Amex won't let me earn a sign-up bonus

About every 3 months, I open a new credit card to take advantage of earning a sign-up bonus after meeting the required spending amount. Yesterday, it was time for me to open a new card, and I decided to apply for the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card.

I'm saving Hilton points right now so I can book a trip to the Maldives in the next 1-2 years. Since this card was offering 130,000 Hilton points after spending $2,000 in 3 months, this would have been a great way to collect more Hilton points.

After applying, I was disappointed to see a prompt from American Express explaining that I was not eligible to earn a sign-up bonus on this card.

Why did Amex do this?

American Express is one of the more strict credit card issuers in this regard. They try to limit people who are simply opening and closing credit cards to take advantage of the sign-up bonuses.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to open the Hilton Amex card that I wanted to open yesterday. I plan to try again in 3 months, hoping that enough time will have passed for Amex to reconsider me for the sign-up bonus.

Bottom line

While American Express's policy stopped me from opening a new Hilton credit card yesterday, I will try again in a few months and hope to see a different result.

Even though I wasn't eligible for the sign-up bonus, most people likely are eligible. Click here to apply for the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card. You may need to scroll to the Explore Other Cards section at the bottom of the page and click "View all Cards with a Referral Offer."

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Disclaimer: I may earn points as a referral bonus if you use my referral links from this article. I appreciate your support and would love it if you used my links to apply for cards, but there is no obligation to do so.