Amex is changing five things before 11 October. Two of them cost you money.

This is the third time in two weeks that American Express India has taken something away.

On 29 August it was the Reward Multiplier programme, closing on 30 September. On 4 September it was the Platinum Travel milestones, restructured on 10 September. Each arrived as its own announcement and was read as its own story, which is how a pattern stays invisible.

There are five more dates between now and 11 October, sent as four separate communications. Put end to end they cover four weeks, and two of them have a price.

The one that will catch you on a trip

From 8 October, American Express stops offering Emergency Card Replacement.

Replacement itself continues through the standard process. The difference is speed. Amex currently indicates a standard replacement takes around seven to ten business days, and the emergency service existed precisely because that is useless to someone whose card has just been stolen in another country.

If you lose the card abroad after 8 October, you are funding the rest of the trip some other way and collecting the replacement when you get home. A withdrawn benefit is quieter than a raised fee, which is why this has gone almost unreported, but for anyone carrying an Amex as a travel card it is the change most likely to hurt.

The answer is dull and works: stop travelling with a single card. A second card on a different network, carried separately, was already good practice given Amex acceptance abroad. Now it is the only recovery path.

The Check Your Spending Power tool goes first, on 16 September. It let you test whether a large purchase would be approved before attempting it. Removing it changes nothing about how approvals work, so what you lose is the reassurance.

The one that costs the most money

The Membership Rewards Credit Card carries a renewal fee of ₹4,500 plus applicable taxes, and today that fee has two waiver tiers. Amex states them in its Most Important Terms and Conditions:

On full fee American Express® Membership Credit Card product i.e. where first year fee is ₹1,000 and annual renewal fees of ₹4,500, the subsequent Annual Membership Renewal fee of ₹4,500 will be 100% waived off if total spends on American Express® Credit Card in the immediately preceding membership year is ₹1,50,000 and above; if total spends on American Express Credit Card in the immediately preceding membership year is between ₹90,000 to ₹1,49,999, only 50% will be waived off.

From 11 October, the 50% tier is reported to be withdrawn. Spend between ₹90,000 and ₹1,49,999 and you pay the whole ₹4,500 plus taxes where you previously paid half.

The ₹1,50,000 tier has not been reported as changing. That is an absence of news rather than a confirmation, so everything below is conditional on it surviving, and it is worth checking against your own renewal notice before acting on it.

If it does survive, the interesting consequence is not the loss itself but what it does to the gap.

Say you put ₹1,20,000 a year through the card. Today, pushing the last ₹30,000 onto it moves you from the 50% tier to the 100% tier, and saves you ₹2,250 plus taxes. After 11 October the same ₹30,000 saves you the full ₹4,500 plus taxes, because the fallback is no longer half a fee. The change does not just cost you money, it doubles what closing that gap is worth.

Set that against earning. The card pays 1 Membership Rewards point per ₹50, so ₹30,000 of spend earns 600 points, worth about ₹300 at the ₹0.50 per point we use for voucher redemption on this card. The same ₹30,000 routed to clear the waiver threshold is worth ₹4,500. Roughly fifteen times more, and the gap widens the closer to ₹1,50,000 you already are.

Key takeaway

If your annual Amex spend lands between ₹90,000 and ₹1,50,000, the single highest-value thing you can do with this card is reach ₹1,50,000. After 11 October that is worth ₹4,500 plus taxes, against roughly ₹300 of points on the same spend.

Note Amex's wording: "total spends on American Express Credit Card". It does not say whether that counts this card alone or every Amex credit card you hold. If you hold more than one, ask, because the answer decides whether you have already cleared the threshold.

The one nobody is pricing

The second change on 11 October has had a fraction of the attention and may matter more.

Membership Rewards points will be maintained separately for each basic card. If you hold a Gold Card and a Membership Rewards Credit Card today, the points sit in one balance you redeem from together. After 11 October they are reported to become two balances. Points earned on supplementary cards continue to consolidate into their basic card, so the split is between cards in your own name.

