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American Express just sent me a lovely email offering 20,000 Membership Rewards when adding an authorized user and having them spend $2,000 within six months.
The Deal
- Add an authorized user to a targeted American Express card and have them spend $2,000 on that card in six months to earn 20,000 bonus Membership Rewards, or
- Add an authorized user to a targeted American Express card and have them spend $2,000 on that card in six months to earn 5,000 bonus Membership Rewards.
Key Terms
- Offer ends September 7, 2021.
- Add one or more new Additional Card Members to your account through this email and you can earn 20,000 Membership Rewards points after each Additional Card Member spends $2000 or more in eligible purchases on their Card within their first 6 months of Card Membership starting from the date on which the Additional Card Member is added.
- The maximum you can earn as part of this offer is 20,000 Membership Rewards points.
- Additional Cards can be added at different times but must be added by September 7th, 2021 to be eligible for this offer.
- Purchases made by other Additional Card Members on your Account will not count toward the $2000 purchase requirement.
- Purchases made by eligible Additional Card Members will not be combined to satisfy the $2000 purchase requirement.
- Your purchases as the Basic Card Member will not count toward the $2000 purchase requirement.
- In rare instances, the Additional Card Member’s period to spend $2000 may be shorter than 6 months if there is a delay in receiving their Card. Also, purchases may fall outside of the 6 month period in some cases, such as a delay in merchants submitting transactions to us or if the purchase date differs from the date they made the transaction. (For example, if they buy goods online, the purchase date may be the date the goods are shipped).
- The 20,000 Membership Rewards points will be applied 8-12 weeks after the Threshold Amount is met.
- If we in our sole discretion determine that you or your Additional Card Members have engaged in abuse, misuse, or gaming in connection with this offer in any way or intend to do so (for example, if you added one or more Additional Cards to obtain an offer(s)that we did not intend for you; or if you or your Additional Card Members cancel or return purchases made to meet the Threshold Amount), we may not credit Membership Rewards points to, we may freeze Membership Rewards points credited to, or we may take away Membership Rewards points from your account. We may also cancel this Card account and other Card accounts you and your Additional Card Members may have with us.
Quick Thoughts
The content of the email from Amex suggests that this is being targeted at Platinum cardholders, but keep an eye on your emails just in case they’re sending out similar offers on other cards.
Earning 20,000 bonus Membership Rewards after $2,000 of spend is a great return as that’s a return of 10x per dollar in addition to the standard points you’d earn.
Note that when adding authorized users on a vanilla Platinum card (i.e. rather than a Schwab, Morgan Stanley, etc.) there’s a $175 fee for up to three authorized users. However, you can add an authorized user with a Gold card which comes with no fee and there’s nothing in the terms suggesting that’s not allowed in order to earn the 20,000 bonus points. Something to bear in mind is that the Gold card received as an authorized user on a Platinum card doesn’t get Platinum benefits, nor does the card earn 4x at grocery stores. Still, no fee and 20,000 Membership Rewards after $2,000 of spend is still worthwhile.
The offer is due to end on September 7, 2021. That means that if you add the authorized user in September, they’d have until the beginning of March 2022 to complete the spend. That could be particularly useful if you’re not anticipating high spending now, but are more likely to have higher organic spend at the end of the year due to the holidays, or if you’re working on other signup bonuses right now and so don’t want to immediately divert $2,000 of spend for this offer. Then again, with six months to complete the spend that’s only $333.33 which should be achievable for most people.
Update: As per comments from Jason and Bob below, it looks like there’s more than one version of this offer being sent out by Amex, so be sure to check the terms of your offer closely if you’re targeted. If you use Gmail, you might need to click ‘[Message clipped] View entire message’ at the bottom of the email to view the full terms. With their offers, it specifically states that they’ll earn 5,000 bonus Membership Rewards per authorized user who spends $2,000 which is less enticing as that’s only 2.5 bonus Membership Rewards per dollar. The wording for my offer is different, so it might be that there are even more versions of this going out.
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If an existing authorized user has the free gold card, can you cancel that authorized user’s gold card and then add them as an authorized user with a platinum card (for the $175) and still be eligible for the 20k bonus points?
Yes, although I don’t think you’d even need to cancel their existing Gold card – you could just add a second one for them.
I just added my son as an authorized user (20k bonus offer). I am trying to make sure the offer is intact on this card before I spend. Is there any way to check this? I tried calling, but the agent could not see the offer (I read him my email word for word). He asked for no documentation, but said to call back in 2-3 weeks and that they would not communicate with me via email on this, but I would need to call. Did not give me a ticket # or any way to track the issue. Anyone else with this problem?
One last question. On DoC I see people saying that you can add a new cardholder without using an SSN for 60 days. Any problems with doing this and meeting the spend immediately then having AMEX cancel the card?
Also will the spend on the additional card also count toward the signup bonus? Have about 2k left to do by June. Curious if spend on the AU card will count toward both bonuses.
Yes, that should definitely work.
Thanks Nick!
What’s the youngest you can add an authorized user? Having my first child in June…
Varies by issuer. With Amex, 13 years old. Chase and Citi have no minimum (added both of my sons to Chase cards shortly after birth). Discover I believe is 15. I don’t know about Barclays or US Bank.
