American Express Average Card Fee Has Nearly Doubled Since 2020
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on October 23, 2026.
Doubling the average annual fee in six years is the clearest read yet on how much pricing power American Express has with affluent cardholders, and how much of its fee income depends on them staying.
The average fee for an American Express card is $136 per year. That's ~2x what cardholders were paying in 2020. $AXP https://t.co/5Suhbwo1Pb
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The average annual fee on an American Express card now stands at $136, roughly twice what cardholders were paying in 2020. That is a deliberate repricing of the relationship between the company and its cardholders.
The doubling of the average fee points directly to pricing power, the ability to raise what customers pay without losing them at scale. For American Express, that power has historically rested on an affluent cardholder base that values the perks and status attached to its cards enough to absorb higher annual costs.
Fee income matters because it is more predictable than transaction revenue, which fluctuates with spending volumes and economic cycles. As the average fee climbs, a larger share of American Express's revenue base becomes recurring and less sensitive to a slowdown in consumer spending.
The key variable to watch is whether retention holds as fees continue rising, because the ceiling for further increases depends entirely on how much value cardholders believe they are getting in return.
Mentioned: AXP