I am in the middle of a series of listing the downgrade options for different banks. 

This week, I am listing the downgrade options for Amex cards.

Downgrade rules for Amex cards

• Only same family: You can only product change a card within the same card family or brand. You can also only product change personal cards to personal cards and business cards to business cards.
• Timeframe: Do not downgrade an Amex Card before the first 12 months of when you opened the credit card. This is a very common reason to get blacklisted by Amex.
• Annual Fee Refund: If you close your card within 30 days of when the statement prints of which the annual fee was billed, then you will receive a full refund for the annual fee. If you close the card after 30 days then you will not receive any refund. 
• If you downgrade the card you will receive a prorated annual fee refund which will be divided by the days left within the cardmember year (when downgrading, it doesn’t make a difference if you do it before 30 days or after you always get a prorated refund). But please note, you need to ask the representative to put in a prorated annual fee refund request, and results can sometimes vary by each individual account.
• Losing Rewards: If you downgrade an Amex card you will not lose any points. But all the benefits, perks, and credits, will immediately reflect the new card you downgraded to.
• Multiple Of Same Cards: Amex allows you to have multiples of the same card. You can downgrade to a card even if you already have the same card.
• Welcome Bonus: Amex welcome bonuses are only available for cardmembers who never had the same card product previously (even if you never received the welcome bonus). If you downgrade a card to another Amex card you will lose the ability to later earn a welcome bonus on that same card product.

You need to know this before you downgrade your Amex card

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Downgrade option for Amex cards

Let’s go through the list of Amex cards and the downgrade options for each card.

The Amex No Preset Limit* Card Family: Platinum, Gold, Green

The Amex No Preset Limit* personal family of cards include the Amex Platinum, Amex Gold, and Amex Green cards. Any card can be downgraded or upgraded to any personal card within this family (not to business cards though).

card_name($150)

Amex Gold Consumer ($250)

Amex Platinum Consumer ($695)

The No Preset Limit* family of business cards have the same three options and can also be upgraded or downgraded to any card within the business Family: 

Amex Business Green ($95)

card_name ($295)

Amex Business Platinum ($695)

Amex Everyday Preferred ($95)

The Amex Everyday Preferred ($95) can be downgraded to the Amex Everyday card ($0).

Blue Cash Preferred ($95)

The Amex Blue Cash Preferred ($95) can be downgraded to the card_name ($0).

Amex Delta family

The Delta personal card family is a family of four cards. You can downgrade or upgrade any card within the Delta personal family (not to business cards though).

card_name ($0)

card_name ($99)

card_name($250)

card_name ($550)

The Delta business family is a family of three cards. You can downgrade or upgrade any card within the Delta business card family (not to personal cards).

card_name ($99)

card_name  ($250)

card_name ($550)

The Hilton Card Family

The Hilton Personal card family is a family of three cards. Any Hilton personal card can be downgraded or upgraded to any card within the Hilton Personal card family (not to Hilton business cards).

Amex Hilton ($0)

Amex Hilton Surpass ($95)

Amex Hilton Aspire ($450)

There is only one Hilton business card which is the Amex Hilton Business card ($95). The card cannot be downgraded or upgraded.

The Amex Marriott family

The Amex Marriott family only has two personal cards, the card_name ($650), and card_name ($250). You can downgrade or upgrade one consumer card to the other.  

Amex has only one business card, the card_name ($125). There is no downgrade option.

Amex Plum Business ($250)

The Amex Plum business card ($250), cannot be downgraded or upgraded to any other card.

*No Preset Spending Limit means the spending limit is flexible. [In fact,] unlike a traditional [credit] card with a set limit, the amount you can spend adapts based on factors such as your purchase, payment, and credit history.