American Express is renowned for its great service worldwide to their customers. One of the biggest hurdles in getting an AMEX card has been– application allowed in limited cities (Metros & some south Indian cities).
AMEX was banned from issuing new cards to Indian customers since May 2021. Post receiving RBI green signal on 24th August 2022 (almost 16 months), AMEX initiated taking applications from customers albeit with a small difference this time- “some new cities added to eligible service area”.
Logical because Amex lost lakhs of customers in these 16 months due to RBI ban, as competitors were issuing cards left n right. Great move!.
New Cities
Following new cities* were added recently (Post lifting of RBI ban),
- Bhopal
- Bhubaneshwar
- Ernakulam
- Vijaywada
- Lucknow
- Ludhiana
- Nagpur
- Nasik
- Trivandrum
- Mysuru
- Cuttack
- Vizag
*Above is as per my chat conversation with Amex executive (could vary a bit).
Some sub-cities (location near to a serviceable city) were also added as confirmed by Amex executive over call. e.g. Mohali, Panchkula & Zirakpur sub-cities added to Chandigarh. Maybe more of this type as it was in existence even before but Amex executive could only confirm these.
Note: Even if a city is serviceable, few pin codes might be blacklisted. If you reside in such an area, getting a credit card is possible via approval basis. This is common with mostly all banks.
My Application Experience
Loved to have an Amex card in my wallet since years but couldn’t, due to this very known reason.
Nonetheless once Amex started accepting card applications from September 2022, I waited for referral schemes to kick in. Amex undoubtedly runs best card referral schemes in India.
As referral scheme kicked in with First Year FREE offer, applied for Amex MRCC card via Cardexpert MRCC referral link on 25th November 2022 (apart from FYF, renewal fee also got reduced to one-third in subsequent years).
Income docs like Form 16/ Latest 2 months payslip along with 2 months bank statement were asked post VKYC. Approval email knocked the mailbox on 14th December and card was in my hand on 16th December.
That’s too much time compared to regular Amex standards which is usually 1 week or under for approval. While the reason for delay is not clear, it seems it could be because of newly added city, among others.
Bottomline
For years Amex, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered etc. have restricted their card serving locations to Metros and few other cities only. As such even if you are highly worthy getting their cards is next to impossible, unless you’ve an address in their service area.
If you are the one who wanted to have an Amex card in wallet but couldn’t apply due to serviceable city constraints, now belong to one of above mentioned newly added cities- This article is dedicated to each one of you (Just Like Me 😃 ).
Having said that, it has actually become tougher to get Amex cards for those who don’t have a valid address proof in the Amex serviceable area.
This has been a major concern lately, as many are working from home post Covid and not everyone has returned back to Office in metros. Hope Amex soon start to issue cards in even more cities to fix that.
My residence is a few kms away from Vijayawada and the amex cc application was rejected with reason that my location was not serviceable. Is there anyway to get the application to be reconsidered by amex ?
Email them to reconsider your application with following points–
* CIBIL is good and you have been responsible, always paying timely for existing credit cards
* Already holding cards from other banks since so many years. If any of them is from foreign banks like Citibank, HSBC or Standard Chartered, do quote them.
Do this and you will have a better chance for them to reconsider your application.
Hi Siddharth,
Can you please list out few advantages of having an Amex card? I have Amex Smart Earn card for last 4 years and it is the least used of all the 22 cards I hold.
Currently, they are giving me an upgrade to Travel Platinum card. However, I am in two minds to apply for it or not. I am not much of a traveler and don’t like lavish hotels. Is any of the Amex card worth it if you are not into travelling?
If you are not too much into travelling, then getting an Amex MRCC is the best for you. You can then ask the customer support if they allow the Smart Earn card to be linked on to the MRCC. In this case spends on SE will also get you points that will be eligible for Amex 18k & 24k rewards.
Do we need to present an address proof document to them? Or is it enough to be physically present when they do the verification?
For physical verification, you may be asked to show your ID/ Address proof, varying between banks.
In my case despite being from newly added cities, no physical verification was done. I think mostly Amex doesn’t do physical verification.
I have applied for Amex card online and got approved within three days. I have received the card on 5th day. I had earlier 4 different credit cards but never I got this type of service. Their customer service, helpline is just fantastic. Also their app., is very simple n easy to follow. Well done Amex n credit card team.
Hi,
Can anyone tell me if i have a non serviceable area on my ids say Jammu but i live in a serviceable area say Gurugram NCR,in that case what happens?
I applied recently and during kyc they said address should be same as id card, but that area is not serviceable.
What to do?
You need to have address proof of service area whether work or residence. Otherwise I don’t think, Amex will approve your card, even if you apply somehow.
You’re right Satish. AMEX won’t approve. I applied for two AMEX cards recently and during VKYC I was asked to share an Officially Valid Document (OVD) address proof I.e. Aadhar card, voters ID, passport, drivers license etc. Showing my current address in a serviceable area. My OVD address was not in a serviceable area hence VKYC was not completed and the application was closed. I was further encouraged to update my address on the OVD and reapply.
But sir many a times Amex argues by telling that our residence and office both should be in the list of their service areas not either.. actually still Amex should focus towards the expansion of this list of towns
Have been using MRCC for over 4 years to get every monthly milestone without a miss. But having a doubt. If one lives in a non-serviceable city but has an office address in serviceable city, can he still get the card basis office address, and opt to delivery at home address?
if add-on card is required then irrespective of serving city, it is being issued. I had add-on card in “Ambala City, Haryana” many years back and received renewed card recently.
Your residence should be your permanent address, you must have ID card address of your current residence, if permanent and current address is different they will not issue cards, it’s specific for amex in my case.
What’s permanent address? There can be communication address and current address but no address can be ‘permanent’.
I was issued a card with vizag address back in 2018. Some discrepancies on the information you’ve been provided
Confirmed via chat support as well as on call. Data provided by both were same.
Call support told– Earlier Visakhapatnam was in the list, now Vizag is latest edition. She found them different.
I was like– what’s the difference then ?
Anyway despite getting confirmation from both mode of support, expected some discrepancy.
That’s why the disclaimer was added– Could vary a bit 😜
Even Hosur 635109 is accepted. I got a new Amex MRCC card with Hosur Address.
Hosur pincodes treated as Bangalore?
For ex, most Tiruppur pincode’s are treated as Coimbatore for card issuance.
May be. But still Hosur pincode is not covered in Citi’s list.
Is amex card available in Pollachi, Coimbatore?
Don’t ever understand the logic of restrictions in card issual being limited to select cities.
Earlier,it might be hectic for companies to have collection agents in all cities.
But now, in age of Video KYCs, Offline adhar verifications , NeSL verifications, Credit Report verifications, it’s stupid to be still limited to select cities.