A reader reached out today to let us know that he was on the phone with Amex and the rep extended an amazing offer for adding employee cards on his Business Green card: 20,000 Membership Rewards points after $4K in purchases in the first 6 months on each employee card up to 99. I was initially skeptical that this was for multiple cards, but he confirms that the rep said up to 1,980,000 Membership Rewards points. I don’t know that this will be widely available and for that matter I don’t know that the rep wasn’t wrong, but if you have occasion to call Amex anyway, it might be worth asking whether there is any bonus available for adding employee cards.
The Deal
- A reader reports receiving a phone offer to get 20,000 Membership Rewards points after $4K spend in the first 6 months for each employee card added to his Business Green card from American Express (up to 99 employees)
- Note that this offer was targeted and it is possible that the rep had the details wrong
Quick Thoughts
We recently reported on a targeted offer to get 20,000 Membership Rewards points after adding an additional cardholder and spending $2,000 in the first 3 months on a personal Platinum card (and we’ve since seen offers of 10K after $1K for on the Gold card and 5K after $1K for additional cardholders on the Everyday Preferred card). This is the first I’ve heard of the offer on business cards.
On the consumer side, the terms indicate that you can only get the bonus once for the first additional cardholder who spends $2K (making it clear that if you add multiple additional cardholders, you’ll only get 20K points when the first one reaches $2K spend). I was thus skeptical of whether this offer was truly meant to be on each employee card. However, the combination of the points bonanaza we’ve seen lately from American Express and the fact that the rep called out the full 1,980,000 number associated with 99 employee cards indicates that it may be true. Keep in mind that phone reps are sometimes wrong, so don’t take this as the definitive word that this is possible, but it might be.
I’d treat this as a rumor that may be worth asking about unless we receive additional reports, but in the meantime it may be worth keeping your eye on your business card logins as well in case this gets electronically targeted.
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[…] It’s also possible to add up to 99 Employee Card Members and earn the bonus on each new additional card. This offer is available by phone and you can earn a total of 1,980,000 Membership rewards points. (HT: FM) […]
Any issue with using the same name on all the Employee Cards [AUs] and when confirming use your own SSN/DOB? Been having trouble confirming this datapoint. I was thinking you could explain that each card is for different spending if you ever got questioned.
I don’t know if there are any issues with it, but if I ran things at Amex, I’d definitely look closely at any account where multiple employee cards have the same name. In other words, tread lightly.
I know there’s an offer now (in the “your offers” section) on the platinum business card for adding 5 employees and earning up to 20k each. But today I saw the exact same offer on the green business card. When I clicked on that, I got to the exact same landing page, which describes the fees for the employee platinum business card. When clicking further to add employees, I was correctly only offered the option to add the green employee cards. So I’m wondering if that’s really a valid offer on the green business card.
Anything every come of this and your green card? I have same situation and would like to know. Thanks.
I took the offer. I’m now more confident than a month ago that the offer is legit, but I have not met the spending yet. Other people have seen the offer on the green business as well, so I think it’s safe to go for it.
[…] It’s also possible to add up to 99 Employee Card Members and earn the bonus on each new additional card. This offer is available by phone and you can earn a total of 1,980,000 Membership rewards points. (HT: FM) […]
[…] Hat tip FM […]
But wouldn’t you have to spend $4k x 99 = $396k in 6 months? I mean for a big business, that’s feasible, but for small – medium businesses, that would be a tough spend requirement. (Remember, this would be in addition to expenses like salary, taxes, building/equipment payments that typically cannot be paid with a credit card, at least not without a substantial fee)
This is just AMEX influencing unemployment stats. I think it”s about time to short the stock
Not new, read this on a slack channel a week ago
Awesome. Next time feel free to reach out a week ago and I’ll post it then.
User name checks.
Which slack channel are you referring to?
Do you need to supply SSN for the employee to get a card? Hard credit pull for adding employee or AU? I think Amex usually charges for adding employee or AU cards right? You should add details like this in the post
Good questions:
1) No, you don’t need to supply the SNN, but the employee will need to supply it when they activate their card. If you don’t within 60 days, Amex will close the employee card out.
2) I can’t think of a situation where adding an AU / employee card is ever a hard pull with any issuer. In fact, anecdotally, I don’t know any existing Amex cardholder who has gotten a hard pull for a new account in years. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but Amex isn’t particularly pull-happy. No hard pulls associated with adding an AU / employee (soft pull only).
3) No, Amex doesn’t usually charge for adding additional cards except on two cards to my knowledge. Amex charges a fee for an authorized user / employee card on the Platinum card and only if you want to add additional Platinum cardholders who get Platinum benefits like Centurion lounge access, Delta Sky Club access, etc or an additional Gold card holder. You can add free additional Green cardholders on your Business Platinum account. On the consumer side, you can add free Gold additional cardholders (but again you pay for additional Platinum cards). It looks like Amex charges $50 for the first employee card on a Business Gold card and then no fee for any additional employees (I just learned that now). I don’t see any other Amex card with a fee for additional cardholders (possible I missed something, but none of which I am aware – it isn’t common).
Hope that helps!
What if you do not enter SSN, meet the spend and get the bonus within 60 days. Do they claw back MRs when they close the card?
Also Curious about this
Was offered 5k/employee card with $1k in spend on the BBP. Added 7 employees. 🙂
yup offer is legit and for up to 99 users. I got this exact offer on the phone a few weeks ago and the points posted very quickly! I think i received an email with this offer as well.
I have 3 Amex cards — Bonvoy, Hilton, and Delta and I received this offer too.
And, it was up to 99 employees, so I believe the 20k x 99.
Was offered 5k earlier today for $2k on Biz Blue AU. Passed.