Amex quietly changed how you find out what your signup bonus actually is.
If you've started an Amex application in the last several months, you've probably noticed the public card page now lists a maximum bonus ("up to X points") rather than a flat number. That's the headline figure. Your real offer shows up after Amex runs a soft pull during the application and surfaces a personalized number, which can be lower, equal to, or in some cases higher than what other readers will see on the same card. The hard pull only happens if you accept. That's the whole mechanic, and it's a quiet but real shift in how Amex underwrites signup bonuses.
What this means in practice: you can now see your actual offer before committing to a credit inquiry. That's useful. The old workflow was apply, take the hard pull, hope the public bonus was what landed in your account. Now you get a look first.
A note for anyone reading this who remembers the launch coverage. When Amex rolled this out, the headline maxes were 175,000 Membership Rewards on the Platinum (after $8,000 spend in six months) and 100,000 on the Gold (after $6,000). Those were the launch-era reference points. Amex rotates these numbers regularly, and the chance that today's max matches the launch max is low. Treat the 175k/100k as historical context, not a current claim. If you want to know what the ceiling is right now, start an application on the Amex card page and let the system show you. That's the whole point of the new flow.
When this actually matters: you're planning a real spend window (renovation, wedding, tax bill) and want to know whether the bonus you'd get justifies the application; you're managing app-churn risk and don't want a hard pull for a mediocre offer; or you've been targeted for a Platinum or Gold and want to compare against CardMatch, which runs its own soft-pull channel and sometimes surfaces something better. Worth running both before you commit.
Would I use this myself? Yes, and I have. The caveat is that the personalized number isn't a negotiation. It's the offer. If it's not high enough, walk and check again in a few months. Amex's bonuses move.
For our take on the cards themselves, see our Amex Platinum review and Amex Gold review, or our Platinum vs. Gold comparison if you're deciding between them.
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