“Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.”
Most American Express credit and charge card signup bonus offers include the above language. For the most part, the language is self-explanatory. If you have, or used to have, the same credit card, then you won’t get the signup bonus if you sign up now.
There are known exceptions to this rule. If you cancelled an account more than 7 years ago, it has most likely dropped off of the Amex radar and you can get the bonus if you sign up again. Also, if you receive offers that do not have this language in the fine print, then you should get the bonus (see: Is Amex increasing exceptions to their Once Per Lifetime Rule?). Upgrade offers, in particular, often do not have these terms.
One way in which the bonus language is not crystal clear is with business cards. Is the “applicant” the individual or the business? What if someone has had the same Amex business card before, but now signs up under a different business? Can that person get the signup bonus?
Last summer, I thought I had a definitive answer. I signed up for the Platinum Delta Business card and I did get the bonus even though I had the card before. In fact, I had upgraded my old Platinum Delta card to the Delta Reserve Business card just a few weeks prior to signing up for the new card. Similarly, that same summer, my cousin and several readers reported signing up for second business cards under separate business and they received the bonuses on each. These reports were for the Business Platinum card and the Business Gold Rewards card.
Then, over time, reports dribbled in from readers reporting the opposite. They had applied for a second business card under a separate business name and EIN, but did not earn the signup bonus. In fact, fellow blogger, Rapid Travel Chai, recently tried the trick with the Platinum Delta Business card and he did not get the sign up bonus.
In my post “Are you eligible for the Amex SPG 35K bonus?” I declared that I would test out the second business theory with the SPG Business card. The card took quite a while to arrive, but once it did I immediately spend $5K on the card. The business card’s current signup offer (set to expire April 5) is to get 25,000 points after $5K spend and another 10K points after another $2K spend. Two days ago my first statement finally closed. Then, yesterday, points finally appeared in my SPG account. Unfortunately, I only earned 5,000 points. In other words, I did not earn the signup bonus. I only earned the usual 1 point per dollar for spend.
Conclusion
Clearly, you cannot count on getting a signup bonus when applying for an Amex card that you’ve had before, even when applying under a different business. With respect to the earlier successes, we still don’t know whether Amex has changed their processes, or if there is some other reason why they awarded bonuses for those applications. With my Delta card, it’s a long shot, but theoretically possible that upgrading to the Delta Reserve card effectively erased knowledge in the system that I previously had the Platinum card. That doesn’t explain my cousin’s success, though, with a Business Platinum card that he got while still holding his previous one.
In short, the best evidence we have right now is that the answer is no. You cannot get a second Amex bonus with a second business.
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If you already have a Amex Business card and earned the bonus, can you still get a 2nd one by applying using a targeted offer code without the welcome bonus language?
Can you hold 2 Amex Business Platinum cards at the same time?
Yes
[…] 1 (different EINs) 2 (didn’t work), 3 (didn’t […]
Since there is a 5k referral bonus for SPG cards, I went wacky applying for cards for family and my other business. In the past, I have received the 5k referral bonus AND the 10K “spending” bonus per card, but not the 25k new card bonus. Still worth the effort.
YMMV.
Interesting. What do you mean by the 10K spending bonus? Is that the extra 10K that makes this a 35K offer? If so, I’ll try it!
Yes, that has worked for me in the past. I have 5 new cards to try this month 🙂
As always, YMMV.
At least I got the 5k each for the new cards.
Thanks! I spent the additional $3K to see what happens.
my 2nd SPG under a different biz name came with no bonus, but extra 2/5 spg credits and AMEX offer makes it worth keeping howerver.
So, you do get double elite credits? I should have read this comment before replying to Henry above!
This is good to know. I just got a targeted offer in the mail for the Amex Biz Platinum, which is 100,000 points after a 5k spend in 3 months. I am likely going to sign up, and the deciding factor was the 50% points rebate on airfare. That’s a great thing to have.
I believe I received this offer because I have a blog and signed up for a domain name. I have gotten other Amex offers recently too, in the mail (targeted).
Thanks for the great post, I know now that I may not be able to “double dip” on certain Amex cards. Luckily for me, I am only on the first round of “dipping.”
I agree that the 50% rebate on airfare is a fantastic benefit that makes the Business Platinum exciting.
FYI, there are sometimes higher mail offers for the Biz Plat. My wife recently received a mail offer for 150k on the business platinum (and she opened a Business Platinum just a few months ago).
If she applied for the 2nd Business Platinum with the targeted offer while still keeping the first one open, would that work having 2 open at the same time and earning bonus for both?
I think so, but she may have to open the second under a second business to make it work
I had something similar happen to me BEFORE the once per lifetime rules kicked in. I have several LLCs for real estate investmenets. I got an Amex Plat for one business, then applied again for another business 8 months later. The second business (with separate EIN) was denied the bonus because the rule is attached to my SSN, not the EIN.
So, no go on the 2nd card bonus but you were able to still have 2 Amex Business Platinum Cards open?
Thank you!
Back in the old days (ok, 2013) after my dad saw me fly FC to Thailand, he got into it. He applied for 10 cards in one day, including 4 SPG cards – 1 personal and 3 business (all with separate tax-IDs for legit biz). He was approved for everything after calling in twice.
I am still not entirely sure how this happened.
Because the new rule came into effect in 2015 (or 2016)?
How about the nigtht/stay credits? I have the personal and business SPG cards. If I apply for a 2nd or even 3rd SPG card under different companies/EIN, am I going to receive the night credits?
That used to work, but I don’t think it does anymore. In my case they created a second SPG account for me presumably because my SPG account already had a business Platinum card associated with it.
What does still work is to have both the personal and business SPG card in order to get 4 elite stays and 10 elite nights towards status.
After reading FM’s piece on this last year, I tried to get a second Delta Amex Platinum Biz card (w/ two different businesses). No dice. In fact, not only did I not get a sign-up bonus, I did not get a 25K spend bonus on one of the cards – an Amex rep had assured me I would STILL GET spend bonus when I called about why I didn’t get sign-up bonus. Total waste of 25k spending. Based upon my experience I would not waste your time (or spending) doing this. YMMV.
Had you already maxed out spend bonuses on another business platinum account? If not, you should have earned the bonus. If so, you hit the same limit I ran into (see the section titled “Testing the Limits”): https://frequentmiler.com/2016/11/14/pushing-the-envelope-on-earning-delta-elite-status-through-spend/