Amex Business Platinum Targeted Offer: 120K points + 10x at Office Supply Stores

There have been several terrific, targeted American Express offers floating around over the past year, including 150,000 Membership Rewards points after $6K spend for the consumer Platinum, 130,000 points for the Business Gold after $10K spend. Recently, Amex started allowing certain cardholders to refer others to a 150,000 point offer on the Business Platinum as well (which is what we currently have listed on the best offers page).

Yesterday, Doctor of Credit posted a link to another very interesting Business Platinum offer. This one requires the same $15,000 in spend over three months but gives 120,000 Membership Rewards points, slightly less than the 150,000 points of the current referral offer.

But it also gets better: during the first 3 months of card membership, you earn 10X Membership Rewards points on your first $7,500 combined in the following purchase categories (U.S. stores only):

• advertising
• office supply
• shipping services
• wireless providers
• hardware suppliers

For most of us in the points and miles world, office supply is the real eye-catcher, due to the frequent fee-free Visa and Mastercard gift card sales at Staples and Office Max/Office Depot. If you are able to maximize the 10x category bonus, you’d end up with a total of 202,500 Membership Rewards points (120,000 welcome offer, 75,000 from the 10x category bonus and 7,500 from the rest of the minimum spend at 1x). That’s really, really good.

So, it’s going straight to the top of the best offers page, right? Nope. Unfortunately, there’s a couple of possible downsides that keep us from being able to recommend it for everyone. Instead, we’re listing it as an alternate offer.

The Deal

• American Express Business Platinum targeted welcome offer: Earn 120,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 within the first 3 months of card membership. Earn 10X Membership Rewards points during your first 3 months of Card Membership on your first $7,500 combined in the following U.S. purchases: for advertising in select media; at office supply stores; for shipping services; with wireless telephone service providers; and with materials and hardware suppliers

Direct Link to Offer (Post- targeted DOC link)

Offer and Key Card Details

Click the name of the card below to go to our dedicated card page for more information and a link to apply.

Card Offer and Details

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express ⓘ $1761 1st Yr Value Estimate 150K points ⓘ Friend-Referral 150K points after $15K spend in the first 3 months. Terms apply. (Rates & Fees) $695 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Targeted online offer of 170K points after $15K spend in the first 3 months See this post for details. Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: This card is absolutely loaded with high end perks. Depending upon your situation, those perks may be worth the annual fee or much more. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 5X flights and prepaid hotels at AmexTravel.com ✦ 1.5X points per dollar on eligible purchases of $5000 or more (on up to $2 million of those purchases per year) ✦ 1.5x on US construction/hardware stores, US electronic goods, and US shipping ✦ 1X elsewhere ✦ Terms apply. Base: 1X (1.55%) Other: 1.5X (2.33%) Card Info: Amex Pay Over Time Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Select one qualifying airline and receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year for qualifying charges ✦ Up to $400 a year in statement credits for Dell purchases ($200, twice-yearly) ✦ Up to $120 in wireless services credits per year ($10 per month) ✦ $100 Global Entry fee reimbursement.✦ Priority Pass membership (Lounges only) with 2 guests and other airport lounge benefits (Centurion and Delta) ✦ Rental car elite status ✦ Marriott Gold status ✦ Hilton Gold status. ✦ $189 CLEAR fee reimbursement annually ✦ 35% Airline Bonus: Get 35% points back after you Pay With Points for flights with your selected airline (or premium cabin with any airline). Enrollment required for select benefits See also: Amex Platinum Guide ➥More

Quick Thoughts

There’s a couple potential pitfalls here.

First off, DOC has a link directly to an application page for this offer. That link bypasses the initial landing page that you normally encounter when you click through an Amex credit card offer, so it theoretically allows someone who isn’t targeted to apply for the welcome offer without needing to call or use various private browsers (it’s called a “post-targeted” link). But no one knows where this link came from. These sorts of links can be dangerous and there have been reports of them leading to a complete Amex shutdown (although admittedly not for a couple of years).

The second issue is that Amex has been known to be sensitive towards folks using obvious gift card purchases to meet minimum spend for welcome offers. This seems to have lessened quite a bit during the points parade of the last couple of years and I’ve used GC purchases to meet minimum spend on several cards and haven’t had any issues with clawbacks. That said, there is a non-zero chance of Amex not liking what you’re doing and clawing back the bonus points. If you can spend $7,500 organically at office supply and hardware stores, this is a non-issue, of course.

In the end, some folks will be fine accepting the risk for this card and others won’t. So, we’ve added it to the best offers page as an alternate offer, for those that feel compelled to take a swing.

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