Points earning at American Express is exceeding plaid speed. Here’s what we know so far:

The Offers

Sometimes things are available at only when you know to call in and ask about them as we learned with the 99 employee card offers. This time it’s business card sign-up bonuses though, and they’re big:

  • 180,000 Membership Rewards for a Business Gold card with $20,000 spend in six months
  • 250,000 Membership Rewards for a Business Platinum card with with $30,000 spend in six months

Both may also offer 10,000 additional points for adding an employee card and spending $1,000 in six months. To see if you’re eligible, call (855) 531-3491 and navigate your way through the phone tree to reach a customer service representative, then ask about the offer you’re interested in. You’ll have to specifically mention the 180,000 or 250,000 Membership Rewards bonus as appropriate. (Thanks to FM for background)

Notes

What we know about the offers:

  • They don’t seem to have lifetime language
  • You may not be eligible for a bonus even if the rep sees the offer
  • You’ll get a popup before submitting the final application if you’re not eligible
  • You probably have to specifically call out the bonus to get the representative to acknowledge the offer

Hacking the Offers

We can always level up our game a notch, right? Here are a few ways:

  • You can be approved for both of these on the same day, so don’t be afraid to try for both
  • You can quadruple dip the $200 Dell Business Platinum credit with a single annual fee, getting it for Jan-Jun 2022, Jul-Dec 2022, Jan-Jun 2023, and Jul-Dec 2023 (annual fees can be refunded up to 30 days after posting)
  • After a couple of weeks, you’ll probably be eligible for a call in offer for adding employee cards, each with a 5,000 Membership Rewards bonus for $2,000 in spend up to 99 employee cards or 495,000 additional Membership Rewards in total
  • Bonus categories and offers stack, so if you can manufacture spend in shipping or gas with employee cards you can earn 6.5x Membership Rewards per dollar
  • You can probably get a retention offer after 2-3 months, but then you’re locked in for another 12 months and another annual fee if you want to stay out of the penalty box

No word yet on whether these cards bypass the 11 or 12 charge card limit, but you can bet I’m going to try.

This guy closed his American Express Business Gold card three months after a retention offer. Don’t be like him.

American Express typically holds newly earned Membership Rewards points in pending status until a few days after a statement closes and payment posts. While those points are pending you can’t actually spend or redeem them, so effectively they’re futures. If you want to see the balance of those futures, you can navigate to your rewards dashboard and it’s shown right side. You can get even more granular by clicking ‘Pending Points Details’ if that’s your bag.

What happens if you’re being a good churner though and always cashing out or burning, but then you need a new bucket full of Membership Rewards quickly? Sure, you can go manufacture 100,000 Membership Rewards with gift cards, but they won’t post until after your statement, payment, and a few days. Then what?

Like so much in this hobby, the solution is just to ask. You can either:

Once you’re talking to a person, something as simple as: “Can you please accelerate the posting of my Membership Rewards for time-sensitive redemption?” is all it takes. Remember, “never call the bank” is good advice when shenanigans ensue, but don’t let that advice trickle out everywhere.

Biker Roy takes a break to demonstrate the “Membership Rewards pending to available” maneuver from a perch, because reasons.

Introduction

Brex, a purveyor of business bank accounts, has been a great rewards making machine for both sign-up bonuses and for certain types of manufactured spend; it’s also uniquely suited for churning companies in low-fee incorporation states in order to scale sign-up bonuses, like the current 75,000 points after spending $1,000 (sponsored by TravelBank) bonus. I know many found use with Brex accounts for making your own “direct deposits”, and for fee-free wires too.

Unfortunately, last week a wave of shutdowns came. According to the founder, Brex closed all company accounts for companies that hadn’t received an investment (VC, Angel, crypto, etc.). Based on my data points, they closed:

  • All sole proprietorships
  • All single member LLCs

I haven’t yet heard of a closure for a multi-member LLC, whether or not the company has received an investment, or for an S-corporation or C-corporation. I know first hand of an LLC that definitely never received an investment and didn’t get the axe too. It was also multi-member, which further leads me to believe that business structure is the current criteria for shutdowns. (UPDATE: Data-points have started to roll-in for non-single member LLCs too, but the ratio of single member LLC shutdowns to non is about 10:1. So far, all non-single member LLC shutdowns used the original OMAT 100,000 link, not a later link, so it’s looking like that may be another criteria)

The shutdowns and new policies give us two options to make lemonade with Brex’s lemons:

What to do with Closed Accounts

Relay financial will offer you a $150 sign-up bonus with a $1 or more deposit into a new account, provided you forward your Brex cancelation email [email protected] after opening a new account. I’m going to do this for each business I have that that was impacted.