This is the quiet end of a standard Indian Amex strategy: hold two or three cards, let the points collect in one place, and redeem in one large block. Two balances of 40,000 points are not the same asset as one of 80,000, because redemption and transfer minimums apply to each, and a balance below a threshold is one you cannot spend.

If this affects you, the month before 11 October is the window. Look at what your combined balance buys today that two separate balances could not, and decide whether to redeem now rather than find out in November.

Three smaller changes on the same date

Late fees move to Total Amount Due. Late payment charges are reported to be calculated on the total amount due rather than the minimum, in a ₹500 to ₹1,250 range. Paying only the minimum was already expensive because of interest. This makes being late expensive a second way.

An overdue balance stops your earning. If payment is still outstanding when the next statement generates, transactions on that statement are reported not to earn Membership Rewards points, and redemption is unavailable until the balance is cleared. Carrying a balance on a rewards card was already a losing trade. This removes the consolation.

EMI conversion widens. The number of transactions you can convert to EMI goes from six to ten. The one change here that gives you something.

Separately, new Supplementary Card applications are reported to pause from 22 September, though coverage is inconsistent about whether that is the date to apply by or to have completed by 30 September. Treat 22 September as the deadline. If you were planning to add a card for a family member, it is close.

Worth knowing

The 16 September and 8 October withdrawals are reported by Business Standard from communications Amex sent to cardholders. The current fee waiver structure is quoted directly from Amex's own Most Important Terms and Conditions. The 11 October changes, including the fee waiver removal and the end of pooled points, are reported from cardholder communications and are not yet reflected in Amex's published MITC, which still carries the old waiver structure. Dates and details may move. Check your own renewal notice before acting on the fee arithmetic.

What to do

1. If you hold two or more Amex cards, check your combined Membership Rewards balance now and decide whether to redeem before 11 October. This is the only change here with a closing window.
2. If your annual Amex spend sits between ₹90,000 and ₹1,50,000, work out what it would take to clear ₹1,50,000. It is worth roughly fifteen times what the same spend earns in points.
3. If you were going to add a supplementary card, do it before 22 September.
4. Stop travelling on a single card. From 8 October there is no fast replacement.
5. Never carry a balance on this card. From 11 October that stops your points as well as costing you interest.

Common questions

Is the ₹1,50,000 full fee waiver going too?

Nothing has been reported to say so, and it is still in the published terms. But it has not been confirmed as surviving either, so treat the arithmetic above as conditional and check your renewal notice.

Can I still get a replacement card if I lose mine abroad?

Yes, through the standard process. What goes is the speed: around seven to ten business days, which is the whole problem mid-trip.

I only hold one Amex card. Does the points change affect me?

No. Supplementary card points still consolidate into the basic card. The split applies only between separate basic cards in your own name.

Does this affect the Gold Card or Platinum Travel?

The points separation applies to any cardholder with two or more basic cards, so yes if that is you. The fee waiver change is specific to the Membership Rewards Credit Card.

Why is Amex doing all of this at once?

Amex has described the 11 October changes as part of a technology upgrade to the account experience, including a new app and online interface. That explains the timing of the terms revision. It does not explain the withdrawn benefits, which are cost decisions.

Sources

• Business Standard, 3 September 2026, for the withdrawal of Check Your Spending Power on 16 September and Emergency Card Replacement on 8 October, and for the seven to ten business day standard replacement time
• American Express India, Most Important Terms and Conditions for Credit Cards (PDF), for the current fee and waiver structure quoted above
• American Express India, Membership Rewards Credit Card, for the earn rate and fee schedule
• Card Insider, changes from 11 October 2026, for the fee waiver removal, the separation of Membership Rewards balances, the supplementary card pause, the late fee basis and the EMI conversion limit

Checked against Amex's published terms on 11 September 2026.