Amex RAT Intensifies their Signup Bonus Popup Denials

A bunch of readers have reached out recently perplexed about why they are getting the signup bonus denial popup. It appears the Amex RAT team is denying more people than originally thought.

First, some background:

• Back in June, Amex added new language stating, “We may…consider the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed as well as other factors in making a decision on your welcome offer eligibility,” opening the door for them to deny someone a signup bonus whenever they deem appropriate.
• Then, in August, there was a more positive development when they added a signup bonus eligibility checker pop-up. If you aren’t eligible for the bonus, the system will give you a pop-up within your application to tell you so which removes the vagueness from the process. Specifically, there are two popups:
  • One for someone who has already had the card before, known as Amex’s ‘lifetime limit’ rule.
  • A separate pop-up language for someone who has never gotten the bonus but is ineligible “based on your history with American Express welcome offers, introductory APR offers, and the number of cards you have opened and closed.”

Previously, my impression had been that the denial pop-up was largely reserved for those had this card before or those who have long history with Amex and have opened too many cards, too many recent cards, or have gotten too many signup bonuses.

Recently, I’ve been seeing many reports of those who really can’t fall into the category of abusing welcome offers or signing up for too many cards since they only have 2 or 3 Amex cards and those have been opened slowly over a couple of years. Even someone with just a single Amex card reported getting the popup.

This may be a new change in the Amex algorithm or it could be it was always around. Regardless, it’s good to know that it’s not only heavy churners who will get shot down with the popup denial. Even those with just a couple of cards sometimes get it as well. I guess Amex includes even those with very few cards under the “number of cards” exclusion when they to. If their algorithms say you won’t be a profitable customer, they won’t offer you a signup bonus.

Conversely, a lot of people with many Amex cards and a long history of chasing bonuses are still deemed eligible by the Amex algorithm, provided they never had this card before. (FYI, having a card once generally makes you ineligible for the bonus even if you didn’t get the bonus the first time.)

Many mention that increasing your spend on Amex cards will help the RAT let you through the door. There have even been cases where someone got the popup, put some spend on their Amex cards, tried again, and this time they were eligible.

Others mention the idea of actually paying annual fees (i.e. not cancelling your cards immediately after year 1). Someone mentions the idea of applying while logged in working better. Someone wondered if maybe even having too many AU cards in your name can affect the RAT algorithm. Seems unlikely to me, but hard to say anything for certain.