My American Express bonuses are posting with blazing speed

I’ve recently been in a position to spend toward some Amex bonuses, and one thing has really surprised me: Amex bonuses are posting with blazing speed. In our case, that has applied to both welcome bonuses and spending bonuses, both in terms of Membership Rewards points and co-branded bonuses. This is a great enhancement, and I think it makes Amex cards all the more interesting (if this becomes representative of broader experience) since one could potentially work toward a bonus with an eye toward near-term use. While there’s never a guarantee that bonuses will post quickly, I’ve seen a very positive pattern lately.

An Amex offer for “spend $8,000, earn 2,000 bonus Membership Rewards points” posted before the transaction cleared

We recently crossed the spending threshold for an Amex Offer on my wife’s Blue Business Plus card. She had an offer to spend $8,000 and earn 2,000 bonus points (targeted, enrollment required). That’s not an incredibly generous return, but we were able to cross the threshold with a tax payment, so it effectively meant earning 2.25 points per dollar. That’s because the Blue Business Plus card earns 2 points per dollar spent on up to $50,000 in purchases per year (then 1X). Since we were under that threshold, $8,000 in purchases would ordinarily earn 16,000 points, but with the bonus, it earned a total of 18,000 points, an effective return of 2.25 points per dollar spent.

We met the spending threshold for that offer on March 27th. The 2,000 points from the Amex Offer posted to the account that day (on March 27th). The points from the purchase itself weren’t even pending yet (those didn’t show up under pending points until a day or two after purchase), but the 2,000 points from the Amex Offer had already posted to my account and were available for use.

The speed with which that Amex Offer posted surprised me, but that was just the first of a few such experiences I’ve had lately. The next was with The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.

Business Platinum card welcome bonus posted the day after meeting the spend

We had a large tax payment to make, and my wife noticed an offer for a Business Platinum card in her Amex account. She went to “Menu”, then “Cards”, then “View all business cards”.

Even though she already had a Business Platinum card (and she was logged in to her account), she found an offer there to open a new Business Platinum card and earn 200,000 points after $20,000 in purchases in the first 3 months (this was a targeted offer that is no longer available in our accounts at the time of writing).

Her application was not instantly approved but rather went pending review. A day later, the application was automatically approved, and her card was overnighted.

She received the card and made a tax payment for $20,000. The 200,000 welcome bonus points posted to her account the next day.

I was very surprised to see the bonus post to her account so quickly (and the points were immediately available for use). In the past, my Amex welcome bonuses have sometimes not posted until after the next statement close or after I had paid off the statement balance, but this was a brand new card that hasn’t yet had a statement generated. This was a much faster experience than what we’ve seen in the past.

It does make sense that Amex has the capacity for this. Capital One has long posted both points earned from purchases and bonuses shortly after a qualifying purchase posts to the account. Bilt similarly posts points to your account within a day or two of purchase. However, it was new to me to see Amex post these points so quickly.

To be clear, the points from the purchase itself have not posted to her account. Since the Business Platinum card offers 2X points on large purchases (of more than $5,000, on up to $2 million in such purchases per year), the purchase itself will earn 40,000 points. Those points are still pending in her account, whereas the welcome bonus points have been posted. In my experience, Amex points from purchases don’t post until after the purchases have been paid off. I expect that we’ll see those 40,000 points once my wife pays off the card balance.

Again, it makes sense to me that Amex can control how quickly to post Membership Rewards bonuses. That’s not to say that they always will; there’s no guarantee that you’ll have the same experience. It is possible that my wife saw these bonuses post so quickly because of her long-held positive history with Amex. A newcomer to Amex might see bonuses post more slowly. Offer terms always indicate that it can take something like 8-12 weeks for bonus points to post (as seen in the screenshot above). However, it makes sense to me that Amex can choose to speed that process up when it comes to posting bonus points in its own Membership Rewards points ecosystem.

However, I was even more surprised to see this speed hold up on a co-branded product.

My Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card bonus posted to Hilton fewer than 48 hours after purchase

I also recently opened an Amex Hilton Honors Surpass card. I haven’t actually had a Surpass card in many years, so I was eligible for the welcome bonus. I had another large purchase to make that would knock out the $3,000 minimum spending requirement in one shot, so I went ahead and applied for the Surpass card.

Amex limits most customers to having no more than 5 credit cards. There’s a distinction between credit cards (with a revolving limit) and what Amex calls “Pay Over time” cards (like the Platinum and Gold cards), which are not subject to the 5-card-limit. See our Complete Guide to Credit Card Application Rules, by Bank for more details.

I was at the Amex 5-credit-card limit, so I was not instantly approved. Instead, I was declined (which I found out a day or so later by checking the application status online and reading the associated letter). As expected, the reason for being declined was that I already had the maximum number of that type of product. I had an Amex Hilton business card that I wasn’t using, so I called the number on the letter and explained that I was at the 5-card limit and would be happy to cancel a card if that would help the application be approved.

The phone rep reviewed the application and confirmed that the 5-card limit was the issue and that if I closed one, they could reconsider the application. He then transferred me to a different department to close the Hilton Business card. That process only took a couple of minutes. After closing that out, I reconnected to the reconsideration team. Within a few minutes, the application for the Surpass card was approved.

I received the card a few days later. On the evening of March 31st, I made a purchase that would complete the spend for the welcome offer.

To my surprise, just after 8 am yesterday morning (April 2nd — fewer than 48 hours after making my purchase), I received an email from Hilton letting me know that my free night certificate from the welcome offer had arrived!

Sure enough, I logged in to my Hilton account and saw that both the free night award and the 130,000 welcome bonus points had already posted to my Hilton account! I was amazed to see the points and free night certificate posted to my co-branded account so quickly.

If this becomes (or perhaps already has become?) a broadly-applicable trend, it could make Amex cards all the more appealing in situations where you have a near-term use for a particular bonus. For instance, if I had a near-term use for this Hilton certificate, the speed with which it posted would certainly be highly valuable to me.

Bottom line

Keep in mind that your mileage may vary. There’s no guarantee that these results will apply in your situation or that the speed with which our bonuses have posted is indicative of a trend. On the other hand, I am surprised by the consistency: my wife’s Amex Offer, her welcome bonus, and my welcome bonus all posted with blazing speed. While we represent a small sample size in the overall scheme of things, the fact that we’ve seen three different bonus types post so quickly across two different cardholders, it gives me some hope that this is a new trend.

Of course, there’s always the chance that a bonus could post far slower than expected. Now and then, we hear from readers who have waited months for a new card welcome offer, only to have it post after many weeks (and sometimes a persistent follow-up with Amex). You never know for sure what you’re going to get, but our recent experiences keep Amex near the top of mind for situations where we have to make a big purchase and could make use of the opportunity to earn a big spending or welcome bonus with American Express.

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