Amex has newly targeted some cardholders with a bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points when adding a single authorized user and spending $2,000 on eligible purchases in the first 6 months on that additional card.
The Deal
- Amex is targeting some cardholders for a bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points after adding an additional card member who spends $2,000 in eligible purchases on their card in the first 6 months.
Key Terms
- Add one or more new Additional Card Members to your account and you can earn 20,000 Membership Rewards points for the first Additional Card Member that spends $2,000 or more in eligible purchases on their Card within their first 6 months of Card Membership starting from the date on which the Additional Card Member is added. The maximum you can earn as part of this offer is 20,000 Membership Rewards points.
- Purchases made by other Additional Card Members on your Account will not count toward the $2,000 purchase requirement. Purchases made by eligible Additional Card Members will not be combined to satisfy the $2,000 purchase requirement. Your purchases as the Basic Card Member will not count toward the $2,000 purchase requirement.
- You can earn 20,000 Membership Rewards® points after the Additional Card Member spends $2,000 or more on eligible purchases on their Card within their first 6 months of Card Membership starting from the date on which the Additional Card Member is added. In rare instances, the Additional Card Member’s period to spend $2,000 may be shorter than 6 months if there is a delay in receiving their Card. Also, purchases may fall outside of the 6 month period in some cases, such as a delay in merchants submitting transactions to us or if the purchase date differs from the date they made the transaction. (For example, if they buy goods online, the purchase date may be the date the goods are shipped).
- The 20,000 Membership Rewards® points will be applied 8-12 weeks after the Threshold Amount is met.
- If we in our sole discretion determine that you or your Additional Card Members have engaged in abuse, misuse, or gaming in connection with this offer in any way or intend to do so (for example, if you added one or more Additional Cards to obtain an offer(s) that we did not intend for you; or if you or your Additional Card Members cancel or return purchases made to meet the Threshold Amount), we may not credit Membership Rewards® points to, we may freeze Membership Rewards® points credited to, or we may take away Membership Rewards® points from your account. We may also cancel this Card account and other Card accounts you and your Additional Card Members may have with us.
- Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards; person-to-person payments; or purchases of other cash equivalents.
Quick Thoughts
Amex occasionally targets cardholders with a bonus of 5,000 points for each of up to 4 additional cardholders with minimum purchase activity. Getting 20,000 points for a single authorized user is a fantastic deal. Cashed out at 1.25c per point via the Schwab Platinum card that’s a value of $250 for adding an additional cardholder and making $2K in purchases on their card. Strategic use of transfer partners can obviously be even more valuable.
My wife was targeted for this deal. It didn’t show up in her email or Amex Offers but rather popped up as an offer at the top of her account.
The link to add a card member took her to the landing page shown at the top of this post which outlines the offer and terms. Here is a link that might work to add this bonus (but YMMV if you weren’t targeted in terms of whether Amex will honor it and/or claw points back).
Keep in mind that Amex charges $175 for up to 3 additional Platinum cards, but additional Gold cards are free (do not confuse this with the Amex Gold card — an additional card member Gold card under a Platinum account does not have any of the benefits of the standalone Gold card). My wife added someone as an additional Gold card since they didn’t need Platinum benefits and it is clear that the 20K bonus still applies. On the other hand, 20K points would certainly defray the cash cost of of adding additional cardmembers for someone who does have friends or family who would appreciate Platinum card benefits.
Overall, this is a great bonus if you’re able to take advantage of it, particularly if you’ll be spending on the card anyway.
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Charles Schwab payout needs to be updated from 1.25 cents per to 1.1 cents per point?
Nick or any folks,
besides 20k pts that the primary acct holder receives from the AU card spend, does the $2k count towards the SUB’s spend for the primary acct holder? E.I., if required a min spend of $6k to earn 100k pts for the primary acct holder, will a $2k spend from the AUs help lowered the $6k spend for the primary card? TIA
Yes, it counts toward the welcome bonus spending.
gtk, thx Nick
So, if I add 2 authorized users on the platinum, do they BOTH get a $200 hotel credit and a $200 airline credit?
I chatted with amex and the hotel and airline credit are a ‘shared’ benefit…the same that the original card holder would get. But, they would get priority pass and centurion lounges.
I have been targeted with this offer. Upon selection, Amex interestingly gives me an option to add an “existing” additional gold card holder again. If I do so and spend 2k, will I still get 20k points?
Or the “new” additional card member per the offer terms needs to be a different person?
How long do you think we should keep the AU user card? 13 months, to stay on AmEx’s good side? Thanks!
Anyone have data points on this working if you’re not targeted and use the link? Trying to figure out if it’s worth going for the spend.
20k MR’s for $2k spend in 6 months on a Plat AU in the guise of a no-cost Gold card. Will meet that spend with air tickets ($2k at 5x MR’s) for a total of 30k MR’s. Piece of cake 🙂
I got this offer 2 months ago and added P2. She completed the spend a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday when I logged into my account and it was offered again. It has the same language you mention (“first additional card member that spends $2000 or more…”), but it’s strange that this offer would appear again if I’ve already completed the offer. Idk if they are offering for me to do it again, or if it is just an error that the offer has appeared again.
Curious: did you do it again? The offer came back up again for us, too.
I didn’t, but that’s mostly because I don’t have anyone else to add as an authorized user since it’s P2, myself and our two month old son. The offer is still sitting there though…
I added my son as a gold card user for the 20k offer, through an email link. It wasn’t clear that the offer was engaged- I would rather not put the 2k spend on a card earning 1x. So I called to see if they could tell that I had clicked on the proper link to establish the offer and the agent said he couldn’t see it, but that I should call back in 2 weeks (!).
Is there any way to tell that this offer has been applied?
If you have the email invitation, I’d think that’s clear enough to follow up with Amex. I always take screen shots of the process as I do it in case I need them to follow up, but I think you’ll be fine.
Does it have to be a platinum card? Can it be a gold card additional user?
It can be either, as long as you were targeted. When I added my AU, I had the choice between a platinum and a gold card.
I saw an offer for 5000 points on the Everyday ($1k spend in 6 months). It was in the Amex Offers section, not a link on top.
Got the offer on 2 in the family – the other 2 did not get the offer online or via the link provided. Still, 40k is better than 0
Agreed. 40K is better than 0K
Dear Nick,
Thank you for the link! I got the 20,000 offer only when I logged in through your link.
did you check with AX to confirm that we will get the points if use his link, but weren’t specifically targeted? Nick says beware “your mileage may very”
Brad, I did not check with Amex specifically. I clicked on Nick’s link, it prompted me to login to my Amex account, and upon my login, I saw the offer addressed to me. I requested a gold card for a friend of mine who is building credit.
Hi Nick, if I add an AU to my Platinum, will my AU also earn the 10x on gas/groceries from my SUB?
Yes, you seen earn the 10x.
Got the 5K offer; added my spouse. Spouse has more Delta miles; need her on the account to be able to later transfer points to her Delta account. Assuming by the time that happens Delta tickets aren’t 500K miles to go somewhere…..