These offers expire May 5th, 2021. If you are reading after this date, they will have expired.
Amex is clearly determined to get some more new accounts as we head out of this pandemic. They are offering some of the absolute biggest referral bonuses I’ve ever seen.
First of all, the referrer can get some really nice bonus points. I think the absolute biggest one is on the Amex Gold card which is offering the referrer 30,000 bonus Membership Rewards points plus +4 points at select home furnishing stores purchases for 3 months.
And then the person opening that Amex Gold card may be offered 75,000 bonus points (vs. the usual 60,000) plus $200 in statement credits at home furnishing stores within 3 months.
But I need to warn you that if you see the 75,000 point offer and leave and go back later, it may drop to a 60,000 point offer. I just witnessed that… If that does happen, clear your cookies and cache and try again, but I don’t know for sure how they do it.
The Amex Green Card is offering the referred new cardmember 50,000 points + $200 in credits at home furnishing stores.
And guess what? I just got a Green Card 😉
I’ve had a hard time justifying opening one given that I have all of the associated bonus categories well covered with other cards, but 50,000 points and $200 in credits in addition to my wife getting 30,000 points for referring me was just too much for me to take. I had to go for it. And I’ll use the CLEAR credit for a virtually free year of CLEAR. Truth be told, if you actually use CLEAR and don’t have it covered another way, it does nearly pay for the Green Card’s annual fee. I’m guessing that how much I use CLEAR will drive the decision on if I renew it, but it’s not a bad way to earn 3X Membership Rewards on travel purchases either.
It’s also worth noting that I had 2 Amex charge products and 4 credit products and got approved for the Green Card. Recently we learned that having a Green card may count against your 4 card credit limit with Amex, perhaps due to its auto-activated Pay Over Time feature, but that didn’t hinder my approval for one.
There are a slew of other elevated bonus offers via referral. Many are essentially the same as other offers, but with credits on top. Not everyone sees the same thing, but for easy reference, I created a scrolled screen shot of what I saw. It appears to me that referring from an Amex Gold results in the best offers.
If you don’t have a Player 2 to refer you, feel more than free to use my referral link to access these offers.
One word of warning, however, as you refer others: You can expect to receive a 1099 at the end of the year for “income” in the form of earned referral points. Membership Rewards get assigned a 1 cent per point value for tax purposes.
Thoughts?
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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
