How to protect your Amex Rewards points while you are alive
There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on an Amex Rewards account. While the account holder is alive, American Express allows transfers to a partner program and authorized users.
American Express decides requests about Amex Rewards points after a death case by case, so nothing in its terms promises a survivor anything; what the account holder sets up in advance is what holds. There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on an Amex Rewards account. While the account holder is alive, American Express allows transfers to a partner program and authorized users.
How to protect your Amex Rewards points
Naming who acts after a death
- Designation
There is no way to name a beneficiary on a Membership Rewards account, and points cannot be passed on as part of an inheritance.1
What American Express's terms say about sharing and transfers4
- Transfers to another member
Points are not transferable to any other person or account, and cannot be moved between American Express accounts.2
- Authorized users and delegates
Additional Card Members on Consumer Card Accounts and Business Card Accounts do not have their own Rewards Accounts.1
- Transfers to a partner program
Points can be transferred to an airline or hotel loyalty account in the Basic Card Member's name, or in the name of an Additional Card Member whose Additional Card was issued at least 90 days before the partner account was linked.1
Once points are transferred to a partner loyalty account, the partner program's own terms apply, and the points cannot be converted back into Membership Rewards points.1
- Expiry and activity requirements
Membership Rewards points have no expiration dates, but can be lost in the circumstances the Lose Points section of the Terms describes.3
Cancelling or unenrolling the last linked card loses all points in the Rewards Account immediately; a last linked Corporate Card allows redemption for up to 30 days after cancellation or unenrollment.1
Points generally cannot be used, and the Rewards Account may be cancelled, while a linked card is restricted, cancelled or past due or a returned payment is outstanding; New York Card Members can keep using points for 90 days.1
Sources3
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Sources
Data sourced from American Express primary sources (5 pages reviewed). How we research.
Amex Rewards customer support
Membership Rewards customer service
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