[Report] New American Express Rule Limits 10 Charge Cards Per Person

Update 5/19/20: The 10 charge card limit has been confirmed by Amex, as well as a 4 credit card limit.

[Update 5/3/20: There seem to be some counter data points (1, 2). More clarification needed.]

A recent report suggests there’s now a limit of holding 10 charge cards per person. That likely includes both personal and business cards.

We’re long aware of the Amex 5-card rule for credit cards; that does NOT count charge cards, only credit cards. Previously, there was no limit on charge cards, and some people have more than 10 of those.

The purported new rule was heard from the Amex executive offers by teetertotterboy on Reddit who was told that they’ve recently implemented a 10-charge-card limit per person, similar to the 5-lending-card rule.

(Counter data point.)

Those who already have 11+ charge cards should be able to continue keeping them indefinitely; the rule is only for new approvals. In order to be approved for a new charge card, you need to be currently holding 9 charge cards or less.

To clarify, these rules aren’t discussing earning signup bonuses; Amex has  a once-per-card/lifetime signup bonus rule. This discussion is just with regards to how many cards you can hold concurrently. According to this report, each person can only hold 10 charge cards. The rule likely combines personal and business cards, as is the case with the 5-credit-card rule. Going forward, the maximum number of primary Amex cards one can get will be 15; five credit cards and ten charge cards.

We need more confirmations on this rule, but I don’t think it’ll affect a huge number of people since 10 is quite a lot. Might be relevant for someone who has multiple small businesses or for someone who holds multiples of the same Amex charge card. If you do have a data point about this new rule, please let us know in the comments below.