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If you currently hold a Platinum Card from American Express you may have been targeted for an improved referral offer which is doing the rounds. The referral offer is showing up in my account and a number of other cardholder accounts that I have seen so the targeting may not be particularly narrow.
Disclaimers/Disclosures
- For a lot of people this isn’t the best time to be considering a $550/year charge card whose primary benefits revolve around travel so think carefully before you refer someone or before you decide to accept a referral offer.
- The offer available to those who have been referred comes with the usual wording that excludes people who have had the personal Platinum Card in the past.
- I have deliberately not added any affiliate links to this post and I haven’t added my own referral link just to make sure I can’t be accused of bias. I genuinely couldn’t care less how many or how few people take this offer up – this is an informational post only.
The Referral Offer
The offer that the person being referred will see appears to be exactly the same as the public offer on the American Express website so they’re neither gaining nor losing by using a referral link.
The person doing the referring will earn 5,000 more points than are usually offered for Platinum Card referrals (I value those at $75) for a total of 20,000 Membership Rewards points (which I value at $300).
For the referrer this is clearly a good deal while for the person being referred it’s just ok – 60,000 points isn’t a great welcome offer but $5,000 isn’t too bad of a target for the Platinum Card’s welcome offer.
In addition, it’s worth pointing out that American Express is currently offering “eligible card accounts*” approved by 31 May 2020 an extended period of time in which to meet the welcome offer’s requirements – the time frame is raised from 3 months to 6 months.
*Eligible cards are US consumer and business cards issued by American Express to a Basic Cardmember
Bottom Line
We often see welcome bonuses for the Platinum card that are higher than the current 60,000 bonus point offer so for some people (the ones being referred) this may not be a particularly attractive path to go down. If, however, you know someone for whom the Platinum Card would be a good fit and for whom the extended earning period for the welcome offer would be attractive (and you don’t think that Amex will improve the public offer before 31 May) then referring that person may be a good way to go.
I understand that Amex routinely does promos like these to drum up business, but it’s disappointing they haven’t adjusted their game-plan due to the pandemic. This is going to be a flop, and maybe they’ll learn their lesson.
My recommendation: drop the annual fee to $100 (or even $0) for this year. There will be news stories about it, causing new people to sign up for their cheap/free status symbol, and then some will either get addicted to it or forget to cancel next year when the fee is (hopefully) back up to $550. I don’t think it would tarnish the card’s reputation long-term.