[…] Bonus points for adding an authorized user to American Express Platinum. […]
Got the same 5×4 offer. They do clearly state Gold AU card could be open with no fee. Still not really worth it considering the complication of 5/24. While it’s possible to call recon on this, it’s too much extra trouble for 5K MR.
Would AMEX report the new card on the AU’s credit report? Thinking of future implications with Chase and 5/24…
My experience is no if you’re looking at Transunion. However, I’ve seen it appear on Equifax which Chase seems to use. Another point is I’ve seen AU make that person ineligible for SUB on that AMEX card if at some point they take it out in their own name. Same as if you’ve gotten before. Last point you can remove the AU later and again my experience it takes about 2-3 months for it to clear your FICO report. Whether that “clears” AMEX SUB eligibility I don’t know.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any data points of people not being able to get a signup bonus due to being an authorized user on that card for someone else.
It was a Gold card for my wife. No issue then, but we just don’t do it anymore as really no need. And as mentioned, goes to your 5/24. I will say additionally, I think you need at least one card with AU to transfer MR to the other.
I think it would show up on their credit report, but if they get denied a Chase card due to the AU card pushing them over 5/24, you can call the Chase reconsideration line and explain the situation and there are many instances where people have then been able to get the Chase card they’d applied for.
Do you think I can scrap one of my current AUs, then add them back as an AU in a few weeks/months? I have the 20K/$2K version, and going thru that little bit of extra hassle to get 10 MR/$ would be worth it. Two of my AUs are my sons, their cards just sit in the safe getting me the occasional extra Amex offer and hopefully helping their future credit score a bit.
I imagine that would be fine. Amex can be temperamental about stuff, but what you’re suggesting doesn’t sound like an unreasonable thing to do.
Schwab is the same as vanilla when it comes to AU pricing, correct? Or am I missing something?
No, you’re right – I couldn’t remember off the top of my head at the time what the rules were for the different cards.
[…] Hat tip to FM […]
It’s actually 5k MR for $2k, for up to 4 AUs (20k MR for $8k MSR – $2k MSR per each of the four AUs you add).
Are there some kind of additional terms for this offer then as there’s nothing in the email from Amex mentioning 5,000 MR per AU, nor is it mentioned when clicking through to add someone.
Yes, you have to view the T&Cs at the bottom of the email. I had to click “view whole email” in Gmail, and then the T&Cs showed up. Body of the email was misleading, seemed like 20k MR. But for me at least, fine print said 5k MR per AU, up to 4 AU, $2k MSR for each AU.
Yep, it looks like you have the same offer as Jason. It seems like me offer was different as there was no mention of 5,000 points, so I updated the post to include the alternative offer that’s going out.
Its mentioned in the details, if you click on the “view entire message” at the bottom. 1st fine print has this.
1. Additional Card Member Incentivized Email Offer Terms
Add one or more new Additional Card Members to your account through this email and you can earn 5,000 Membership Rewards ® points after each Additional Card Member spends $2000 or more in eligible purchases on their Card within their first 6 months of Card Membership starting from the date on which the Additional Card Member is added. The maximum you can earn as part of this offer is 20,000 Membership Rewards® Additional Cards can be added at different times but must be added by September 7th, 2021 to be eligible for this offer. Purchases made by other Additional Card Members on your Account will not count toward the $2000 purchase requirement. Purchases made by eligible Additional Card Members will not be combined to satisfy the $2000 purchase requirement. Your purchases as the Basic Card Member will not count toward the $2000 purchase requirement. In rare instances, the Additional Card Member’s period to spend $2000 may be shorter than 6 months if there is a delay in receiving their Card. Also, purchases may fall outside of the 6 month period in some cases, such as a delay in merchants submitting transactions to us or if the purchase date differs from the date they made the transaction. (For example, if they buy goods online, the purchase date may be the date the goods are shipped). The 20,000 Membership Rewards® points will be applied 8-12 weeks after the Threshold Amount is met.
As I was reading the terms, it sounded like you get 5,000 points (not 20,000) for each user that spends $2,000 in 6 months, and you can do that up to 4 times for 20,000 points total.
Did you get a different type of offer then? There’s nothing in the terms of my offer mentioning 5,000 points or four authorized users.
It could be different, but I JUST got it so I assume it’s the same. I had to expand the email in Gmail because the terms at the bottom get cut off. I was misled into thinking this was a 20k offer, but here’s what mine says in the terms:
1. Additional Card Member Incentivized Email Offer Terms
Add one or more new Additional Card Members to your account through this email and you can earn 5,000 Membership Rewards ® points after each Additional Card Member spends $2000 or more in eligible purchases on their Card within their first 6 months of Card Membership starting from the date on which the Additional Card Member is added. The maximum you can earn as part of this offer is 20,000 Membership Rewards®
Thanks for that. It looks like they are sending out different versions of the offer as I’d expanded the email in Gmail and my terms don’t include that wording.
I’ll update the post though to give a heads up that there’s more than one offer being sent out.
I want your offer! 🙂
Separate question: any thoughts on what would happen if I added an AU gold card, and spent money on that gold card at a supermarket? The Platinum card I’d be adding the AU to has the 10X at supermarkets promo. Would I get the 10X?
I wasn’t sure and so I checked with Greg. He pointed out that the terms of the 10x offer state that ‘Purchases charged by both the Basic and Additional Card Members on the eligible Card Account are eligible for the additional points’, so you would earn 10x on the Gold card 🙂