[Expired]Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) 30,000 Offer For Personal & Business Cards

This offer has now expired, you can view a full list of credit card bonuses here.

The Offer

• Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) has increased the sign up bonus on both the business & personal version of their credit cards to a total of 30,000 points.
  • Receive 10,000 points after your first purchase
  • Receive 20,000 points after you spend $5,000 within the first six months (usually only 15,000 points)
• If you’re already an existing SPG card holder you can also refer people and receive 5,000 bonus points if they sign up. Those who you refer will receive the 30,000 point offer.

The Fine Print

• No annual fee for the first year, $65 per year thereafter
• You can only earn this sign up bonus once, this card is no longer churnable. This means if you currently hold or have previously held this card before you’re not eligible for the bonus again. You can get the business version once & the personal version once per lifetime.
• Card earns 2 SPG points per $1 spent at SPG properties, all other purchases earn 1 point per $1 spent
• You can have a maximum of 4 American Express issued cards at once (this doesn’t include cards that are run on the American Express processing network such as the new Wells Fargo cards)
• You can refer a maximum of 11 people (55,000 bonus points) per year.
• Offer valid until June 30th, 2014

Our Verdict

If you’re going to sign up for either of the SPG cards, now is the time to do so. American Express offers this increased sign up bonus once per year, it’s usually offered for a full month (which is in line with the expiration date of June 30th for this offer) and is usually offered in August. The main advantage of SPG points is that they are extremely flexible and can be transferred to multiple airline partners. You also get a 5,000 mile bonus when you transfer 20,000 miles or more.

Since this is a chance for existing card holders to earn 5,000 SPG points and there is no downside to using a referral link, I’d recommend you use one if you’re interested in signing up for this card. Rather than just giving you my link, I’m going to let my readers give you their link instead.

Here is how it’ll work

• If you want a link send an e-mail to contactus@doctorofcredit.com with the subject line “SPG”. Make sure you include your full name and which card you want (business or personal). Alternatively you can comment here with that information.
• If you have a link and want me to share it send an e-mail to contactus@doctorofcredit.com with the subject line “SPG ref”. You must be subscribed to our newsletter with the e-mail you use to send us this message. Also include if you can refer business or personal (you must hold the card to refer it). Alternatively you can comment here with that information.

We will then match those who want the offer to those who have the referral offer. We will do our best to make sure the referrals are spread out but obviously we can’t guarantee that you’ll be getting any. We will NOT be using any of our own referral links.  Alternatively if you don’t want to use a referral link there are direct links that are already live for these offers: personal direct link, business direct link. Although as we mentioned there is no downside to using the referral links. All other bloggers will be making their own links available, so feel free to use those if you think they do a good job of providing content. Make sure you are conscious of which bloggers you support when using their links, it’s also a good idea to ask if any friends or family members can refer you if you want to reward them.

I personally won’t be applying for this offer as I’ve already held both the personal & business cards before. This card is really only worth keeping for the first year unless you’re staying at SPG properties often, this is because of the $65 annual fee and the fact that it earns at only 2 points per $1 spent on SPG properties and a paltry 1 point per $1 spent elsewhere.

We’ve also updated our master list of personal credit card bonuses & business card bonuses to include this new information.

Hat tip to Cedosg of reddit.com/r/churning for the direct links & maddie5218  from flyertalk for letting me know about the referral offer.