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For most of this year, American Express has been offering select holders of card_name up to 20,000 points when they sign up for its ‘Pay Over Time’ option. Now, with that option still open, Amex is back with another 20,000 point offer for any cardholders that are fortunate enough to be targeted.
20,000 points for adding an authorized user
When I logged in to my Amex account this morning, I was greeted with a banner at the top of the screen that looked like this:
Clicking the link led me to the offer page where the key terms and conditions are very clear:
- Add one or more new Additional Card Members to your account and you can earn 20,000 Membership Rewards points for the first Additional Card Member that spends $2,000 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.
- Purchases made by other Additional Card Members on your Account will not count toward the $2,000 purchase requirement.
- Purchases made by eligible Additional Card Members will not be combined to satisfy the $2,000 purchase requirement.
- Your purchases as the Basic Card Member will not count toward the $2,000 purchase requirement.
If you log into your Amex account and don’t see the banner that I’ve included above, use the “add card members to your account” link to see if you’ve been targeted. You’ll find the link on your account’s main page under “useful links”:
Based on what I can see in my account, there doesn’t appear to be an end date for this bonus offer so there’s no way to know how long it will be around.
Thoughts
It costs $195 to add an authorized user to card_name (review) but it costs nothing to add a basic Gold Card (this is not the same as the card_name that earns bonus points on dining and on groceries – terms apply) and I don’t see anything in the terms and conditions that states that the 20,000 bonus points will only be paid out for additional Platinum Card users (rates & fees).
The terms simply state that “one or more Additional Card Members” must be added to a cardholder’s account and at least one of the new cardmembers must spend $2,000 within 6 months for the main cardholder to earn 20,000 bonus points.
If you’d prefer not to spend $195 and give someone a supplementary Platinum Card, issuing a member of your family or a friend (whom you trust!) with a Gold Card would appear to be a way to earn 20,000 points remarkably cheaply… just remember that they’ll still have to put $2,000 of spending on the card for the bonus to be triggered.
Personally, I value 20,000 points at $300 and because I’d like Joanna to have some of the better benefits that come with being an authorized user (e.g. access to Centurion Lounges and Hilton Gold Elite status) I’m happy to pay $195 for her to enjoy those benefits.
I’ll also make sure that we use her Platinum Card to pay for any flights that we need to book so the full $2,000 that’s required to trigger the bonus should earn me another 10,000 points taking my total earnings to 30,000 points (card_name earns 5 points/dollar on up to $500,000 of flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel and 1 point/dollar thereafter – terms apply).
Bottom Line
If you hold card_name, it’s time to check your online account to see if Amex has targeted you for an offer of 20,000 bonus points in exchange for adding an authorized user to your account and having that authorized user spend $2,000 on their card in the first 6 months of the new card being opened.