Travel on Point(s)

Travel on Point(s) is an independent, advertising-supported website. This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites like CreditCards.com and Bankrate.com. This compensation does not impact how or where products appear on this site. Travel on Point(s) has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site. Reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any partner entities.

Travel on Point(s) is an independent, advertising-supported website. This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites like Creditcards.com and Bankrate.com. This compensation does not impact how or where products appear on this site. Travel on Point(s) has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site. Reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any partner entities.

Amex Gold Card Family Rule

American Express has been rolling out their family rule right and left. First it hit the Platinum card, then Delta cards and lastly the Blue Cash cards earlier this week. Now they have completely jumped the share with this new Amex Gold card family rule. Why is this crazy? Because the Amex Gold card isn't really in a family per se. There are multiple Platinum card offers, which make them a family, but the same can't be said for the Gold card. Unless you call it a part of the Membership Rewards family, but the Green card doesn't have anything new in its terms … at least not yet. (They added it to Green later on)

New Amex Gold Card Terms

Here are the new terms for the Amex Gold Card family rule:

You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Premier Rewards Gold Card, the Platinum Card®, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards...

So if you have ever held a Platinum card of any kind you are now ineligible for the welcome offer on an Amex Gold card. Pure insanity!

Amex Gold Card Family Rule

Proper Application Timeline For Membership Rewards Earning Cards Now

Once again, Amex left a path to getting all of the cards with this new Amex Gold Card family rule. While that doesn't help anyone that has already unknowingly mucked it up, there is a path to victory for new comers.

This is currently the only way to go about this:

  • Green then Gold then Platinum

For a full breakdown be sure to check out our complete Amex family rule guide.

Amex Gold Card Family Rule: ToP Thoughts

The Amex Gold card family rule is the first really surprising family rule by American Express. The other ones I could see, but this is kind of out of left field. It is deterring American Express card holders from holding their two premium cards, at least if they already grabbed a Platinum card. That seems beyond foolish. Which is especially true when the business department hands out multiples of the same card right and left. To be honest, American Express seems like a mess right now.

At this point it has to be assumed every card they can put under a family rule will be handled that way at some point. I figured Hilton would be next, but they decided to do it to the Amex Gold card instead. I am surprised they didn't roll the Amex Green card into the family rule at the same time (but did eventually).

Let me know what you think of these changes over in the ToP Facebook Group.

HT: Tim Irvin in ToP Facebook Group

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE
ToP TIPS STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX

We promise to keep things short, sweet, and packed with awesome insights!