UPDATE: Many who have tried this deal have had their DIRECTV payments reversed. Please see this post for details.
Remember the Amazing Amex deal — $150 free for AT&T customers? If you have an Amex business card and were targeted for this offer, you still have until April 15th 2015 to get your free money. And, if you weren’t targeted, here’s another option…
The above offer is very similar to the AT&T offer except that with this one you have to browse to enroll.amexnetwork.com/US/en/DirecTVOPEN/ to register your Amex business card. This is great because it makes it possible to register any Amex business card you have, even employee cards. I was easily able to register two primary cards and two employee cards to this offer.
So what? Who has DIRECTV for Business anyway? Well, a reader named Eric reports that he enrolled several of his Amex business cards and used them to pay his personal (not business) DIRECTV bill. And, he did receive the $100 statement credit for the payment!
Register by January 31 2015
You have until March 31 to spend $100 with each registered Amex card, but you must enroll those cards by January 31st. Don’t forget! Even if you don’t have immediate plans to pay DIRECTV for anything, you might as well sign up just in case.
What if you don’t have DIRECTV?
The easy answer is to find a friend with DIRECTV and offer to pay $100 to his bill in exchange for, say, $50.
How long does it take to get the statement credit?
Usually this varies a bit from one case to another, but here was Eric’s experience when he made a $100 payment online to his personal account:
- 12/16 – Charge Posted for $100.00 – DIRECTV SERVICE 800-347-3288 CA
- 12/18 – Credit of $100 shows as posted – DIRECTV INC EL SEGUNDO with the text DirecTV100Back
- 12/19 – Thank You E-mail was sent by Amex
- 12/19 – While the credit shows as posting on 12/18, Eric did not see it in his online Amex account until 12/19.
You cannot prepay more than $100
Eric tried using multiple registered Amex cards to prepay his DIRECTV service far in advance. Unfortunately, after the first $100, Eric’s payments were reversed out. So your best bet is to use registered Amex cards to pay your bill in January, February, and March, but don’t try to prepay more than $100 at a time.
Eric, THANKS for all of this helpful information!
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[…] $100 free for DIRECTV customers! – American Express business cardholders who registered for this promotion must use it by March 31 to get the credit. […]
[…] $100 free for DIRECTV customers! – American Express business cardholders who registered for this promotion must use it by March 31 to get the credit. […]
[…] $100 free for DIRECTV customers! – American Express business cardholders who registered for this promotion must use it by March 31 to get the credit. […]
The plot thickens!
I made the payment on 2/9, my DirecTV account was credited $100 (as of this morning, no credit has appeared on my AMEX activity).
BUT, there was also a Payment Correction (credit) of $100 applied to my DirecTV account on 2/12. So 2 x $100 credits applied to my account in 3 days.
Perhaps a reversal of the 1/23 reversal? Bizarre – I am keeping a close eye on it. Whatever happens next will not surprise me!
@Simon, I’m seeing the same thing. I’d made one pre-payment which was then reversed. Then we got the mean call… So we paid online again. A few days later that was reversed. As soon as the account showed due, I paid by automated phone system. All 3 accounts show a $100 charge followed by reversal. That said, my recent activity now shows two “Pmt Corrctn-CC” entries for $100 each as of 2/9/15 and the account balance is now solidly negative. The final state seems to be that Directv now shows 3 payments of $100 each applied by Amex shows them all offset by a credit.
If thinks weren’t so stinking weird, I’d say this is where I was trying to get to all along… 3 payments, 3 credits at amex.
Fingers crossed.
I’ve had a similar experience, but I’ve only made one payment per AMEX card (or per AU card). You guys are getting multiple $100 credits on the same cards? If so, please keep us posted. Very interesting.
@marshdom, no I’ve got 5 qualifying cards and used 3 of them in succession to try to get a payment to stick. I’ve not tried repeating any specific card.
Honestly, correlating the whole transaction history is just messy. Bottom lines at Amex and Directv now agree however and I’d be a happy camper if that was it!
