Today, the referral offers on many business and personal Amex cards just got a whole lot tastier. Not only will you get a points bonus for referring a friend, but in many cases you will also now receive an additional 10x on up to $25K in restaurant purchases for 3 months, as long as you friend applies (and is approved) by 5/22/24.
Amex’s referral system has improved markedly over the past few years and it’s important to keep in mind that Membership Rewards or cash back-earning cards can refer to almost any other Amex card and earn a reward based on the card you used to generate the link. That makes these sorts of increased referral offers much easier to take advantage of.
The Deal
- Many American Express credit cards are now offering a referral bonus of +10x on up to $25K in restaurant purchases when you refer a friend by 5/22/24 (see your online account for your specific referral offers).
- The 10x on restaurant spend is in addition to the normal referral bonus and normal points-earning on the card.
- The following cards are part of this promotion:
- Membership Rewards: Gold, Platinum, Business Gold, Business Platinum, Blue Business Plus
- Cash Back: Blue Cash Everyday, Blue Cash Preferred, Blue Business Cash
- Delta: Gold, Platinum, Reserve (consumer only)
Key Terms
- You must be the Basic Card Member of the account.
- No Referral Bonus will be posted to the account of the Additional Card Member, even for eligible referrals made by Additional Card Members.
- Referral rewards earned by the Additional Card Member will count towards the maximum annual limit of the Basic Card Member.
- You must submit referral(s) by 05/22/2024.
Quick Thoughts
Most cards that earn Membership Rewards points typically offer the referrer (the person who is referring a new cardholder) a set number of points per referral. That fixed number varies by card and cardholder, but we’ve seen anything from 7,500 points per referral up to 35,000 points per referral, typically with a cap of 100,000 points/year/Amex card (if you have 3 cards that earn Membership Rewards points, you can earn up to 100,000 points per year on each of those 3 cards from referring friends).
These new offers are different (and much better): along with earning that points bonus, the person making the referral will earn +10x Membership Rewards points on up to $25K in restaurant spending for three months. That’s a potentially lucrative deal as it means that you could earn up to 250,000+ bonus points thanks to a single referral…provided you can spend $8,333 per month in the dining category. That said, even if you only spent $2,000 on dining over the first three months, it would still get you 40K total on many cards (20K bonus + 20K from restaurants)…which is a killer referral offer.
Note that these 10x bonus points are in addition to the points you already earn with your card. For instance, if you use your Gold or Business Gold (as seen in the screen shot above) to refer someone to a new card, you would receive 10x bonus points on top of the 4x you already earn at restaurants, for a total of 14x. That’s a terrific return.
These increased referrals don’t seem to always refer to the best publicly-available offer. However, if you’re playing in 2-player mode, it’s important to factor in both sides of the referral when comparing one offer to another. If P2 is receiving 20K less than the best offer, but you get 20K for the referral bonus and 10x at restaurants for three months, it’s probably still worth doing.
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None of my offers is a NLL language, useless.
I referred my spouse for a Bus Gold card. She clicked through the link and was approved for the AMEX Hilton Aspire card. So far so good. Then I receive an email titled “Your American Express referral bonus.” I click on the email expecting confirmation of 20k MR points and 10x bonus points at restaurants for 3 months. Instead, it says “You have qualified for a special offer. Earn a $100 statement credit after you make a Delta purchase on your (AMEX Business Gold card) in the next 3 months.” Huh?
So I call AMEX and they tell me that this referral bonus is “in addition to” the 20k AMEX MR points and 10x bonus points at restaurants. Phew.
Has anyone else gotten an email like this?
I got the same email within a couple hours of the referral to P2. Have yet to see the 20k bonus post, here’s to hoping there are no issues.
Can we stack 10x referrals on top of each other?
I.e. If I refer two friends. Will I be getting 20x?
I have the +10x offer on the Platinum and Gold personal cards, but unfortunately the MR SUBs from my referral are 80k Platinum and 60k Gold, which are less than the current publicly available 125k Platinum, 85k Gold, and 150k FM referral.
Can P2 apply for any Amex card and I get referral bonus? ie Marriott Biz
Absolutely…
Unless P2 has had a disqualifying Amex card before. We were amazed (and disappointed) when Amex’s IT actually remembered that P2 had had the old SPG Business card back in the day. Sheesh! Btw, I still could have gotten the referral bonus had P2 gone through with the application — but no 5 nights etc. for P2. Will probably try for Hilton Aspire or a Delta card, after we get up off the floor and finish licking our wounds.
I’m shocked to see I’m eligible for this referral offer on the Business Platinum I opened last month and am working on the 190K SUB spend. I’ve been avoiding any other cards for P2 so they can fall back under 5/24. I think I’m going to have to break that for this offer – the chance to earn 11X on restaurant spend while also working towards the SUB is an effective 23.66X MR earn rate, on top of the 15K referral bonus.
I really want to go for this, but P2 and I are working on big minimum spends including Amex Biz Gold the 75k/12k BBP – I was targeted on both cards so it would be perfect. We just don’t have any more spend to spread around and are trying to stay under 5/24. Worth going for the Amazon Biz card?
DP – Only business cards. Same with friends.
Interesting, I’m the exact same, both P2 and I have it on almost all of our business cards, but no personal cards. Maybe it’s one side or the other.
I have the offer in both personal and biz cards.
I just had my Player 2 get confirmed for a Gold card that I referred her to. She was approved Yesterday, the 21st. Did I miss out on this deal by having her approved a day early?
Got it on my platinum but not my gold… of course.
Ooh it’s on my personal gold. 14x whaaaaa???
Hmmmm… $25k of Starbucks gift cards purchased with an AmEx Biz Gold over three months and then resold to AI at 87.25% with four months float would result in 350k MRs at a cost of $3188. Just less than a penny per point. That would be a lot of work though and who knows if AI has the capacity.. What do you think @Tim Steinke?
Just be prepared for a 350k clawback. Amex started cracking down on obvious MSers after a similar offer last year for +5x groceries.
Yeah have to be careful with this. I did close to $6K last year of third party gift cards from Kroger with the +5X referral offer but it was on P2’s BCP so it was 11% cashback, and all of those gift cards were mixed in as part of actual grocery purchases. The clawback data points I remember were usually for AMEX Gold earning 9X MR and with more obvious $500 VGC purchase totals.
The restaurant gift card route might be more viable if you mix with regular restaurant spending and probably not all $25K at one business. All depends on your risk tolerance for potential clawbacks.
Did the problem of the personal Platinum not showing as referable ever get figured out? Mine does not allow a referral, even after downgrading to Green for a year and then upgrading back to Platinum. I can refer from my Biz Plats just fine, only the personal does not work.
Do these referrals have family language? Meaning, if I referred the gold card to someone who has the platinum card, would they get the bonus?
As far as I know, all of the cards listed have family language on all apps, regardless of whether the it’s a referral, targeted or public link. But remember, the language doesn’t say “will not,” it says “may not.” Amex still gives folks who violate the family rules bonuses all the time – everyone on the FM team has been successful at least once.
Amex will tell you via pop-up before applying if you’re not eligible for a welcome offer and you’ll then have a chance to cancel the application (with no credit inquiry) or continue. So, I’d give it a shot and see what happens. Family language appearing in the terms won’t tell you whether or not Amex will decide to apply it to a specific person.
Referred P2 to BBP from my BBP, pop up said he has this card (he does since 2017) and thus not eligible for bonus etc. He’s never had Blue Business Cash – will that work for the referral bonus offer? Thanks