How to Move Forward with Brex After a Shutdown

So far it seems like a multi-member LLC is going to be eligible for a Brex account, especially if it looks like the company has received an investment. I don’t currently believe Brex is validating investments directly, but in case that changes I’d make sure your company is listed on Crunchbase before opening your new Brex accounts.

Good luck friends!

I was today years old when I learned that charcoal lemonade was a thing, and that people choose to make it. First, gross. Second, maybe offer a glass to Brex when you sign up for your next account to let them know how you care.

Another day, another grab-bag because that’s how this week rolls:

  1. The Citi AA personal (update: thanks to Gary for noting this is the personal version of the card, not the business version) card has an offer for 75,000 AAdvantage miles after spending $3,500 within four months, and the annual fee is waived for the first year. (Thanks to divinebaloon)
  2. An update from my attempt at getting more than 11 charge cards with American Express: I was denied because my account was already at the charge card limit. I have a theory about bypassing it though but won’t be able to try for a few more weeks, story developing.
  3. There was quite a bit of noise floating around yesterday about the American Express Delta Reserve card’s special 747-edition because 25% of its metal comes from a retired Delta 747-400. Normally I couldn’t care less about a special edition card, but this one tugs at my avgeek heart strings so here we are I guess.

    If you want one and have an existing Delta Reserve card, you can request a replacement card directly from the website or mobile app with the reason “Change Card Design”, at which point you’ll be given a choice for the normal design or the 747 design. You can also apply for a new Delta Reserve to get it while supplies last, but the sign-up bonus has been 30% higher in the recent past so I wouldn’t go for it now.

  4. Some news on the manufactured spend front:

    – Staples has started selling the “Everywhere” variety of gift cards, but reports suggest that the maximum face value is currently $100 (These are Metabank cards that are restricted to certain types of merchants but often work for manufactured spend in more places than regular gift cards)
    – USPS has new terminals with new software, which means new opportunity
    – The Paceline card has turned out to be very friendly to MS so far, perhaps it’s worth a second look (reader Fish and Vinh both report that limits aren’t always limits, which we all know happens a lot, right?)

Have a nice weekend!

This week rolls in exactly the same way that this airplane doesn’t.

  1. American Express has targeted even more people for 20,000 Membership Rewards for turning on Pay Over Time, and thus round included me. They’ve made a couple of other significant updates to these bonuses:

    – You’re now eligible for a new bonus every 120 days, just make sure you turn it back off to be targeted again in the future
    – You no longer need to switch the default card when searching for bonuses, just picking a new card is now enough to see if there’s a bonus available

    Check to see if you’re targeted at the Pay Over Time landing page.

  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Mastercard (the classic MEAB Unsung Hero) has another round of targeted spend bonuses through July 14. Offers have been reported for:

    – 150,000 points after $2,000 in spend
    – 12,500 ThankYou points for $2,000 in spend (Thanks to BB_Pcola)
    – $50 after $1,000 in spend (Thanks to birt)

    The subject for my offer was “Name, open now to unlock your special, limited-time offer! 🌟”.

  3. IHG is reportedly sending out targeted offers for 12,000 points for two stays within 60 days of registration, and the registration deadline is November 30.

    Check your inbox for the subject “Welcome back! Celebrate with 12,000 points”.

  4. Southwest is expected to release its next schedule extension today for travel between November 11 and January 4, so it covers all major winter holidays.

    Experts should look for inexpensive flights that are likely to be changed within two weeks of their actual desired travel too. (Thanks to Brian M via MEAB slack)

On second thought maybe everything should come in a grab bag, hmm.