If I tried to interpret what was happening, it’d be this:
1) Directv accepts payment, bills Amex.
2) Amex accepts charge, goes pending, and we get Congrats! email.
3) A couple days later, charge is final and the same time or very shortly after a $100 credit appears at Amex.
4) Directv, for some really odd reason, _thinks_ the credit at Amex is a reversal so they reverse on their end and you get rude, confusing call from them.
…Fast forward to 2/9.
5) Directv gets things figured out and realizes the issue, applies “Pmt Corrctn-CC” to reapply your payment on their side (reversing step 4). No change at Amex.
I really don’t understand how #4 occurs if my hypothesis is correct that the credit on our Amex bills is applied by Amex. Directv shouldn’t have access to my Amex account history, I’d think…
…Unless there’s some behind the scenes collaboration between Amex and Directv on this promo. Perhaps Amex is doing some sort of a chargeback or something to Directv and this their awareness of it. Dunno…and that’s all behind the scenes anyway and pure speculation.
Bottom line for me is that if things stopped here, I’d be a happy camper.
First autopay charge for my friend just went pending today against my 4th card. Fingers crossed. Next month, my friend will hit the 5th card of 5.
Thanks for the clarification and run-down of your experience. Suffice to say that I had a very similar experience.
Paid $100 towards a friend’s personal DirecTV bill late January and it was reversed a few days later on Jan 30th.
Just got my latest bill, and I’ve made a $100 payment (my Jan payment, which put the account in a credit, was reversed – see above comment January 23, 2015 at 11:36 am)
Let’s see what happens. I’ll report back in a few days.
[…] $100 free for DIRECTV customers! – American Express business cardholders who registered for this promotion must use it by March 31 to get the credit. […]
[…] I published what appeared to be a fantastic deal for DIRECTV customers with Amex business cards: $100 free for DIRECTV customers! The basic deal was this: you had to register your Amex business card for this promo by […]
I also received the reversal of $100 a couple of days ago. I had used my Business Gold Card on a personal account that had a balance on it. My husband mentioned that we got a few weird messages from DirecTV :/ Oh well, at least the AT&T one worked! If anyone’s interested in paying $150 on my AT&T bill, we can do a $75/$75 split. Nikkioutten@live.com
The reversal problem happens only if the $100 payment makes your balance negative. To solve it, buy movies until your current bill exceeds $100. For example, if your monthly bill is $89, charge $11+ in movies, then pay. Problem solved!
I received the same call from DirecTV, saying AMEX had reversed the charge. The credit says “DIRECTV100BACK”. I haven’t bothered escalating with AMEX because I’m not really in the right per the terms, but it seems weird that DirecTV is claiming it was a chargeback.
DTV billing methodology is really unconventional and whacked. I think it is now run by Skynet. Even the reps I spoke to don’t seem to truly understand how it works – and this is not even talking about the $100 promo.
You are billed for current purchases such as movies, etc immediately (show as $$ owed on your account page) but are not billed for monthly charges such as service until your statement “print date” and those charges are for a future period not for the current period which ended on your bill “due date”. Your bill due date and print date are related but different. What you owe for service cannot be viewed until your bill print date which is after your bill due date. You will still see $0 for service charges on your bill due date even though it is due. Charges will only show on the bill print date. This is confusing me even as I write it. If anyone else has figured this all out, please explain. I spoke to 5 reps who couldn’t coherently do it, but I will say they tried at least. Nice people they are. If you are a masochist, please call the DTV billing dept today.
With all that being said, I believe DTV is regurgitating these overpayments and the reps are clueless. Why would AE reject a formerly approved payment to DTV on an AE card if you have the credit line to pay for it? They might refuse the $100 rebate credit but there would be no logical reason (I can think of) where they would initiate a charge reversal. I mean if I’m AE, let the customer pay for the $100 if they want to, and we’ll just not issue the credit. Then again what the hell do I know.
This is truly scary.
