Update 7/13/24: Deal is back, requires $2,000 in spend.
Update 3/28/22: More people targeted, showing in the AmEx offers section. Hat tip to MtM
Update 3/8/22: More people targeted.
Update 12/20/21: More people targeted.
Update 8/28/21: More people targeted, new link here. Hat tip to MtM
Update 8/4/21: More offers have been sent out, some seeing 30,000 points as well.
Update 6/14/21: Another round has been sent out.
Contents
The Offer
- American Express is offering 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you add an authorized user and they spend $2,000 within six months
- There is also another offer but for only 5,000 Membership Rewards, but can add up to 4 users for a total of 20,000 points. Potential link here.
The Fine Print
- Valid until September 7, 2021
What You Should Know
- If you aren’t targeted, call American Express to see if they can add the offer to your account. This is usually possible. At the moment the direct links don’t seem to be working either, so calling in regardless of whether you received an e-mail or not seems like it’s required.
- SSN is not required when you add an authorized user, but you need to provide one within 60 days of account opening (people have been denied the bonus in the past for not providing this in time)
- American Express authorized user accounts do count towards your Chase 5/24 status/total.
F.A.Q
No, you can be added as an authorized and then sign up for the card as the primary cardholder and still receive the sign up bonus.
Who needs to spend the money to trigger the bonus?
Authorized user needs to complete the spend requirement. Keep in mind authorized users have their own unique card number so this is easy to track. It’s highly unlikely that spend completed by the primary cardholder will trigger the bonus.
Our Verdict
Very nice deal if targeted, normally the bonuses are for 2,500 or 5,000 but with lower spend requirements. Interesting that American Express has upped this offer and also the pay over time offer. Adding a Platinum authorized user will cost $175, but Platinum cardholders can also add a ‘gold’ authorized user for free.
Hat tip to FM
Read the terms carefully, my offer states that only the $195 authorized user will get 20K points for $2K spend, so called “additional user” (no fee) card seems to not be eligible.
I also got an AU offer on my Hilton Aspire, 5k points for $2k spend.
With the 3x baseline points on that card, and valuing at 0.40 cpp, that’s still just 2.2%, so.. no thank you, I got 6 cards that have a better baseline return than that.
For non-category spend, which is usually 2% at best?
Only have the 5,000MR on bbp out of everyday and Hilton honors
Added my mom as an AU, can only do the card that charges an annual fee of $195, hit $2k spend on 7/9/24, 20k MR posted 7/12/24.
does the bonus post for your account or your mom’s account?
For me as the account holder.
The verdict needs an update because the additional authorized users now cost $195 and Platinum cardholders can add a “companion card” for free.
My offer states it is only for the Additional Platinum Card not for the Companion Platinum Card so be sure to read the fine print.
Yeah was considering this until I saw that it needed to be a full-fledged authorized Plat and they basically are only doing the 20k points as a way of offsetting the annual fee for one of them.
Free lounge access
Have done multiple 20k offers in past. Got a new 10k/$2000 spend on platinum.
Link:
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/apply/supplementary-card/platinum-card/16690-10-0/
Bonus points are already posting for those who were eligible for the most recent round. Nice!
Is this offer still valid?
Is anyone’s Schwab platinum card eligible for this offer? Only the vanilla version of mine received AU offers.
Same – only vanilla