TL;DR
- You need at least one active MR product to keep your points. Two no-AF options exist.
- Blue Business Plus: $0 annual fee, all 21 transfer partners, 2x earning. The obvious pick.
- Amex Rewards Checking: $0 fee, keeps points alive, but you lose about half the transfer partners (no Flying Blue, no ANA, and others)
- Always open the backup BEFORE you cancel the old card
You're canceling your Amex Green, Amex Gold, or Amex Platinum and you have a pile of Membership Rewards you're not ready to use yet. You need somewhere to park them.
There are two ways to do this without paying an annual fee. One is clearly better than the other.
Option 1: Blue Business Plus (the one you want)
The Blue Business Plus has no annual fee and earns 2x MR on the first $50,000 in purchases per calendar year. More importantly, it gives you full access to all 21 Amex transfer partners.
That means you keep Flying Blue, ANA, Aeroplan, British Airways, Singapore, all of them. Every transfer partner, every transfer bonus promo that comes along. Nothing changes except you're not paying $150, $325, or $895 a year anymore.
It's a business card, but sole proprietors qualify. If you do any kind of freelance work, sell things online, drive for rideshare, anything, you can apply as a sole prop using your own name and SSN. Amex isn't asking for a business license.
I'd go further and say the BBP is one of the best no-AF cards out there even if you're not using it to park points. 2x MR on everything up to $50k is hard to beat when those points transfer 1:1 to airlines.
One downside: 2.7% foreign transaction fee. Don't use it abroad.
Option 2: Amex Rewards Checking (the fallback)
If you can't or don't want a business card, the Amex Rewards Checking account also keeps your MR points alive. No annual fee, no minimum balance.
But you lose access to a big chunk of the transfer partners.
With just the checking account, you can still transfer to about 12 partners: Aeroplan, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Choice, Delta, Etihad, Hilton, Iberia, Marriott, Qatar, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic.
What you lose: Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), ANA, JetBlue, Avios (BA, Iberia, Qatar, Finnair, Aer Lingus), and several others.
Transfer bonuses are also hit or miss. Some promos explicitly exclude checking-only accounts in the fine print.
This works if you're just parking points temporarily while you figure out your next Amex card. Not ideal as a permanent setup.
What I'd Do
Get the Blue Business Plus. Apply for it while your current MR card is still open, make sure it's approved and active, then cancel the card you're dropping. In that order.
One thing to be aware of: the BBP is a business card, so approval isn't guaranteed. If you're applying as a sole proprietor with low revenue, Amex might say no. If that happens, or if you'd rather not deal with a business card application at all, open the Amex Rewards Checking first so your points are safe. You can always try for the BBP later and transfer partner access comes back the moment you're approved.
Either way, don't cancel your current card first and figure it out later. Once the points are gone, Amex won't reinstate them.