Got a call from DirecTV and they said my payment was denied. I only prepaid $100. Guess they are noticing that people are using business cards to pay? I’m unsure what else it could be. According to the social media support people *I* “disputed the transaction with AMEX”
I did this a few weeks ago when I saw it posted. The $100.00 posted then was credited. Today I got a call from Directv claiming my bill was past due. I use autopay and had a ZERO balance. Zero balance having nothing to do with the $100.00 as my regular card was billed in full for the monthly service. I made that conversation quick with DTV. When my contract is up in two months look out DTV because I go to the best deal. I will see what Dish offers me.
This is pervasive among many companies. If you leave autopay on, they will deduct your statement balance or minimum despite you paying off your statement balance in full manually. DISH may do the same thing.
Among credit card companies, Barclay and BofA are notorious for this. Say you pay $5,000 manually which is your statement balance in full, they will still deduct another $5,000 from your autopay IF you leave it on. This has happened to me. I learned the hard way. Their system could care less and is not programmed to consider your manual payment is in lieu of your statement payment. I have never seen a blog post regarding these kinds of issues. Hint.
American Express and Chase have their act together and will stop autopay if your statement balance is paid manually.
Barclay came out with a mass e-mail about 6 months ago, saying they are trying to fix that issue and reduce any autopay if some is paid manually but they still did the same thing to me a month ago. I was testing with a small amount.
Advice, call DTV each year and ask for the “retention” dept. The freebies can be many. Google what people get by calling that dept. I’ve gotten the NFL Sunday Ticket free multiple times and various other monthly credits. You don’t have to threaten you will cancel, be civil. But refuse to talk to anyone but the retention dept if you want some substantial offers. They will transfer you. If the first person in the retention dept doesn’t satisfy you, don’t take their offer. Call back and try again.
I had my charge hit on 1/21 for $101 and then received the $100 DirecTV credit on my AMEX account 1/23. Yesterday I looked at my DirecTV account and they reversed out $100 “REVRS CC PMT”… we’ll see if I get the reversal back on my AMEX account… Anyone have this happen and then also receive the reversal back onto your AMEX account? Hopefully that is the case.
I too was able to get multiple $100 credits for consecutive prepayments. 1 payment on the 23rd, $100 statement credit posted on 24th. 3 more $100 payments on the 24th and the statement credits just posted today. Dtv still shows a negative $400+ balance. No reversals (at least not yet).
Dave – congrats if it sticks! Please keep us posted. I assume you just made one-time payments to your online Directv account? As I (and others) mentioned (above), I had my second payment reversed (before the credit hit). I also got the strange call from Directv a couple days ago (a few days after the reversal), from a very confused agent who didn’t seem to know why she was calling. After fumbling around for a minute, she finally tried to tell me that my disputed charge was reversed. I told her that I hadn’t disputed a charge, but she was clearly confused and tried to end the call as quickly as possible.
Wow I had the same experience. The woman who talked to me seemed to not know what to say. I was suspicious that it was a phishing call. I wouldn’t verify my address with her. She still seemed confused and said my payment was declined. I told her I’d look at it myself online.
If you’re interested in buying one or more $100 credits drop me an email jbstorie (at) gmail.com.
I have 7 left.
I’ve been able to pay multiple 100.00 transactions so far to my account. One right after another. The limit online says 3 payments per day and right now my account has a 352.98 credit.
@Valerie – my payment was online
Our initial phone payment of $100 on 1/16 got reversed too on 1/18. Got call from Dtv asking us why we reversed the charge. We didn’t and I called Amex. Their rep says as far as he could see, Dtv is the one that reversed the charge. So I called Dtv back and did the charge again on another card before I saw the comment about being droped from credit card list. Keeping my fingers crossed. Btw, for those whose first charge got reversed, was the payment online or by phone?
The payment page clearly says the max credit balance for an account is $100…
Nice find. Thanks.
FWIW, I cannot find that anywhere under any of the My Account or Payment links in my Directv online account. Unless I’m missing it. But I don’t doubt that it’s true. Good to know that $100 credit balance is the exact number.
