American Express now the option to freeze your credit card for added piece of mind. It’s useful in case you misplace the card and don’t want to completely cancel it and then find it the next minute. With the freeze feature, you can instantly freeze or unfreeze the card.
Direct Link to American Express card freeze
Amex has always had such kinds of controls on business cards, and now you can freeze personal cards too with this new rollout.
Discover famously rolled out card freeze back in 2015. Citi also offers a QuickLock feature, as does Bank of America (only on debit cards) and Capital One. Nothing yet from Chase.
Discover allows you to freeze your account. But when you unfreeze it, you have to remember to reactivate your card for in store purchase.
When I saw Discover advertising this a few years ago I though “What a useful feature!” Glad to see that all the other banks are stepping up to the plate and also adding this feature.
I don’t seem to see the option in the app..
This is a very useful feature. I’m pleased that Amex finally enables it for more cards. My old Citi card used to subject to fraud use every few years. Since I started using Citi Lock card feature proactively, there has been no incidence of fraudulent uses. Now let’s hope Chase catches on.
“Your Card will be unfrozen automatically 7 days after you first freeze your Card.”
Yes, this Amex Freeze feature is not same as Citi or Capital One, where the lock can be placed for as long as you need.
Amex will unfreeze after 7 days.
“Freezing your Card prevents it from being used for new purchases. However, recurring bills, such as subscriptions or monthly bills will post to your account as usual. Also, your Card can still be used for digital wallet transactions and some online purchases at merchants where your Card is on file. Your Card will be unfrozen automatically 7 days after you first freeze your Card.”
I’m not sure if that then means that subsequent freezes will last indefinitely? Looking at the “after you *first* freeze your Card” part.
Great for accounts you want to leave open for longer account age and for the credit line (FICO score) but aren’t using them.
This is not new. If you cycle your credit limit and check your spending power many times, amex will freeze all your cards for free 🙂
lol
I saw the email from amex officially announcing it but I had already used the feature on my personal hilton card a couple of months ago
You can also freeze Navy Federal Credit Union(NFCU) credit cards online.
Bank of America also lets you freeze your card, as does Citi. In fact, I believe Chase is the only major bank that does not offer this feature at this point.
I’ll add that.
Bank of America only let you lock debit cards. That’s what my account allows anyway.
That is correct. No option to lock/freeze BofA credit cards.
Kudos to Discover for starting the feature.
Discover too allows you to freeze unfreeze.