Amex Extends Spending Req by 3 Months (With Screenshots)

Shout out to fellow Thunderbird grad and fellow BA blogger, Ashish, for breaking the good news that Amex is extending the min spending requirement by three months. I intended to hit the 2k by paying the accountant, but now that taxes are delayed, I found myself with only two weeks from the min spend deadline with nothing I needed to buy. For weeks, I’ve been lobbying Amex to extend my Green Card’s spend deadline. Initially, they said they would request an extension and it would take 7-10 business days to receive a response if it was approved. Yesterday, I was told that no extension would be given, and due to Covid they couldn’t have launched the investigation in the first place. Covid excuses are the new normal both for businesses and consumers (see From Your Grade School Principal: Regarding COVID-19). Today, Amex had a sudden change of heart and granted the extension to applicants. While you can give the hat tip to Ashish, you can thank powerful TPOL for this new development.

Because I don’t trust companies and because I advise clients to always take screenshots in the event they want to file a consumer claim (visit Bachuwa Law if you have a consumer dispute), I hopped on the chat and asked Amex to confirm. Initially, Amex misconstrued my request of wanting to confirm this change with launching a request for an extension. I quickly shot that down and eventually received confirmation that the deadline would be extended.

TPOL’s TIP: If I apply for cards in lock-down, I’m going back to the old days of putting all spend on those cards. My strategy was to use the right card for the right transaction e.g., Google Ads on Ink, knowing that I would recklessly spend enough to hit the min. The good thing about lock-down is that I am not spending as carelessly as before.