I got a call from DirectTV just now telling me there was a reversal on the account of $100. I logged in, and my account is $0.00 balance. I suspect AMEX contacted DirecTV to confirm whether or not I was an existing customer – and upon confirmation, instructed DirecTV to reverse the payment?
Anyone else have this happen to them?
Darn. Just saw your comment, Simon. I did not get a call (or at least I didn’t answer, if they called). But I just logged into my Directv account and see that they reversed a second $100 payment that I made (which had given me a $200 credit balance – after I made a first $100 payment a week earlier). I’m not sure if that’s similar circumstances to maybe why your reversal occurred. But I was curious to see if there was really a limit of a $100 credit balance (or some other level), so I decided to try it out. I’m still not sure if I can say for sure that it’s the reason mine got reversed or not. Guess I’m going to be limited to $100 per month (after my bill goes through each month – as I might add some premium channels to get my bill from $80 to $100+ for a while), or at least I hope they continue to allow me to use my few AMEX business cards (and AU’s) to make payments and get credits through the end of this deal in March. Beyond that, I guess the only other use for my cards will be paying a couple other family members’ bills the next couple months (and hopefully getting the credits!).
Note that for me, my second $100 payment was 2 days ago … was “pending” on my AMEX online transactions yesterday … and cleared (is posted) as of today. Yet on my Directv online account transaction history it shows that the payment was made 2 days ago, but was reversed yesterday. Will be interesting to see what happens with AMEX … whether or not I will get the second credit (and then will it be reversed? and then will I still be able to use that card again for this promo?) … and when the reversal of the payment itself will show up.
Any further experiences/insights from other folks would be appreciated.
There’s no reason Amex would contact DTV and reverse the payment. You’re perfectly allowed to make a charge on your card. Amex has no problem with that. If Amex thinks you’re violating the terms of the promo, they just wouldn’t give you the credit. They’re more than happy you made the charge. Apparently DTV doesn’t like people paying on an account with -0- balance. There is your culprit.
Thanks, Kent. I agree with you, but just trying to throw out all the possible variables. To be clear, Directv appears to be okay with pre-paying some amount (maybe exactly $100?), as my first $100 payment on my zero-balance account has stuck (and was credited by AMEX). Too bad Directv doesn’t sell gift cards. 🙂
Unfortunately, now both of my $100 payments have been reversed – at least according to my Directv online account. The second reversal apparently occurred 2 days ago, but has not shown up on my online AMEX account yet (nor has the one $100 credit I received been reversed – but I assume that will happen when the charge gets reversed). I guess if this is going to work at all … it’s either going to be a big YMMV … or maybe/hopefully it will still work for making one-time payments against a positive account balance (that can be paid down with a one-time AMEX payment) … I have turned off my auto-payment for now, in hopes that I’ll be able to at least take advantage of $100 or $200 before March 31st.
It happened to us! We had a zero balance. Went in to prepay $100 on1/20. Immediately Amex congratulated us, posted the credit w/in 24 hours, the charge went through. Then on 1/21 directv posted our bill which was 103.75, so they charge the remaining on the card on file for automatic payment. On 1/23 someone fr directv called my husband and asked why WE would call our credit card company and reversed out our $100 payment, which of course we did not! My husband told them we did not and explained the Amex promotion and asked if maybe that was the cause. Then he said the woman simply warned him that it went down in our record as we reversed our payment and if it happened again we will be taken off the credit list, which hubby thinks it means we won’t be able to pay via credit card. I logged into the account and saw that 1/22 reverse charge was after they charge the residual 3.75. So I am not sure if the theory of reversing out at 100 credit balance is true. We are scared to try again bc it is a hassle to be off the credit list (and I think it is shitty to talk to a customer w on time automatic payment for 2 years that way! If it was me I would say, then I will bring my business elsewhere). Now we have a 100 payment due. We are waiting to see if Amex reverse it out on our statement as well.
Hi Ladybug… what ever happened? Did AMEX reverse the credit on their end as well?
