEX 被关群”).