Amex India tightens Membership Rewards: the 50% fee waiver goes and points stop pooling across cards (now 15 Nov 2026)

Update, 12 October 2026: the core changes now land on 15 November, on a staggered timeline

The 11 October date did not clearly take effect. The current picture, from Amex's own cardmember-updates page as tracked by CardAdvisor and from Live From A Lounge's 9 October report, is that the changes have been split across three dates:

The outlets do not fully agree: Live From A Lounge and CardAdvisor (reading Amex's page) put the main platform changes at 15 November, while InsideFlyer's coverage still carries 11 October. Because 11 October has passed without those changes being confirmed live and two sources now point to 15 November, this post treats 15 November 2026 as the effective date for the core changes. The two extra details below are unchanged:

• Supplementary and Additional Cards: new Supplementary Card applications are paused from 27 October 2026, and the Additional Card (a second card in your own name used to split spends, usually on Charge Cards) ends the same day. Existing supplementary cards continue and keep earning into the basic card.
• Overdue accounts: if an amount is overdue when your next statement generates, points stop being earned on transactions from that statement date and redemption is blocked until the overdue amount is paid.

The delay gives you roughly five extra weeks to consolidate or redeem pooled points before the split.

The original announcement

American Express is changing how its India Membership Rewards program works, now from 15 November 2026 (see the update above; the original notice gave 11 October). None of it touches the headline earn rate, but two of the changes quietly cost regular cardholders money, and a third changes which month your milestone spends count toward. Here is the fine print.

What changes on 15 November 2026

The fee waiver band is gone

On the Membership Rewards Credit Card, Amex used to waive half the renewal fee if your annual spend landed in a middle band, and waive it fully above the top threshold. From 15 November the middle band disappears. There is no partial credit any more: you either cross the full-waiver spend line or you pay the entire renewal fee. If your spending historically parked you in that middle band, this is a straight increase in what you pay to keep the card.

Points no longer pool across two Amex cards

If you hold two or more proprietary American Express cards, your Membership Rewards points have shared a single balance, which made it easy to combine and redeem. From 15 November, each card keeps its own points. This matters most for redemptions with minimums or transfer thresholds: splitting one balance into two smaller ones can leave points stranded below a useful redemption or transfer floor on each card.

Milestones now follow the posting date

Amex will judge milestone spends by when a transaction posts, not when you make it, and credit milestone bonuses at the end of the calendar month. A purchase made on the last day of a month that posts on the first of the next month now counts toward the next month. If you time end-of-month spends to hit a monthly milestone, that timing gets less forgiving.

What does not change

The core earn rate, the redemption catalogue, and the monthly milestone benefit itself stay as they are. On the Membership Rewards Credit Card and the Gold Charge Card, the monthly milestone bonuses (the extra 1,000 points for four qualifying transactions, and the 1,000 points for crossing the monthly spend threshold) continue. This is a change to fee mechanics, pooling, and timing, not to how much a point is worth.

What to do before 15 November

• If you sit in the old half-waiver band, work out whether pushing spend to the full-waiver threshold is worth it, or whether the card still earns its keep once you pay the full fee.
• If you hold two Amex cards and lean on pooled points, consolidate or redeem before the split so you are not left with two sub-threshold balances.
• If you chase monthly milestones, stop relying on last-day purchases; give transactions a few days to post inside the month you want them counted.

Not sure the annual fee still pays for itself once the waiver band is gone? Run your real spend through CardPolo's card matcher to see which cards actually clear their fee for your pattern, or ask Polo Brain to compare the fee-versus-reward math side by side.