American Express Denies Some Signup Bonuses Against Pop-Up Indicator

A handful of reports indicate that American Express may deny your signup bonus, even if you did not get the pop-up warning.

By way of background, American Express added a pop-up box to tell you when you are not eligible for the signup bonus due to your history. They’ll even give the pop-up if you have too many recent cards. There are ways around it, such as putting spend on your cards or possibly using a special type of preapproved offer.

One commonly asked question we get is: if I did NOT see a pop-up, does that mean I’ll certainly get the bonus? Until a few weeks ago, I assumed the answer was the affirmative – if Amex went to the trouble of creating the pop-up system, presumably it always works.

However, there have been numerous data points indicating that this is, unfortunately, not the case. Multiple data points from readers (1, 2) and on Reddit (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) tell of people who did not get any pop-up warning, yet, they still got a signup bonus denial for eligibility reasons, e.g. “misuse of rewards program”.

I’m honestly perplexed by this: if they have coded in their system some sort of restrictions to limit signup bonuses, why wouldn’t those parameters be added to the pop-up programming? I can think of two possibilities. (1) Maybe they updated their denial algorithm but failed to carry over the update to the pop-up box. (2) Perhaps it’s only when there are eyes on the account manually deciding to withhold a signup bonus from a given individual that this issue occurs, e.g. they were reviewing your account for some other reason and they added a flag to deny the signup bonus. (One report states that initially they got confirmation of the signup bonus being attached to the account – that would sound more like theory #2, not theory #1.)

It’s still a fair bet to assume that if you don’t get a pop-up then you’ll get the signup bonus, it’s just not an absolute sure thing. I think this is legit CFPB claim territory (with the added note that since you didn’t get the pop-up, the bonus is confirmed).  Not sure it’ll actually work, but at least it’ll force a reply from Amex.

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    Chuck
  • On December 6, 2018, 17:57

View Comments (91)

  • Last Friday I applied for the plat and no popup windows. But then I confirmed with a costumer service and was told that I didn't have a signup bonus attached. I did see popup windows two weeks ago when I gave my first and second tries and withdrew my applications because of that. Not sure what the heck is wrong. Card member for 2 years and kept gold and aspire, had downgraded ascend and delta gold in the past, no closed accounts. Really hope they will give me back what I signed up for... The costumer service said he helped establish a case but it still sounds very likely that I will be the one that take lost at the end... anyone met this issue recently?

    • Today I talked to another CSR and was told that there was indeed a signup bonus attached to my account, it's just that we need to wait 72 hours after we open a new account to check with CSR about our bonus attached. A big relief.

  • I was attempting to apply Amex Platinum today after I saw a 75K offer. The dreadful "No welcome bonus" did pop up for the first time. I canceled the application. Now, I am worrying if my latest card, Hilton Aspire that I am about to finish the minimum spending wouldn't trigger the welcome bonus.

  • So I have a single Amex card (Everyday) and got a medium size bonus (20k MR) on it, but I still have it and use it regularly, plus I don't MS or "game" their cards. But I'm getting that pop-up when I try to apply to literally any of their cards now. Any ideas?

    • I've opened 6 cards over 6 months (all charge cards+schwab,hilton,BBP) and no pop-ups so far but I've spent almost 30k across all cards.

  • As another DP. I used to have a green card back in the day and ended up closing it. Now, I have had a everyday and delta card for 2 years, got them within days of each other, got both bonuses (10,000 each) Recently I applied for a Marriott card, no pop up, put 3000 in spend, no (75000pt) bonus, called in, first rep said it was attached to my account give it time. I did. Second rep said I had the card before, I said I hadn't. She said okay call Marriott and tell them so they can confirm you've never had it with chase, I did. Nothing, called again, gave third rep my reference # from Marriott, rep said it didn't matter that was gaming them. I asked how and he said it's cause I had a green card way back when and closed it and no one can overturn the decision. I don't think the green card even had a bonus, I can't really remember.

  • I was a victim of the bait and switch as well (Amex Hilton Business). Approved, met spend, but wasn't told until much later that I had been denied the bonus (they told me they actually made that determination on the date that I applied). Submitted complaint to cfpb, but only got a "we're sorry for your experience" response from Amex.
    Is there any recourse after the cfpb? At the very least I'd like Amex to credit the AF, since at this point I've paid $95 for a card that does not present the value I expected from it.

  • Has anyone actually gotten a CFPB complaint to work for this specific issue? I was denied the bonus on the gold card after completing spend, and so I filed a complaint. This was my first time ever submitting one, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

    Amex's CFPB response just cited: Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card or the Premier Rewards Gold Card. We may also consider the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed as well as other factors in making a decision on your welcome offer eligibility.

    This did not address my complaint that they did not notify me in a timely manner that I was ineligible for the bonus. But, it looks like my complaint is now closed so that's the end of that road.

  • any folks tried an email to Amex Exec Off for a reconsideration? my FM was approved for a hilton ascend cc w/o a pop-up msg, previous conf that the welcome bonus is attached, but now bonus is denied b/c her past accts as an AU were open or closed in 2016

    • lol, feel that this denial of bonus is fairly low on amex part; an AU can't open or close an acct on his/her choosing, but is still get penalized so they won't have to issue 150k HH pts

  • I have a really scary DP. Was just told that BRG bonus was declined, AFTER the rep told me that the offer is attached and I will receive the bonus within few days.

    So texted back to check where is my bonus and they said they declined it. I inquired them to start an investigation, since I ALWAYS met all the spend organically, hardly MSed and closed SPG card AFTER AF was posted and they didn't offer me any retention (which was lame, since the updated card has a free night anniversary, and my AF was just few days before the changes).

    • How recently did you close out Spg, was it recently closed before brg bonus had a chance to post? That could be 1 factor of how many cards have been closed prior to a new bonus. Also did you ever get a pop-up denial from brg? This is confusing trying to figure out the amex pattern. I would like to hope that chatting a rep wasn't the cause of the denial.

  • DP - Was receiving pop-up message not eligible, put spend on all AMEX cards, waited a month and pop-up message went away. Applied, approved, and met minimum spend on BGR.

    Bonus never posted. Chat rep said wasn't eligible. Here's exactly the message from Chat rep:

    "When a card is approved there is a check of previous offers for all card accounts."

    Not sure if I want to CFPB or not. Anyone have experience going that route?

    • There are numerous new DPs about this topic. Check myfico forum with “Amex invokes "the right to modify or revoke offer at any time” for other users in same boat

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