(EXPIRED) New Amex referral offer: Get +4x on up to $25K spend when you refer a friend

50
Sorry, this deal is no longer available. Do you want to be alerted about new deals as they’re published? Click here to subscribe to Frequent Miler's Instant Posts by email.

We’ve written before about how Amex’s referral system has improved remarkably over the past couple of years, making it possible to use your card to generate a referral link that you can share with a friend and be rewarded even when they sign up for a different card. Cards that earn Membership Rewards points or cash back can refer to almost any other Amex card and earn a reward based on the card you used to generate the link (more on that here). Today the referral offers on many of the personal cards have changed and instead of a points bonus for referring a friend in many cases you will instead get +4x on all qualifying purchases for 3 months on up to $25K in purchases as long as they apply and are approved by 12/1/21. That could be an awesome offer if you have some big expenses coming up.

a close-up of a credit card

The Deal

  • Many American Express credit cards are offering a new referral bonus of +4x on all eligible purchases for up to 3 months on up to $25K in purchases when you refer a friend and they are approved by 12/1/21 (see your account for your referral offers)

Key Terms

  • Offer details: Earn additional points starting on the first date a referral results in an approved account for 3 months. That’s on top of the points you already earn. This offer can only be redeemed once.
  • Note that this is targeted, so you’ll want to check your account for your referral offer

Quick Thoughts

Most cards that earn Membership Rewards points typically offer the referrer (that is the cardholder who is referring a new cardholder) a set number of points per referral. That set number of points varies by card and cardholder, but we’ve seen anything from 7,500 points per referral up to 35,000 points per referral — but typically with a cap of 55,000 points per year per Amex card (that is to say that if you have 3 cards that earn Membership Rewards points, you can earn up to 55,000 points per year on each of those 3 cards from referring friends).

This new offer is different: instead of earning a set number of points, the person making the referral will earn +4x Membership Rewards points. That is a potentially awesome deal as it means that you could earn up to 100,000 bonus points thanks to a single referral.

These 4x bonus points are in addition to the points you already earn with your card. For instance, if you use your Blue Business Plus card to refer someone to a new card, you would receive 4x bonus points on top of the 2x you already earn everywhere on the first $50K in purchases per year (as seen in the screen shot above). That would be a killer return for someone who has a large tax bill or or other large unbonused purchases to make.

Keep in mind that in most cases, the referral offer generated is the best publicly-available offer, so your friend won’t sacrifice anything by using tour link. We’re seeing these increased +4x offers on many cards including the Platinum card, Gold Card, Green Card, Everyday Preferred Card, and Blue Business Plus.

a screenshot of a card a screenshot of a card a screenshot of a card Interestingly, the offer on our Business Platinum card is the same +4 deal, but it also includes 15K points per referral up to 55K total points plus 15K points.

Also interesting is that the referral link from one of Greg’s Platinum cards now brings up an offer for 125K points after $6K in purchases in the first 6 months + 10x at US restaurants and US Shop Small merchants rather than the 100K offer.

a screenshot of a card

Hopefully most readers know that our Best Offers page lists an even better offer of 125K points after $6K in purchases and 15x at US restaurants and US Shop Small merchants that is available through Resy. We’ve talked a lot about how that offer is the best offer on any credit card right now.

However, if you’re playing in 2-player mode and you have the above offer and you don’t think that you can spend much at restaurants and small businesses, you may prefer the referral offer since you’ll still get 10x on those two bonus categories for Player 2 when they sign up for the Platinum card, but you’ll also get 5x total on all purchases on up to $25K in spend for Player 1. In fact, if you have something like a large 4th quarter tax payment to make and you know that you wouldn’t max out restaurants and small businesses, you’ll come out ahead with the referral if you’re in 2-player mode.

Overall, these new offers are exciting for those who spend enough to earn more points than they otherwise would have with the referral bonus. Do note that you won’t get the usual 7.5K – 35K points per referral but will get the +4x instead. If you wouldn’t be able to put much spend on an Amex card in the next 3 months, it might be worth waiting to see if a points offer comes back in December before referring friends and family.

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

50 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments