Amex credit cards vs Pay Over Time cards
Amex offers both credit cards and “Pay Over Time” cards (the latter are charge cards under the hood but also, optionally, have credit-card-like “pay over time” capability). Unlike credit cards, Pay Over Time cards allow customers to turn on or off the pay over time capability. When pay over time is turned off, you are required to pay the card’s balance in full each month. Pay Over Time cards also differ from credit cards in that they have no clearly defined credit limit (behind the scenes, though, Amex can and does impose limits).
For the customer who pays off their cards in full each month, there is no practical difference between credit cards and Pay Over Time cards except for one key thing: Amex imposes a limit on how many of each type you can get.
How many Amex credit cards or Pay Over Time cards can you get?
When applying for a new Amex card, you may get turned down due to limits that Amex enforces: 5 credit cards and 10 Pay Over Time cards. They won’t make you cancel any if you already have more than the limit, but they won’t approve you for a new card if it would push you over the limit (or if you’re already over the limit). We occasionally hear reports that someone is able to open a sixth credit card or 11th Pay Over Time card, but those are few and far between.
Both personal and business cards are counted together towards these limits. Authorized user cards and employee cards are not counted towards these limits.
In order to count how many Amex credit cards and Pay Over Time cards you have, it’s necessary to know which are which. As a general rule, co-branded cards such as Delta, Hilton, and Marriott are credit cards. Amex’s own branded cards are mixed. Some are credit cards, and some are Pay Over Time cards.
Here’s a list of cards that we maintain in our database, separated into Pay Over Time Cards and Credit Cards:
Pay Over Time Cards
| Card Info Name and Link Only (no offer) |
|---|
Amex Credit Cards:
| Card Info Name and Link Only (no offer) |
|---|
Full list of American Express application rules
- Safe to Apply: Amex is usually the safest bank for trying your luck at earning a new welcome offer. Most of the time, they won’t issue a hard pull when denying your application or when approving you if you already have at least one Amex card. Plus, they’ll warn you during the application process if you’re not eligible for the bonus.
- Once in a Lifetime Rule: If you've ever had a card before, you are most likely prohibited from earning a welcome offer for that same card if you apply now. Fortunately you'll be warned during the application process if this is the case. Amex is known to "forget" that you've had a card after about 5-7 years. Note that there are frequently offers with no lifetime language (NLL) that aren't bound by this restriction.
- "Family" Rules: In addition to the "once in a lifetime" rule, Amex now applies additional "family" rules to several groups of consumer cards. These rules don't apply to business cards.
- Platinum/Gold/Green: You may not be able to get a welcome offer on the Green, Gold, Platinum, Charles Schwab Platinum or Morgan Stanley Platinum if you've previously had any of the Platinum cards previously.
- Cash back cards: You may not be able to get a welcome offer on the Blue Cash Everyday card if you've previously had the Cash Magnet, Blue Cash Preferred or Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred cards. You're not eligible for a welcome offer on the Blue Cash Preferred card if you've previously had the Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred card.
- Delta cards: You can get a welcome offer on any of the Delta cards provided you've never had a more expensive Delta card than the one you are applying for. So, for example, you're eligible for a welcome offer on the Delta Reserve if you've had the Delta Gold, but you may not be eligible for a welcome offer on the Delta Gold if you've previously had the Reserve.
- 1 per 5 days: You can get at most one credit cards within every 5 days. This rule does not apply to Pay Over Time (charge) cards.
- 2 per 90 days: You can get at most two credit cards within 90 days. This rule usually does not apply to Pay Over Time (charge) cards.
- 1 of same product per 90 days: Amex will only approve you for the same card once every 90 days; this primarily comes into play when applying for "no-lifetime-language" (NLL) links.
- It seems that Amex considers the Marriott Bevy and Brilliant cards as the same product, which means that you would have to wait 90 days after applying for the Bevy before being able to be approved for the Brilliant.
- Marriott cards: Approval for any Marriott card is governed by a labyrinthine set of unintuitive rules. You can see the full eligibility chart here.
- Card Limits: Amex normally only allows customers to have five credit cards and ten Pay Over Time (charge) cards at one time. Both personal and business cards count towards the respective five and ten card limits. There are some instances where certain customers have been allowed to go above those limits.
- Application Status: Call (877) 239-3491 to check your application status or use this link.
- Reconsideration: If denied, you can call (800) 567-1083 and ask for your application to be reconsidered.
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[…] A memory refresher as I do hope Amex will take me back one day: Which Amex Cards are Credit Cards? How many can you get? […]
If someone with 4 AMEX credit cards cancels a card because they’d rather be eligible for a welcome offer for a different credit card, can they apply for the new card right away and qualify for that welcome offer?
