Amex Stops Automatically Pooling New Card Points—Check This Before You Cancel A Card

American Express will now put Membership Rewards points from newly opened U.S. cards into separate rewards accounts, instead of automatically adding them to your existing balance. You can still combine the points. But if you skip that step and later close the new card, you could lose its points even while keeping another Membership Rewards card open – unlike today, where preservation of points as long as you have an open Membership Rewards account is automatic. The amendment on the final page of Amex’s October program terms says: When you open a new Product, a new Rewards Account will be created and linked to that Product. The notice takes effect immediately. Your existing cards keep their current Membership Rewards account. This is just a change to what happens when you open a new card with them, and pooling remains available through the website, app, or a phone call. Keeping Another Amex Open May No Longer Be Enough I’ve long written that you can cancel a Membership Rewards card without losing your points if you retain another eligible card linked to that rewards account. The linking requirement has always been there. Automatic pooling made it easy to overlook. Amex’s cancellation terms say you immediately forfeit a rewards account’s balance when you cancel its last linked product. The test is what remains attached to that rewards account. A separate Amex elsewhere in your login isn’t enough. For example, suppose you have 50,000 points associated with your Gold card and earn 150,000 on a new Platinum. If the accounts remain separate, closing the Platinum could forfeit those 150,000 points even though you still have the Gold. Cardmembers with a New York billing address on a linked card get a 90-day redemption exception under state law, while the last linked Corporate Card may allow up to 30 days. Combine balances and confirm the link before canceling. The no annual fee Blue Business Plus has been useful for keeping transferable Membership Rewards points without paying for a premium card. It also earns 2 points per dollar on the first $50,000 in eligible purchases each calendar year, then 1 point per dollar. What Might Be Behind This? Amex doesn’t give a reason for the change. Separate balances let customers keep business and personal rewards apart, and making linking available online is helpful. But Amex could offer that choice without making everyone who wants a combined balance take an extra step. There’s also an obvious financial benefit when customers overlook points. Some will leave small balances unused. Others may cancel without consolidating them. When points are forfeited, Amex never has to pay for their redemption. The revised language also expressly mentions point values varying with the products linked to a rewards account. That makes me wonder about more differentiation between cards down the road. We’ve already seen Chase cut Hyatt transfers to 4:3 for Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred while preserving 1:1 for Sapphire Reserve. Different Citi cards have different transfer power. If a bank wants to reserve its most expensive redemptions for customers paying higher annual fees, card-specific values are one way to do it. And Amex already has different redemption benefits on different products, such as Business Platinum’s rebate on eligible airline Pay With Points bookings. There’s a related change in India, where Amex is separating rewards balances. The notice there says transfers between cards will end November 15, 2026. That’s a much worse policy than the U.S. change, which preserves linking. How To Combine Your Points For a newly opened Membership Rewards card: Log into the Amex website or app and look for Manage Connections. Connect the separate rewards accounts you want combined. Wait for confirmation and verify the combined balance before making a redemption or closing a card. If the option isn’t available, call the number on the back of your card and ask the Membership Rewards team to link the accounts. The reader discussion that led to the discovery had a customer open a Blue Business Plus and note a separate balance despite already having personal Membership Rewards products. The app’s linking option initially wasn’t available, then appeared. The process quoted up to 24 hours, but the customer reported the balances combined within minutes. Seeing both cards under one login doesn’t mean rewards accounts are connected. (HT: Doctor of Credit) Topics on this page