Cards Added to the “As High As” Lineup

More cards have now joined the “As High As” lineup, including the recently added Delta family and the earlier Blue Cash family. The good news is that the floor on these “As High As” offers is the same as the public offer on the official website, while the top end is very close to limited-time elevated bonuses. So it may be worth trying—not amazing, but not bad either.

AMEX Blue Cash Everyday

AMEX Blue Cash Preferred

AMEX Delta Gold

AMEX Delta Platinum

AMEX Delta Reserve

AMEX Gold

AMEX Platinum

AMEX Business Gold

AMEX Business Platinum

About “As High As”

Today, a reader in our WeChat group shared a new kind of AMEX welcome offer. The application page says “As High As” 175,000 points. It also specifically notes the following:

  • After you apply, AMEX will tell you exactly what offer you qualify for
  • Then you can decide whether to accept that offer
  • Meet the spending requirement
  • Receive your bonus

The key issue is that while you see the top-end 175,000-point offer, the bonus you are actually shown after submitting the application may be lower. The specific language is as follows

After you submit your application and before you accept the Card (if you are approved) , we will tell you the exact amount of Membership Rewards® Points which you are eligible to earn, which will be an amount as high as 175,000 points. This means that you may be eligible to earn less than 175,000 points with this offer. You can earn these points after you spend $8,000 (the "Threshold Amount") or more in eligible purchases on your Platinum Card® from American Express within the first 6 months of Card Membership starting from the date your account is opened. Eligible purchases can be made by the Basic Card Member and any Additional Card Members on a Card Account. Eligible purchases are purchases for goods and services minus returns and other credits. Eligible purchases do NOT include: fees or interest charges; purchases of travelers checks; purchases or reloading of prepaid cards; purchases of gift cards; person-to-person payments; or purchases of other cash equivalents. Points will be credited to your Membership Rewards account within 8-12 weeks after you meet the Threshold Amount. Your Card Account must not be canceled or past due at the time of fulfillment of any offers.

One reader in our group saw 175,000 points initially, but after applying, the offer shown was only 80,000 points. The good news is that AMEX only did a soft pull, which is visible only to you and does not affect your credit score. If you do not like the offer you are shown, you can simply cancel it.

At the moment, it seems that links generated from referral links have this feature. It is unclear whether AMEX will gradually roll this out to all of its application links.

So this is important enough to say three times:

  • Make sure you look carefully at the offer you are actually being given before deciding whether to accept it!
  • Make sure you look carefully at the offer you are actually being given before deciding whether to accept it!
  • Make sure you look carefully at the offer you are actually being given before deciding whether to accept it!

The Logic Behind It

From AMEX’s perspective, offering a maximum possible bonus instead of a fixed welcome bonus gives it more flexibility. With credit card application links, the number shown on the offer page has traditionally been the number you get in the end. That makes it less likely for problems to arise and reduces customer complaints.

Previously, AMEX would list various conditions in the terms that could make you ineligible for a welcome offer—for example, once-per-lifetime restrictions on similar products

You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application.

Now that AMEX has introduced this kind of “as high as 175,000 points” offer, once it determines that you do not qualify for the full welcome offer, it can simply show you a no-bonus or lower-bonus offer, and there is not much you can say about it. At least this keeps the application page and result page more consistent. On top of that, AMEX can even decide whether you are worth a higher offer based on your past spending behavior and your application history. If I were AMEX, I would design a rule like this:

  • Never applied for an AMEX card before: give 175,000 points
  • Applied for AMEX cards before and actively uses them: give 150,000 points
  • Applied for AMEX cards before purely for the welcome bonus: give 80,000 points
  • Applied for AMEX cards before, constantly asks for retention offers, and closes the card when the annual fee posts: no bonus!

Also, from the perspective of people sharing these offers, the page still says 175,000 points, which looks very attractive, so they will naturally be happy to send it to friends. As for whether you actually see the maximum offer, that depends on your luck.

My Take

In the past, AMEX relied heavily on browser cookies to decide whether you were a new user, which led people to use incognito mode to hunt for better offers. Later, AMEX also started considering IP address factors, which then led people to use VPNs to appear in a new city or even a new country to try to trigger bigger bonuses. In reality, that is not a very reliable way to screen users. This newer, more personalized approach is actually better for AMEX to identify higher-quality customers and match them with stronger offers to encourage applications.

But from the user’s perspective, once you enter your SSN during the application, AMEX already knows a lot about you. If it gives you a weak offer, there is not much room to argue, because what was shown to you was only the maximum possible offer. It is like seeing “up to 90% off” in a store, when most items are not actually discounted that much.

How to Beat “As High As”

Actually, just like the AMEX popup, AMEX wants to see you using its cards regularly and putting normal spending on them before giving you strong offers. If you get every card just for the welcome bonus, then stop using it and close it when the annual fee comes due, AMEX will obviously see you as a low-value customer and won’t give you better offers. If you want higher offers, the only real solution is to use your cards more.

Also, some readers have found that if you keep checking several times and then try again after a month or two, the “As High As” offer you get may improve. Since AMEX is not doing a real application at that stage, there is no hard pull, so testing it this way does not really cost you anything and may be worth considering.

Another method is to repeatedly check the public link or referral link in browser incognito mode. Sometimes you may jump from an “As High As” offer to a standard fixed offer. Of course, there is a chance you will get a higher one, and there is also a chance you will keep getting even lower offers.