Since there are 9 distinct POT cards, it’s clear that in order to hit the 10 card limit, you would need to get multiple of the same card. This article would’ve been much more useful had it covered that topic in more details. As in: is there any other way of getting a second card short of declaring a new business, or under the same SSN? If so, how?
With the Amex Biz Platinum/Gold/Green cards at least, it is possible to get multiple all with the same business.
Really?
How would one do that? Just filling out a new application as usual would work? I understand I have to pay attention to NLL to qualify for a sub, but I never thought Amex would allow multiple cards concurrently..
Definitely NLL or targeted offers have the potential to work. Also, doing upgrade/downgrade shenanigans within the card families.
There have been many posts over the past few years about the numerous “expand your membership” offers where people were offered 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) Business Platinum cards. Here’s a post dating back to 2021 about it:
https://frequentmiler.com/bypass-amexs-lifetime-rule-when-you-expand-your-membership/
Many readers have picked up more than one Business Platinum or Business Gold card in particular. Others might have a Schwab Platinum and a vanilla Platinum. The “lifetime language” generally says that the offer may not be available to you, not that it definitively “will not” be available to you.
It is also possible to upgrade/downgrade. For instance, several months ago, I wrote about upgrading one of my wife’s Business Gold cards (she had a couple at the time) to a Business Platinum card.
https://frequentmiler.com/upgrading-to-platinum-without-a-bonus/
So, in short, yes, it is possible to have more than one concurrently under the same business. It is also possible that you’ll get the pop-up indicating that you are not eligible for the welcome bonus, and in some cases people may still open a card even without the bonus. For instance, at some point over the past few years, there was an excellent referral offer that provided an extra point multiplier — I think I would earn something like 25,000 points *and* an extra 4 points oper dollar on travel if I referred someone for a card, so I referred my wife for a Business Green card. Even if she were ineligible for the bonus on that card, I’d have still gotten the 25K referral points and the additional 4 points per dollar on travel (which long ago expired — it was an offer that existed a couple of years ago). In a situation like that, it might make sense to open a card even without the welcome bonus.
There are quite a few ways someone might end up with more than one of the same Pay Over Time card.
A little clarity please. If, say, I have five CC, can I still get up to ten POT cards? Or does hitting the limit on one category shut me out of cards in both??? TIA
They are separate limits (sorry that you didn’t get an answer sooner!)
So, if you can have 5 credit cards, what are your top 5 to keep in your wallet?
My 1-5 are:
I think #5, maybe #4 will be a revolving door every 1+ years of Marriott/Hilton/Delta cards for the SUBs
My keepers would be:
Last two slots open for best SUBs.
if you have the delta reserve personal card can you get the SUB on the delta platinum business?
[…] There are two types of this bank’s cards: Which AmexCards are Credit Cards? How many can you get? […]
The CC limit is still 4 (at least for me).
I know Doctorofcredit posted something about the CC limit getting relaxed to 5 today, but I applied for a 5th CC today and was denied due to already being at the 4 card maximum. I called amex recon and was told that the limit is 4. I then replied that I saw online that the limit was actually 5, and the agent told me to: “try and call reconsideration again in a few days” because they (the agent) had also “heard that the limit might get relaxed to 5, but it’s not relaxed yet”.
Following up. Just a little bit ago i called the new accounts number (800-567-1083) and was told by the specialist (from a foreign call center) that the limit is still 4. Just now called the number for the senior new accounts specialists, talked to an agent with an American accent, and BAM, approved!
I as well tried to I apply for a 5th credit card last month from Amex, and I was denied due to having too many credit cards (4). The crazy thing is I applied for a card that I canceled in April 2020 when the world shut down (before Amex made enhancements due to covid). Decided I would cancel for a year and reapply (knowing I would not get the new member bonus). I still way declined/not allowed to apply unless I canceled a credit card. And i find it quite limiting that the credit card limit applies to bother personal and business cards combined. Amex really needs to change this policy!
Hi Greg, My Amex Green AF is coming up this November and I don’t intend to extend by another year. Are there any no AF downgrade option Charge cards or do I have to cancel ?
Unfortunately no.
Greg, the only complaint I can make about your list is that it does not include the plethora of discontinued American Express Cards. Optima, Blue Sky, Zync, etc., etc. Don’t those old cards also count against the 4 card limit?
That’s true. If those cards are credit cards then they count against the limit. Unfortunately, we don’t have those in our database, so I couldn’t easily list them.
There is a Lowe’s Business Card I see for 1st time today