Yesterday we found out that both the The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express will be unavailable to new sign ups on February 12th, 2019 and the Chase Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus Business Credit Card will be unavailable to new sign ups on February 12th, 2019. Some readers wanted to know if they should sign up for these cards before they are discontinued.
American Express SPG Personal
This card currently offers a 75,000 point sign up bonus after $3,000 in spend within the first three months. The annual fee of $95 is waived for the first year. If you’ve had this card before you’re not eligible for the sign up bonus a second time. In addition you’re also not eligible if:
…have or have had The Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card from Chase, The Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus Credit Card from Chase, The Marriott Rewards Credit Card from Chase, or The Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card from JP Morgan in the last 30 day
By signing up for this card you’ll also become ineligible for the sign up bonus on the Marriott Premier Plus (both personal & business version). My opinion is that if you’ve never had this card before you might as well sign up because you won’t get the opportunity to again. The sign up bonus of 75,000 points is weak compared to other previous bonuses, but you can’t really complain given how many opportunities you’ve likely had in the past to sign up with a bigger bonus.
Chase Marriott Business Premier Plus
Update: Looks like the 5/24 rule does not apply to this card.
Sign up bonus on this card is 75,000 points after $3,000 in spend, annual fee of $99 is not waived. Keep in mind the Chase 5/24 rule applies to this card so most won’t be eligible, that being said as it’s a business card it doesn’t count towards your 5/24 total. The other downside is by getting this card and sign up bonus you won’t be eligible to get the sign up bonus on the SPG Luxury or SPG business card for 24 months. If you’ve already had/have those cards and are under 5/24 then I guess you could sign up for this offer but with the annual fee being unwaived it’s not particularly attractive.
Our Verdict
Neither sign up bonus is great, I guess it could make sense to pick up the SPG personal card but I’d most likely avoid the Chase Marriott Business card for the majority of people.
I just tried to apply for SPG personal and got the pop up that I’m ineligible for the bonus because I have or have had a Marriott premier or Ritz card. It did not say “within the last 30 days”. I haven’t had a Ritz or Marriott card in over a year, cancelled. When I chatted with Amex, they affirmed that it’s “ever” not 30 days. Is the pop up wrong, should I apply?
11/24, applied on 2/1, no instant approval. Called and got approved message on 2/8.
Looks like Marriott biz is already removed from chase site a few days early.
William Charles
applied today, application went to pending. LOL/24, at least did not deny instantly. got personal BA and IHG from them last year. both instant approval back then when 5/24 were not applied to them.
Will report back when I have further updates on the application.
Regarding AMEX cards you might have had 10+yrs ago… When my wife applied for the Rose Gold card, they accused her of having some sort of version of the Gold card 20yrs ago. The kicker is, 20yrs ago, she would have been *11* years old. AMEX of course has her date of birth on file. Yet they wouldn’t budge. The system to them to deny her the bonus on that basis. The employees are clearly told to follow whatever the system says even when all common sense suggests otherwise. So she halted the application process at that point — before they ran her credit. Filed a formal complaint. AMEX said they are happy with the system as it is, and they stand by the decision. *rolls eyes
DoC, do you have a dedicated page to post referrals? I didn’t want to break the rules and muddy up this thread,… but also thought there might be some who want to use fellow reader’s referral links if they do decide to sign up for one of these cards (before they’re gone). Thanks!
We post referral threads often, don’t think there are any open ones currently.
Just clarifying. I can get the personal SPG if I’ve never had a personal Marriott? I’ve got the business Marriott card, but I’ve never had a personal.
Also, I’m assuming we won’t see any kind of bump up in bonus on the SPG personal since they’re planning on discontinuing it. Has anyone seen any incognito offers on this card recently?
I was approved for the Marriott Biz while at lol/24. I am owed an apology from a lot of the toxic people here – not just toxic, but rude, mindless automatons. I am happy to provide proof of approval as well as lol/24 status to the doc.
A bunch of know-it-all’s calling you crazy. And now all the blogs are posting how it’s not subject. This type of out-of-the-box thinking is what this hobby is built upon and continues to be what advances it (opens up new opportunity). It’s a real shame that people in the community reacted the way they did to your post. I personally hold SPG lux, and also got an in branch preapproval earlier this month, so I’m won’t benefit from this directly, but appreciate your forward thinking.
@DS you asked about Marriot card not Marriott BIZ CARD in your post that is why you got different replies and DPs. My DP was for personal card.
After reading through the first comment string here, I too wondered if 5/24 applied to the Marriott Biz card. We know that it hadn’t previously even when the 5/24 had expanded to the Marriott personal. So I browsed the subreddit, the DoC posts and comments, and anything else I could find which turned up no real data points.
I have had the Marriott Biz previously (though more than 24 months ago) and I’m well over 5/24, but I figured I would apply on the offchance I could get the card. Applied yesterday, and the application status line currently says that I’m approved. I’ll update further when I actually receive the card, but it seems like this card may not actually fall under 5/24.
What is your 5/24 status? What are the cards you’ve had in the last 24 months? Any chance you might be miscounting? very interesting DP
I’ve had 14 various personal cards in the last 24 months, and they’re all accurately reporting on all my credit reports.
Now I’m curious if any other Chase cards might be exempt from 5/24 or if the Marriott Biz was exempted because it’s being terminated anyway.
If this is indeed a valid data point, can we get some apologies (and maybe a few thank yous) to DS above?
I’ll take both.
I’m desperate to get some Marriott reward points. I was originally planning on applying for the Chase Marriott card as I am just under 5/24, but I am not convinced I will get approved since I have another 6 Chase cards already. Am I better off just applying for the Amex SPG card before it goes away (I had it more than 10 years ago)? If I decide to apply for a Chase card now, is the WoH or IHG a better option? Thanks