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Over the past two years, AMEX has rolled out a special referral promotion around the holidays each time. The previous two were:

And now another round is here. While this offer is not as strong as the previous unlimited 3x promotion, it is still very solid. HT: Gash

Offer Details

If you use an AMEX MR or cash back card referral link, you can earn an extra 4x (or 4%) on top of the referral offer, capped at the first $25,000 in purchases within 3 months after your first successful referral. Referrals must be completed by December 1, 2021. The maximum extra bonus per card is 100,000 MR points or $1,000.

This is limited to MR cards and cash back cards only. Co-branded airline, hotel, and similar cards are not participating this time.

Here are the eligible MR cards:

Here are the eligible cash back cards:

You can open the following link to check your referral offer:

Note that there are two versions of this offer:

  • Extra 4x only; this is what most people have
  • The previous base referral bonus plus an extra 4x, as shown below. HT: Chao Jie [So far this seems to appear only on Business Platinum, and it is unclear whether this is a bug]

How It Works

Referred person: no extra bonus this time

Referrer:

  • After your first successful referral (counting from the day the referred applicant is approved), you get an extra 4x for 3 months
  • Each card is eligible once; bonus earning is capped at the first $25,000 in purchases
  • Most likely, as before, you will receive an email notification after a successful referral
  • Authorized user spending also counts.
  • If you have a lot of spending to put through, you can spread referrals across multiple cards so each card gets this benefit
  • Other than Business Platinum, this referral offer gives only the extra 4x and no base referral bonus. If your spending is not high, it may not make sense to refer others

This can stack with other earning bonuses, for example:

  • AMEX Gold dining purchases: 4x+4x=8x MR
  • AMEX Green dining and travel purchases: 3x+4x=7x MR
  • AMEX Platinum airfare purchases: 5x+4x=9x MR
  • AMEX BCE / BCP supermarket purchases: 3%/6%+4%=7%/10%
  • AMEX Business Gold in selected categories: 4x+4x=8x MR

And so on.

Things to Watch Out For

  • The Terms exclude gift card purchases as well as other P2P and cash-equivalent transactions. AMEX has clawed back rewards many times before, so we strongly recommend not pushing the limits.
  • Some people may have been banned by AMEX from making referrals (unable to refer from any credit card), and some may not see this 4x offer at all. In that case, the only option is to request a product change so the link resets, but YMMV.

Summary

Without the old PayPal Key dining-category boost from back then, this offer now also comes with a limit. To maximize the value, you would need to refer your cards effectively, steadily, and in an organized way.

If you would like to support us, feel free to use this site's referral links.