Update 4/10/26: There are some reports of the ‘5 credit card limit’ being eased for some customers. (ht M0stlyLurking AND mrsbond007) No change to the 10 payment card rule.
Update 10/26/25: There are some complaints that the payment card limit may have been reduced to only 5 or less per person. YMMV. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Readers in the comments here suggest that this new YMMV limit is likely only on personal AmEx charge cards, not business charge cards. For example, if you have 5 personal charge cards and 4 business charge cards, you will likely still get a 5th business charge card.
Update on 5/19/20: A limit of 10 charge cards has been confirmed by Amex, as well as a limit of 4 credit cards.
(Update 5/3/20: There appear to be some data points against (1, 2). (More clarification needed.)
A recent report suggests that there is now a limit on holding 10 charge cards per person. This will likely include both personal and business cards.
We have been aware for a long time 5 card Amex rule for credit cards; which does NOT count debit cards, only credit cards. Previously, there was no limit on payment cards, and some people have more than 10 of them.
The alleged new rule was heard from Amex executive offers from teetertotterboy on Reddit who were told that they recently implemented a limit of 10 cards per person, similar to the 5 credit card rule.
Those who already have 11+ charge cards should be able to continue to hold them indefinitely; the rule is for new approvals only. To be approved for a new charge card, you must currently have 9 charge cards or less.
To clarify, these rules are not discussing earning signup bonuses; Amex has a one-time per card/lifetime sign-up bonus rule. This discussion is only about the number of cards you can hold simultaneously. According to this report, each person can carry only 10 payment cards. The rule will likely combine personal cards and business cards, as is the case with the 5 credit card rule. Going forward, the maximum number of primary Amex cards you can receive will be 15; five credit cards and ten charge cards.
We need more confirmation on this rule, but I don’t think it will affect a large number of people as 10 is too many. It can be important for someone who has a lot of small businesses or someone who carries multiples of the same Amex charge card. If you have a data point about this new rule, please let us know in the comments below.
