It used to be possible to refer yourself to an American Express card and get a bonus as both the new member and as the referrer, but then AmEx began clawing back points earned from such referrals. Additionally, people who engaged is such activity found themselves unable to use referral links at all, even to refer friends. On new cards, however, people found that their referral links were intact and able to be used – it was only on existing cards that were there at the time of the self-refer ‘violation’ that lost their ability to refer friends.
However, multiple reports on Reddit (1, 2) indicate that yesterday even new cards stopped being able to refer, and all existing referral links from those cards no longer work. There’s one report of someone losing their ability to refer, even though they did not engage in self-referral, so there might be something else at play here as well.
I currently have 5 cards with Amex, and one of the cards (The Platinum Card) lost the ability to refer. I never self-referred or violated any terms, though I did close out two cards last year. I can still refer with my other 4 cards.
Also, I still have the referral link from my Platinum Card since I saved the link previously, and the referral link still works – It would show that XXX has referred you for The Platinum Card® once you open the link. But I’m not sure if I will receive the referral bonus if someone does apply via the referral link.
I can still refer on my Aspire but can’t on my Platinum. No idea why, I’ve never referred anyone and I use the card normally. It used to be an option for both.
Ability to Refer friends is removed for many people who engaged or perceived to be who did any of following:
1) self Refer
2) Closed or cancelled cards after getting bonus
3) Downgrade cards after getting bonus
4) Used gift cards for many bonus categories
2,3,4 and maybe many more are perceived as gaming the points. Analytics software is getting smart so now Amex and others are able to see patterns and take action.
Can’t be affected by referrals if you don’t have any friends who share your weird card churning hobby…
Ok chuck so I have a story.
I self referred, and got the claw back when that happened a year plus ago. Then my ability to refer others disappeared. I closed all my MR cards after cashing the MR out. Then waited some months, then applied for a new MR card.
Now I can refer again.
So by closing out all MR cards, one closes out the MR account that is flagged. When you open a new MR account, a fresh MR account is created that is not flagged.
That is my story.
That is how it is done.
At least for now until the rat team reads this.
Happy MRing.
no need to close out your whole MR account… i think just opening a new card account should fix this, unless AMEX has started banning people from referrals on a SSN/EIN basis…
After they caught my self referring and did that claw back, all my cards lost their ability to refer others.
Perhaps just opening a new card would resolve this. Perhaps not. What I can say is that as a DP – after closing all my MR cards, and then applying for a new card, I was then able to refer again. I tried this because I knew that it appeared my MR account was flagged, and I knew if I closed all my MR cards, that would close out my MR account, and when I got a new card, I would get a fresh MR account with no flags.
For anyone who’s missing referral ability on one or more cards, try this link: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/referral
I found on one card there was no apparent referral showing, but the above link shows referrals available on all cards for me, including that one. The link is also found at the bottom of the page on the desktop website.
“You are not eligible to access this referral offer at this time.”
amex bein petty as usual
I’m afraid something similar has happened to my P1 and P2 referral links on Chase Freedom. P1 referred P2 for a Freedom Flex and got the 20k UR bonus. Then both of our referral links stopped working. We can create the links but they don’t work when a referee clicks through them (just shows as “offer expired” even though referral link is freshly created).
So maybe Chase is catching up to Amex!
That seems very unlikely, both because Chase has never had a problem with intrahousehold referrals, and because others who have used them many times (including me) are not seeing this issue.
I’d look to generate your link a different way, try the links Chase emails you occasionally, make sure they match the format of current campaigns, etc.
I’ve never referred myself and lost the ability to refer people around 3 months ago. I’ve only ever referred 2 people but with completely different addresses. I called them and all they’re saying is I’m not eligible to refer people at this time.
I saw no ability to refer from my Aspire card in the app. I then logged in on a browser, and it was hard to find but eventually I found a link to allow a referral. Could be a glitch in their system? I have 5+ AMEX cards and it only happened with that one.
My referral link on new cards is intact