{"id":3829,"date":"2022-02-16T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2023-04-18T11:55:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:55:00","slug":"american-express-upgrade-and-downgrade-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/16\/american-express-upgrade-and-downgrade-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"American Express Upgrade and Downgrade Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Vinh at <a href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/\">Miles Per Day<\/a> is probably most notoriously known for being shutdown from just <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/2018\/11\/amazon-closed-my-account-because-of-a-high-gift-card-balance\/\">about<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/2019\/08\/starbucks-wipes-out-all-my-stars-after-my-prepaid-card-shutdown\/\">every<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/2019\/08\/chase-shuts-down-my-checking-account-due-to-my-starbucks-card\/\">service<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/2018\/08\/citi-shuts-accounts\/\">out<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/2016\/05\/my-comenity-bank-shutdown-letter\/\">there<\/a>, and if he avoids a shutdown there\u2019s probably some restriction on his account in place instead. <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/2022\/02\/amex-claws-back-bonus-pts-after-downgrade\/\">The latest version in the saga of Vinh\u2019s trek to shutdown with American Express<\/a> involves clawed back upgrade bonuses, and that post mixed with a request from reader Rich for American Express upgrade and downgrade strategies leads to a discussion about a few American Express rules to live by, in order to avoid having your bonuses clawed back from the Rewards Abuse Team (RAT):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When you open a card and get a bonus, keep it open for at least 12 months<\/li>\n<li>When you upgrade a card and get a bonus, keep it open for at least 12 months<\/li>\n<li>When you accept a retention offer, keep it open for at least 12 months<\/li>\n<li>Upgrading a card to a higher annual fee card is ok at any time, even within the first 12 months<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: initial;\">It\u2019s ok to accept an upgrade offer right after downgrading, but keep it open for at least 12 months<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Downgrading a card is only ok after 12 months from one of the above events<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>See a pattern there? American Express doesn\u2019t clawback bonuses provided you do the above. There is <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesperday.com\/2020\/07\/amex-claws-back-my-hilton-bonus-points\/\">one well known clawback case<\/a>, but it is singular in nature, was tied to a promotional uncapped grocery spend bonus, and had nothing to do with sign-up bonuses, retention bonuses, or upgrading and downgrading.<\/p>\n<p>Now with that out of the way, let\u2019s briefly discuss manufactured spend: American Express rarely shuts people down for manufactured spend, rather they give you a <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/helpmebuildcredit.com\/dont-fear-amex-financial-reviews-learn-what-triggers-them-and-deal-with-them-like-a-pro\/\">financial review<\/a> if it\u2019s excessive or just stop awarding points at a particular retailer, like <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/frequentmiler.com\/did-amex-drop-the-bomb-on-simon-purchases\/\">Simon Mall gift cards<\/a>. You can be more blatant with manufactured spend at American Express than most banks, so probe away.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Wednesday friends!<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-editorskit-rounded\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3831\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/clawback.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/clawback.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/clawback-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/clawback-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/clawback-768x768.jpeg 768w\" width=\"420\"\/><figcaption>AmEx only pulls these (<em>checks notes<\/em>) clawback tools out if the meat is less than a year old.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vinh at Miles Per Day is probably most notoriously known for being shutdown from just about every service out there, and if he avoids a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":1,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-credit-cards","category-shenanigans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7096,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/7096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}