I Guess You CAN Have 5 American Express Cards!

Back in February I wrote a post titled, “Can You Really Only Have 4 American Express Credit Cards.” With American Express, there is a maximum number of credit cards that you are allowed to have open – it used to be 4 credit cards and 4 charge cards, but last year there were many reports that Amex had upped that number to 5 credit cards. At the time when I wrote that post, I applied for my 5th American Express credit card and was quickly denied. During my call with the reconsideration line I was told that I have the maximum amount of Amex credit cards and I’d have to cancel one of my open Amex credit cards to be reconsidered for my newly desired Amex SimplyCash Plus Card. Since I was looking to cancel my Delta personal credit card anyways, I never really pushed them on having a 5th card open (even though I knew there were many reports of folks being approved for a 5th card) and I went ahead and cancelled my Delta card. American Express then put my application back through the reconsideration line and I was approved.

A week later, I read a post by One Mile at a Time stating his success with getting approved for a 5th American Express card. That then inspired me to apply for yet another American Express card as I really wanted to get The Blue of Business Card with the sign up bonus at the time. I went ahead applied for the card and as expected was denied again. I then called the reconsideration line and they kept on insisting I have the maximum number of credit cards allowed, although they stated the maximum number was 5. I pushed them and after explaining that I only had 4, which they then confirmed by manually counting themselves, they agreed to put my application through the process again where it would have to be manually approved (or denied) by another department. Eventually I was approved and am happy to say that I personally now have 5 American Express credit cards. 

For those of you wondering what American Express cards fall into being a credit card vs. charge card, here you go:

American Express Credit Cards

• Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
• Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
• Delta Reserve Credit Card from American Express
• Gold Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express
• Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express
• Hilton HHonors™ Card from American Express
• Hilton HHonors™ Surpass Card from American Express
• Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card From American Express
• Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express
• Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
• Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express
• The Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card from American Express
• The Amex EveryDay® Credit Card from American Express
• The SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express

American Express Charge Cards

• American Express Mercedes-Benz Platinum
• Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express
• The Business Platinum® Card from American Express OPEN
• The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN
• The Platinum Card® from American Express

Keep in mind that being an authorized user on a card does not count against your limit. Additionally, third-party American Express cards also do not count, such as Bloomingdales Amex, Macy’s Amex, etc. – those that you cannot pay directly from your AmericanExpress.com account.

Overall…

It looks like you can now CAN have 5 American Express credit cards open at a given time. Just be aware that there is a good chance you’ll initially be denied and will have to call the reconsideration line and push for your application to be put through the process. It looks like the system is still automatically denying applications if you already have 4 credit cards, even though American Express upped the number to 5.

Feel free to share your experience below.