From October You Can No Longer Get An Amex Pro-Rata Refund On Your Annual Fee…

Amex, unlike most other credit card providers with an annual fee, offered a pro-rata refund on your annual fee if you cancelled during your membership year. Unfortunately this ‘benefit’ will be ending soon for most cards. This means if you want to take advantage of being able to get an Amex pro-rata refund on the annual fee you only have a few months left…

When will I no longer be able to get an Amex Pro-Rata Refund?

The last date you will be able to get a pro-rata refund on most Amex cards is the 1st of October 2023. From the 2nd of October, you will no longer receive a pro-rata refund if you cancel most Amex cards mid-membership year.

What Amex cards will no longer offer a pro-rata refund?

These changes affect ALL UK Amex CREDIT cards. If you hold a CHARGE card you are NOT affected by these changes and will still receive a pro-rata refund when you cancel. (though the only remaining personal charge card open to applicants is the Basic card with no annual fee.)

How does this affect the ‘points game’?

It instantly wipes up some ‘methods’ used to minimise your outgoing costs whilst maximising the benefits offered…

• You won’t be able to save money by spending £9,999 on the Free BA Amex before upgrading to the BA Premium Plus Amex to trigger the voucher and then downgrading to the Free BA Amex again. As you’ll be on the hook for the full annual fee when you upgrade with no pro-rata refund.
  
• You can’t take out the Platinum Card, rinse the benefits (e.g. sign-up bonus, £50 Harvey Nichols credit, £300 dining credit, hotel statuses), and cancel for a pro-rata refund. Previously if you were eligible for the sign-up bonus you would do rather well if you took the card out in November and kept it to early next year to get a sign-up bonus, 2 x £300 dining credit & 2 x £50 Harvey Nichols credit for as little as £143.75 if you kept the card for 3 months (bearing in mind the pro-rata refund.)
  
• If you are new to Amex cycling through the cards to get all the sign-up bonuses will be a lot more expensive as you can longer cancel a card to get a pro-rata refund from October.

That being said we don’t think it changes a great deal for most people. If you are new to Amex the Gold card is still FREE for the first year. And ever since the move a few years back from 6-month bonuses to every 24 months most Platinum/BA cardholders hold the card longer term. With these changes, it will be interesting to see how the Barclaycard Avios Plus fares, it may well be a more attractive option for those collecting Avios due to its monthly fee (cancel the card and no more monthly payments.) The upgrade voucher isn’t strong as the 2-4-1 voucher however but could work well for some people…

Conclusion

There is only one thing certain in the ‘points game’: everything changes! Hopefully, with these changes, cardholders will see increased value as they aren’t ‘subsidising’ those who take out cards for a bonus and then cancel. On top of this, we may also see increased sign-up bonuses with American Express as they know cardholders will be committed to a full year. What are your thoughts on Amex removing pro-rata refunds on annual fees?