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This is your last chance to get repeat bonuses on your favorite American Express personal cards.
Currently you can get the sign up bonus on an American Express personal card every 12 months. So if you got the bonus on, say, the SPG card in February 2013, you can get it again today.
Starting May 1, you will not be able to get a sign up bonus on an American Express personal card if you have ever gotten that bonus in the past. (American Express Business Cards will still follow the 12 month rule for now.)
In fact, language has already been added to American Express personal card applications that “This offer is also not available to applicants who have or have had this product.”
But, according to American Express chat reps, that language has been added in advance of the May 1 change only in case you apply today and your application isn’t approved until after May 1. According to those chat reps, you can still be approved for an American Express personal card until May 1 and get its bonus even if you got it in the past.
I am planning to apply today for a few American Express personal cards, which I have previously opened. I figure that applying now gives me the maximum chance to approved before May 1 if I am not approved instantly.
Leave your experiences in the comments.
When applying for American Express card, I open several browsers, complete the applications up until the Submit screen, and then submit them all within a few seconds. In that manner, I’ve successfully applied for up to 4 cards on the same day and gotten only one credit pull.
I’ve noticed in the last few months that sometimes when I click a link for an American Express card, I get a screen that offers me a smaller sign up bonus than advertised or no sign up bonus at all. I know this happens to a lot of existing cardholders.
The way I’ve always gotten the advertised sign up bonus is to open the application page in Incognito Mode or Private Browsing mode. To open Incognito in Chrome hold down Ctrl, Shift, and N at the same time. In Internet Explorer and Firefox hold down Ctrl, Shift, and P. (If you have a Mac, use the Command button in place of Ctrl.)
Scott–just to clarify–can you get the bonus every 12 months? Or 12 months since you last held that product? So if someone applied and held the card for a year would only be able to get it 12 months after closing it right?
Closed it.
How is the Mercedes Benz Platinum treated versus the Platinum card? Are they considered the same product for this?
They have historically been separate products. I’m not sure if that has changed in the last few months.
That’s not really true, people have already reported issues getting the full SPG bonus again. Only 10k of the 25k points available are posting. Applicant be ware.
Be more specific about what’s not totally true please.
I called up to apply and the rep read me the terms stating if you’re had the card before no bonus. Is it a certainty that if we apply and get approved before May 1st, we’ll get the bonus?
Anything special we need to do to guarantee that?
I wouldn’t call anything related to credit cards a certainty. Everything is always YMMV, but I stand by everything in this post as the most likely outcome.
I had the SPG card back in the 1990’s (not sure which exact year), so it would be ~15 years ago or more. I plan to get the SPG card sometime, but don’t want it right now. Do you have any idea how far back they would check to see if you had a certain card before?
No idea.
Does Amex still enforce the 4 credit card (not charge card) limit?
Yes, as far as I know.
that SPG/Citi deal was great, except explorer awards are no longer available….
I applied for the 25k personal card a few weeks ago as i had not had one for about 2 years and decided i better get it now rather than waiting for a better deal to come out. I printed off all the landing page info, and even saved an online chat i had with AMEX that confirmed i was eligible for the 25k offer. After i received my card, I called to confirm the offer in which they told me there was no offer attached with my application. After talking to numerous different people (who were all suppose to call me back, and never did), i emailed them. AMEX’s response again was there was no offer with my application, and that was it.
I have been with AMEX continuously for 14 years, and this is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Any advice? or just chalk it up as a lessons learned that AMEX is changing for the worse….
Thanks
Show them the screen shot.
When I click on the SPG 25K link, it is only showing 10K after first purchase. Where are the details for the additional 15K after 5K spend?
Read the first comment to this post.
Please clarify: If I go into today, and use the system of applying for “up to” 4 Amex reward cards “simultaneously” I would still get the reward bonus for all 4 cards? Or b/c I wouldn’t officially qualify until i’d spent the requisite money on each card…likely taking 3 months, would they not honor the bonus?
Whether you are eligible for the bonus is determined by when your card is approved. If your cards are all approved today, you will be eligible for all the bonuses. YMMV.
Amex does not seem to want to give any retention bonus in form of ‘thousand of points’. My wife has had their Gold card for almost a year now and recently received Platinum version with 100K bonus points back in April. As a result, she was only offered a $100 credit instead, due to her newly opened account.
Bummer!