VERY similar thing happened to me. A Directv agent called and was incredibly rude saying I had reversed charges and was just not very pleasant at all. Initially I had used 3 different cards and paid $100 each and got the $100 back a couple days later with no issue. I called American Express and they said that there was zero issue on their end and that this was a Directv deal NOT an American Express deal. Long story short, I think that it is Directv that is rejecting the payments, not American Express and then Directv is calling people and saying that the charges were reversed……what a pain
[…] DirecTV Offer Workaround. Based on various reports at Frequent Miler, I gave it a try with my personal account. I registered my card and paid $100 on my DirecTV account […]
I registered my SPG Business AMEX card, and I received the email thanking me for registering. My question is, should I see this in my active sync offers when I log into my AMEX account? Usually when I register AMEX cards for offers by going to a website (i.e. Small Business Saturday), I will see the offer in my current sync offers tab. Since I received an email saying I was registered, I think I’m good to go, but I was just wondering if everyone else is not seeing this in their active sync offers once they’ve registered. Thanks!
Wade – I think you’re fine (of course, YMMV). None of my business cards had the offer show up in my online AMEX accounts Offers section, even after I registered them (successfully) on the website. So far, I’ve received one statement credit. And I just made a second $100 payment yesterday. Hoping that statement credit hits in the next day or two.
My Last Name: Sweet
Say you were refered by Account # 53430497
Thanks and enjoy!
SAVE $100 INSTANTLY!
If your looking to sign up with Directv calling and using my refer a freind code will get you a $100 bill credit ($10/mth for 10 months). I have a few spots left to get you the credit.
Call Directv at 1-866-443-8869
My Last Name: Sweet
Say you were refered by Account # 53430497
You can also type in the account number if you are just signing up on the web.
Thanks and enjoy!
[…] special thank you goes out to The Frequent Miler for posting about this […]
I’d love to pay someone’s bill for the next 3 months. Email me at thecoz51(at)yahoo.com if interested!
Has anyone experimented with trying to make more than one $100 payment on an account that currently has a zero balance (either online or via a phone rep)? I think I read somewhere (here?) that a $100 credit is the max you can have on an account, but that seems awfully arbitrary – and just wondering if anyone has tested it? (Know that I’m setting myself up for a “why don’t you give it a try” reply! But figure it couldn’t hurt to see if anyone else has already tried!) I did one manual payment online, which took my balance to -$100 (and I got the AMEX credit a couple days later). I could pay friends/family bills (and mine in February & March), but I’m greedy and would like to apply all of my $100 “free money” to my account. 🙂
The post covers this scenario letting us know you can only prepay $100 each month. To do 2 or more payments on different cards you would have to do one now, then one after your next billing cycle closes, etc.
I like to sell my credits with discount. please email me if you are interested. thanks.
[…] Frequent Miler posts that AMEX Business cardholders can get a $100 statement credit when they spend $100 or more at DIRECTV in a single transaction. […]
Can I pay a friends account with my cards or does the cards need to match the Direct TV account name?
[…] week Frequent Miler wrote about an American Express business card deal where cardholders can get a $100 credit for paying $100 towards their DIRECTV bill. While the deal […]
[…] Get $100 back from American Express by paying a DirecTV bill. You may be able to register several cards and get the rebate from each, and you can even pay your friends’ bills. Leverage it to cover costs of TV and miles. […]
Thanks for the posting! Will I get $100 credit if my DirectTV account was setup with auto pay and the payment amount is more than $100? Thanks in advance.
My DIRECTV account is on auto pay, but I went in and made a manual payment from the Amex business card since I don’t normally use it to pay my DIRECTV bill. If you pay $100 or more on a registered card, then you should get the $100 credit whether it is autopay or a manual payment.
Credit posted after about two business days. Thanks
Paid bill on 1/16 by phone and received credit a couple days later. I have a small bill from hoa too. Hopefully will be able to do this again in February and March even with a negative balance. Thanks!
So, FYI, this completely worked for me. Signed up right after your post, already got my $100 credit. I’m an existing customer and paid online through my DirecTV account login. Time to pay my friends bill on my 2nd AMEX Business account now…
Data point: AMEX Open Business Gold – registered on 1/17, immediately made payment, credit posted 1/18.
