How many Amex cards can you have? (2024)

American Express offers an excellent stable of cards for earning cash back, points and miles. While holding many of them may sound ideal, offering you more rewards-earning categories and benefits, it’s not possible to hold every Amex card. There are rules for how many cards you can hold at once, divided by the spending power of the card.

While Amex doesn’t publicly disclose this information, cardholder information gathered over the years indicates that the maximum number of Amex cards you can hold will depend on the type of Amex card, whether they’re personal or business and whether or not they have a preset spending limit. Technically, you could hold up to 15 different cards, but the rules that govern this limit are complex.

How many American Express cards can you have at a time?

When it comes to the number of Amex cards you can have at one time, the issuer doesn’t distinguish between personal and small business cards. Both types will be associated with your Social Security number and the total number of cards you can have will depend on which type of credit limit is associated with each Amex card.

Traditional credit cards vs. no preset spending limit cards

American Express is different from many other issuers in that they offer both traditional credit cards as well as cards with no preset spending limit. The former is what you likely think of with the words “credit card,” where you have a fixed spending limit on the card (for example, up to $10,000) and can’t spend past that amount until you pay off at least part of the balance. Once your balance hits $10,000, the card is “maxed out,” because you’ve reached the spending limit on the card.

Examples of this type of card include cash-back cards like the American Express Cash Magnet® Card*The information for the American Express Cash Magnet® Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. (terms apply), Amex EveryDay® Credit Card*The information for the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. (terms apply) and the Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card*The information for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. (terms apply), despite the fact they all earn different types of rewards.

All information about American Express Cash Magnet® Card, Amex EveryDay® Credit Card and Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card has been collected independently by Blueprint.

Looking to increase your credit limit? Here’s what you need to know

Amex also issues cards with no preset spending limit. While there’s no defined limit to how much you can spend on these cards, that doesn’t mean you have unlimited spending power. Instead, your spending limit fluctuates based on factors like your purchase, payment, and credit history. Examples of this type of card include The Platinum Card® from American Express (terms apply), The Business Platinum Card® from American Express*The information for the The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. (terms apply) and the American Express® Gold Card (terms apply).

All information about The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by Blueprint.

Cards with no preset spending limit require you to pay the full balance each month, regardless of how much you’ve spent. While Amex may offer you the ability to pay some eligible charges over time (with interest) with its Pay Over Time feature, the cards with no preset spending limits are designed to be paid in full each month.

Traditional credit cards, on the other hand, allow you to make a minimum payment and carry a balance to the next month. Doing so will typically incur interest, however.

It’s important to understand the difference between these two types of American Express cards to understand how many of each type you can hold at once.

While American Express doesn’t make this information public, anecdotal reports online gathered over the years have provided thousands of data points to indicate that Amex only allows you to have five traditional credit cards at once — whether they’re personal or business. That limit doesn’t change by the type of rewards the cards earn, either, so it doesn’t matter whether your card combination earns cash back, American Express Membership Rewards® points, airline miles or hotel points.

For cards with no preset spending limits, the limit is 10 cards at a time.

If you have the maximum number of cards of either type and want to apply for another card, you’ll need to close one of your accounts. However, having the maximum of one card type won’t affect the other.

For example, if you have the maximum of five traditional credit cards and want to apply for the American Express® Green Card*The information for the American Express® Green Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer., having the maximum number of credit cards wouldn’t be an obstacle. However, it would be a problem if you already had 10 of the cards with no preset spending limit. In that case, you’d need to close one of them before you’d be eligible to open an Amex Green Card.

All information about American Express® Green Card has been collected independently by Blueprint.

Conversely, if you have 10 of the Amex cards with no preset spending limits and want to apply for one of Amex’s Delta cards (all of which are traditional credit cards), that wouldn’t make you ineligible for the card or its welcome offer, so long as you don’t already have five traditional credit cards from Amex.

Luckily, the number of cards you have from other banks or the number of accounts seen on your credit report don’t factor into these numbers.

How many credit cards should you have? Well, that depends

How many Amex cards can you apply for at a time?

Rather than discussing how many cards you can apply for at once (which theoretically has no limit), let’s discuss how many cards you might be approved for.

There are rules about how quickly you can apply for Amex cards and be approved. Again, American Express doesn’t publicize this information. However, reports from numerous applicants shared online over recent years have helped build a picture of how often you can apply for Amex cars and be approved.

Reports show that you won’t be approved for more than one Amex card in a five-day period (the so-called 1-in-5 rule) and no more than two cards in a 90-day period (known as the 2/90 rule). There are exceptions to these rules, but they’re rare. You should plan your Amex credit card applications around these limits to increase your approval chances. There is a caveat to this: You may be approved for both a credit card and a card with no preset spending limit on the same day.

If that all sounds confusing, there’s some good news. If you start applying for an Amex card or responding to a pre-approved offer, you’ll know if you’re eligible for the card before submitting the final application and getting a hard inquiry on your credit reports. That’s thanks to the Amex eligibility tool.

After filling out an application, you may see a pop-up message from Amex saying that you’re ineligible for a card or its bonus, based on your history with Amex cards. If Amex says you’re ineligible for a card or its welcome offer, you can cancel the application before finalizing your submission, avoiding the hard inquiry on your credit report or submitting an application that’s likely to be denied.

Welcome bonus restrictions

On top of the rules limiting the number of cards you can have, there are a few additional Amex rules to consider when it comes to welcome bonuses on Amex cards. The most famous of these is known as the once in a lifetime rule. In short, if you’ve had a card in the past, you’re ineligible to get the welcome bonus on it again.

For example, if you have the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card (terms apply, rates & fees) and then decide its features weren’t worth paying a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $150 annual fee, you could product change to the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card, which has no annual fee (terms apply, rates & fees). But this would mean you wouldn’t be eligible for a bonus on the Delta SkyMiles Blue card, since it wasn’t a new application, and you’d also make yourself ineligible for a future bonus on both the Delta SkyMiles Gold and Blue cards, given that you previously had both of them. Take that into consideration when changing from one card to another with American Express.

Additionally, American Express has implemented several “family” credit card restrictions as of late. Under these rules, you may be ineligible for a card’s welcome bonus based on other cards you have or had in the past. For example, the application terms for the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card*The information for the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. say that you’re ineligible for its new cardmember bonus if you have or had the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card*The information for the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer..

All information about Amex EveryDay® Credit Card and Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint.

Should you have multiple credit cards?

Now that we understand how many Amex cards you can have and how quickly you can apply for them while keeping your approval chances high, it begs the question of whether you should have multiple credit cards in the first place. Is it a good idea?

To answer this question, there are a few important considerations:

1. Do you use credit cards responsibly? If not, applying for more of them isn’t a good idea. It will allow you to run up additional balances, which can harm your credit, create debt, and will undo the value of rewards you earn along the way.
2. What is your goal in applying for more credit cards? If you’re looking to gain additional rewards, consider what cards you already have and any gaps in your rewards strategy. Do you lack a card that earns bonus points on a regular spending category you have, such as streaming purchases or trips to the pharmacy? Applying for a card with bonus earnings on those purchases could be a good idea.
3. Are you willing and able to learn how to juggle multiple credit cards? Will you understand how they work together, which cards to use for which purchases, track the balances and payment dates on multiple cards and learn how to maximize your rewards? If you can answer yes to these questions, applying for multiple credit cards can make sense. It will allow you to earn additional welcome bonuses and maximize the rewards from all of your purchases.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

^{For rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card please visit this page.}

^{For rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card please visit this page.}