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AMEX Membership Rewards Points Are Now Harder to Share — Here’s What You’ll Have to Do

  • Jason Stauffer

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    INSIDER SECRET:INSIDER SECRET: Opening an American Express business card, like The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, won’t add to your Chase 5/24 count.

    If you’re a fan of Amex Membership Rewards points you’ll want to be aware of some changes that Amex has just implemented that impact when you earn and can transfer your points. You’ll want to pay attention if you have cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express or Amex Business Platinum.

    It has always been harder to transfer Amex points to a partner or family member than it is to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points. You aren’t allowed to transfer Amex points directly to another person’s Amex account, but if that individual is an authorized on your account you can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points directly into his/her airline or hotel loyalty account. Having this extra flexibility can be useful if you’re trying to accumulate enough points for a big redemption.

    Now if you want to transfer your Amex points into someone else’s frequent flyer account that person must have been an authorized user on your account for at least 90 days. One thing to keep in mind when you are adding someone as an authorized user is if you are adding them to a personal Amex card it will show up on their credit report. That means that it will add to their Chase 5/24 count. If your Chase application is denied because of this, you might be able to call Chase’s reconsideration line and get them to ignore authorized user accounts, but that’s not guaranteed.

    I got around this by adding my wife as an authorized user on The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express. Amex business cards don’t appear on personal credit reports so they don’t increase your Chase 5/24 count.

    The other big change is that in order to earn Amex Membership Rewards points for your purchases you’ll need to pay the amount due (at least the minimum payment) by your payment due date. Otherwise you will forfeit the points you would have earned for that billing period. This hopefully won’t impact too many readers, because you want to pay your card balance off in full each month anyway (if you don’t, the interest charges will wipe out any value you would have gotten from the points).

    To learn more about Amex Membership Rewards points, check out this guides:

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    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)