American Express Lengthens the Extended Warranty Benefit to 2 Years in August (up from 1 year)

American Express is sending out on billing statements about a change to the Extended Warranty benefit:

• Beginning August 1, the Extended Warranty benefit will be up to two years. Currently, it’s up to just one year.
• The following areas will keep the old terms which allow a maximum of 1 year Extended Warranty: Indiana, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Northern Mariana Islands.

Specifically, the way the Extended Warranty benefit will work is:

• If the manufacturer’s warranty is less than two years, Amex will match that length (e.g. if it’s 90 days, you get another 90 days; if it’s 1 year, you get another 1 year).
• If the manufacturer’s warranty is between 2 and 5 years, Amex gives an additional two years.

Note: Warranties which are 2 years or less only get matched by Amex, so a 90-day manufacturer warranty is not affected at all by this change since you’ll still only get an extra 90 days. The change comes into play mainly for warranties which are 2+ years, and comes into play partially for warranties between 1 – 2 years. Truth be told, most manufacturer’s warranties are 1 year, so this change won’t affect these purchases at all.

Amex is still not quite as good as Citi who offers two-year Extended Warranty benefit since Citi will give the extra two years even on small manufacturer’s warranties of, say, 90 days, 6 months, or 1 year. Chase only offers one year of Extended Warranty, and Discover has removed that benefit entirely.

Nice to see Amex extending benefits as other issuers are pulling back on benefits. The language indicates the change will go into effect even for prior purchases, and probably even for prior maladies. It states that any claim submitted after August 1, 2018 gets the new terms.

In related news, Amex is also enhancing their Purchase Protection benefit from 90 days to 120 days. 

Hat tip to Travelwithgrant