Update 5/8/20: DoC reports a new round of people targeted and shared a link to check for this upgrade offer that came from reddit (YMMV). Apparently DPs are mixed about the extended timeframe to meet the spending requirement, so I’d follow the advice in this post to reach out to Amex after upgrading to confirm your deadline in writing.
Original post with full details follows.
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Recently, Doctor of Credit reported a good upgrade offer that some are seeing available on their Amex Everyday credit cards: earn 25,000 Membership Rewards points after spending either $2,000 or $2,500 in the first 3 months after upgrade (the targeted offers vary). I believe that the extra 3 months Amex is offering members to meet spending requirements would also apply to an upgrade, so you would likely have 6 months to meet the spending requirement. That’s a pretty good offer (and it’s possible that you’ll see other offers in your various accounts).
The Deal
- Amex is offering some targeted cardmembers the opportunity to upgrade from the Amex Everyday credit card to the Amex Everyday Preferred and earn 25,000 Membership Rewards points after spending either $2K or $2.5K in the first 3 months (which should really be six months if you upgrade by 5/31/20).
- No link: log in to your Amex account and you should see the upgrade account in your Amex Offers section or log in and go to AmericanExpress.com–>Cards–>View all credit cards and you may see an upgrade offer there when logged in
Quick Thoughts
The offer reported by Doctor of Credit is excellent. While people are sometimes targeted for a slightly higher new cardmember bonus of 30K points, this upgrade offer beats the usual standard offer on that card.
Furthermore, you’ll want to check the terms of your targeted offer, but these upgrade offers typically do not contain lifetime language — meaning that you may be eligible even if you have had the card to which you are upgrading before.
While the DoC report was about an upgrade offer from the Everyday to Everyday Preferred, keep it mind that it is also common to see upgrade offers in other card families as well — for example, from the Business Gold to Business Platinum (sometimes as high as 75K points after min spend for upgrading), the Hilton Surpass to Aspire (sometimes matching the 150K offer that is available for new cardholders), etc.
Advantages of upgrading include the lack of lifetime language (usually) and the fact that it does not add a new account against your 5/24 count. If you’re never had the target card to which you’re upgrading, you should consider whether you’d prefer to get a new cardmember bonus on that card instead (once you have upgraded, you will be locked out of a new cardmember bonus on it since Amex typically restricts welcome bonuses to those who have not had the card before).
As noted at the top, Amex is currently extending the timeframe to meet minimum purchases for those who are approved for new accounts by 5/31/20 (and those who were approved since 12/1/19). I believe that would apply here, giving you three additional months to meet the minimum spending requirement, but I’d recommend chatting with the Amex team to confirm.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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Saw some folks questioning this in the comments, so want to add a DP: I just accepted an upgrade on my ED to EDP (25k MR for $2k spend) 5 min. ago, and they specifically state that if you upgrade before 5/31/20, you have 6 months to meet the spend.
PSA: Upgrades get the extra 3 Months to meet MSR for upgrade bonus.
Is my welcome offer for upgrading my Card account eligible for this extension?
– Yes, welcome offers associated with upgrading a Card account are included.
What offers does this extension apply to?
This 3-month extension only applies to welcome offers to earn a bonus after making eligible purchases as part of welcoming you to Card Membership upon opening or upgrading a Card account.
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/company/notice/covid-19/#welcome-offers
Although it a small spend I am not spending much right now. Does AMEX get upset if I pay my taxes to meet the spend? Don’t want to awaken the RAT!
Paying taxes is fine.
Mine has a button / hyperlink for upgrading the card. However, there is no indication of a 25K bonus.
Then you’re not targeted for a bonus. Don’t do it.
I can confirm that I got the offer to upgrade from the Hilton Surpass to the Aspire last week. Offer was for 150k points with $4k spend in 3 months. I’ve been in the Amex pop up penalty box for new card sign up bonus offers for some time now, so I took the upgrade offer.
Had 60K offer on Gold. It also had the extended spend banner at top – took SS. Also been in penalty box despite spend on all cards (probably that cumlative $25k+ balance @0% over cumlative 18months that has had me in penalty box since last summer).
I did call because I have 5 AUs and didn’t want to pay for Plats – said to call if you don’t want all AUs upgraded. The US based CSR didn’t see offer in the system and told me to use online offer. Then call to downgrade cards back to Gold.
CMA said that prorated upgrade and refund would post in approx 45 days – it took 3 days and I see and odd mix of Membership fee (2@$38.97) and one Membership renewal fee on ($86.19) all three are AUs.
Will call and double verify extended spend period – if they play games with 60K I will downgrade to Green sometime in January -then maybe go back to Gold. Can’t claw back what wasn’t awarded.
I got a rock. No upgrade offer for me 🙁
Same here!
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