Do this now: Unenroll your American Express charge cards from pay over time.
American Express quietly auto-enrolled cardmembers in pay over time during Q4 of 2020 and you could be forgiven for missing it, it wasn’t well publicized. Click the above link and deactivate pay over time for each charge card you’ve got (Green, Gold, Platinum, Centurion, Unobtainium, etc) because:
- American Express periodically sends offers of at least 10,000 Membership Rewards points for (re-)enrolling in pay over time. We’ve seen re-enrollment offers just this week. I’m going to classify them as the strangest gift I’ve gotten this holiday season.
- Paying interest from carrying credit card balances is bad-news-bears: The rewards aren’t worth the fees you’re paying. Don’t play this game until you’re not paying interest. Unenrolling from pay over time removes that possibility from these cards.
Once you’re unenrolled watch for offers for bonus points from American Express and take the bonus when it comes (then unenroll again after the bonus posts).
