Silicon Warrior

Thanks to you fine folks on these FlyerTalk boards, earlier this year I successfully availed myself of the Business Platinum Card 250K Membership Rewards sign-up bonus. I'm nearly done meeting the first-three-months $15K minimum spend, so presumably my Membership Rewards account will be credited those points soon-ish.

I'm very new to all this, and I have one n00b question: can I cancel this card prior to being charged the next annual fee? I have a long-time personal Amex card, so I know that my Membership Rewards account will remain intact, but I'm just concerned that I might be missing something in the fine print for the new card, something like needing to keep the card for some minimum number of months/years in order to hold onto the 250K points.

I apologize if this is a dumb question, just wanting to make sure I make all the right moves here.

THANK YOU.

DCJoe1

You are correct to be concerned. If you cancel within a year, the bonus will probably be clawed back. Amex's terms are clear about that

If you don't want to hold onto the card, wait until the 2nd year annual fee posts. You then have a 30 day window to close the card and get the fee refunded.

Silicon Warrior

Thank you, DCJoe1, I sure am glad I asked. Before posting here, I looked around for the terms you're referring to, but I couldn't find anything with any level of useful detail. Do you, or anyone here, have a link to those terms? I'd love to take a read of them...

DCJoe1

"If you have a history of cancelling or downgrading American Express Card accounts within your first year and you cancel or downgrade your new Card account within your first year, we may not credit, we may freeze, or we may take away Membership RewardsŪ points from your account."

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...wd#offer-terms

Silicon Warrior

Yep there it is, in black-and-white. Thanks so much. I'll do as you suggest: next year, I'll pay the monthly statement that includes the second-year annual fee, then cancel before the end of the next billing cycle...

mia

Yes, you can. You need to wait until the anniversary of the card opening date. This will be before the renewal fee is billed, and well before it is due.

Silicon Warrior

Thank you, mia ! The "anniversary of the card opening date" that you refer to, is this the date of the first day of the first billing cycle?