FM,
Thanks! Tried this with both my SimplyCash and Delta Gold Biz cards – registered on 1/15, immediately made the payment, just saw the credit hit online with a posting date of 1/16. $100 payment, $100 credit. Got to love free money!
I received this message when I tried to register with my American Express Business Gold Card
Thank You!
Use your registered Card to sign up for DIRECTV for BUSINESS™ service, spend $100 or more in a single transaction at time of purchase by March 31, 2015, and get $100 back as a one-time statement credit.
and this message when I tried to register with my American Express Hilton HHonors and American Express Preferred Cash Blue Card:
Sorry
Unfortunately, this Card is not eligible for this offer. For a complete list of eligible Cards, see Registration Terms and Conditions.
So if it works on my personal DirecTV account, I’ll get a $100 credit which works for me 🙂
Yes, that makes sense. I wouldn’t expect it to work for your personal Hilton card or Blue card
I made a $100 payment on my personal DirecTV account and the credit posted about 3 days later 🙂
Anyone registered their card and made payment but haven’t seen the credit or email? I’m hoping the timeline is like the one above. I paid on 1/14 in the morning and it posted 1/15 but have not received the credit or the Thank You email.
I used Simplycash business card and have not yet rec’d email or reimbursement. charge posted: 01/15. It isn’t looking good for me!
Did you register ahead of time?
FWIW, I used the SimplyCash card on 1/17 (registered it ahead of time) to pre-pay $100 towards my Directv account. I got the $100 credit on my online AMEX account 2 days later, and got a confirmation email from AMEX about the credit on the 3rd day.
Yeah, but about 5 minutes before I made the purchase. Maybe I didn’t leave it long enough :/
I’m in for experimenting. My DirecTV bill is only $10/mo so this will cover the rental property for most of this year. If it’s successful, I’ll have to pay my friend’s DTV bill at the 50/50 split as well for my 2nd business card.
Wow, I didn’t know that $10/mo was even possible
It’s because it’s part of my HOA fees. I only pay for HD access or DVR access. As the renter doesn’t want a DVR, I only pay $10 for the HD access.
Won’t cover the year. Maybe $20 or $30 depending on your cutoff. Must pay by 3/31/15 from the terms.
Thanks for the heads up on this deal. Was able to register both cards on my SimplyCash account and will use for my personal DirecTV account. Fingers crossed the gamble is worth the loss of the Ink 5x on my DirecTV payments for a couple of months.
Statement credit has already posted. Looking forward to next month for another free $100. Thanks FM!
This is slightly off topic, but I have been searching to see if DirecTV payments were good for 5x points on the Chase INK card. I am considering applying, but only once I can confirm I will get the points for DirecTV. The T&C state it is for cable and I was not sure that DirecTV would qualify.
So, @Elizabeth, you can confirm that you receive 5x points on your DirecTV payments?
Thanks in advance.
@Travis – Sorry for the late reply–just saw your question. Yes, DirecTV payments have always earned me 5x with Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards.
I received the confirmation email from Amex and went ahead and paid the $100. I have a personal Direct TV account. Will see what happens.
When eric was paying off his monthly directtv account for january, and it worked, did he pay the $100 online using his online account, did he call the 1-888 # indicated above, or did he call a regular directv csr?
Thanks
I don’t know
I paid online. Credit showed up today.
I tried several cards and got the same response…this card is not eligible for this offer…
Any ideas?
For a data point, can you tell us what type of card you used? It worked for me this week on a Business Rewards Gold card.
Make sure to use a small business Amex card, not a personal card
“Sorry
Unfortunately, this Card is not eligible for this offer. For a complete list of eligible Cards, see Registration Terms and Conditions.”
Oh well, it was worth a shot…
It only works with BUSINESS Amex cards
It sounds like a real gamble is you don’t already have directv anyway. The T&C state you have to sign up for new service and it’s not transferable.