  1. The Citi Premier card’s 80,000 points bonus offer is back with a $4,000 spend requirement within three months. The card carries a $95 annual fee, and Citi will typically waive that annual fee after the first year if you call and ask. Remember that it’s possible to double dip this bonus thanks to Citi’s awesome IT infrastructure.
  2. The Chase Sapphire Reserve’s sign-up bonus is 70,000 Ultimate Rewards if you already have a chase.com login, but the public offer is now 60,000 Ultimate Rewards without a login. You may also be able to pair this with a Sapphire Preferred 80,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus in-branch with a Modified Double Dip for a total of 150,000 Ultimate Rewards, but call your local branch ahead of time to see if they can pull up the 80,000 point offer for your account, at this point it’s very ymmv.
  3. The American Express Personal Gold card has a publicly available offer for 100,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend in six months. As always, it’s worth checking to see if earning a referral offer combined with the referral sign-up bonus is better than the public offer. (Thanks to DDG)
  4. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s summer promotion of 1,000 bonus AA miles on every stay of two nights or more in select cities through August 31. Award stays should work too.
  5. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s summer promotion for a free night certificate after staying two nights before September 4. The certificate expires on February 16 and is valid for only Sunday through Thursday nights, and of course you have to stay at a Best Western, so it’s of dubious overall value.

    Technically the promotion is for AAA members, but there’s no check for AAA membership. (Thanks to Mithridel)

  6. Today is the last day to pay your Q2 2022 estimated taxes. This can be a decent method for cashing out gift cards, or for sign-up bonus spend at a relatively low rate (between 1.85% and 1.97% for credit cards, less for debits). The Frequent Miler has a complete guide.

In case you were wondering what Best Westerns in Texas are like, here’s Kilgore’s, TX property on Monday.

Introduction

Nearly every forum and chat room that I read regularly had a mini-freakout at least once and probably a dozen times between mid-last week and yesterday. The issue? American Express Membership Rewards transactions have been failing all over the place for some card holders, and the primary concern for some is that shenanigans are catching up with them. Sample failures:

  • Schwab cash out: ❌
  • Morgan Stanley cash out: ❌
  • Transferring to Delta, Hilton, or FlyingBlue: ❌

That said, sign-up bonuses, authorized user bonuses, and normal spend rewards have all been posting without issue according to all reports.

History and Data Points

My personal opinion is that we’re seeing bugs in American Express’s system and it’ll all be corrected in a week or two. What leads me to that conclusion?

  • Multiple reports of issues for accounts with plenty of gaming
  • Multiple reports of issues for accounts without any gaming
  • Multiple reports of successes for accounts with plenty of gaming
  • Different error messages on different days
  • American Express bans have always been nearly instant, with your first warning being a notification that your card was removed from Apple Pay followed by a nasty banner when you try and log in to the website
  • Schwab cash-outs go offline nearly monthly
  • Customer service reps aren’t seeing any flags, locks, or holds on affected accounts

There was also an infamous period in the height of COVID lockdowns in 2020 during which Invest with Rewards was offline for many for over a month, so, they’re not exactly batting a thousand with the Membership Rewards system.

The Advice You Didn’t Ask For

Where does the beer come in? I’m going to borrow advice that C F Frost gave yesterday on what to do: Grab a beer and relax while this plays out, we’ll know more in a few weeks.

Cheers!

Based on the conversations I had yesterday, maybe a beer this size is in order for a couple of you?

Reader Jacob surfaced a few “to the moon” Hilton credit card bonuses late last week, and as far as I can tell they’re bigger and better than anything else available through referral, affiliate link, or direct application. The links appear on the hotel internet captive portal for guests staying at Hilton Homewood Suites (and possibly other Hilton properties), and fortunately they work outside of Hilton internet too:

  1. The Hilton Surpass card has two free night certificates after $3,000 in spend in three months. These certificates are valid at any property with standard awards, even properties that are 150,000 points per night. At the right property this is effectively a 300,000 HHonors points bonus, other than that certificates expire in 12 months and the points wouldn’t expire while you hold the card. The annual fee is $95.
  2. The Hilton Aspire card has 150,000 points and a free night certificate after $4,000 in spend in three months. This free night certificate is also valid at any property with standard awards, and is the same one that comes with other versions of this card’s sign-up bonus. The annual fee on this one is $450.
  3. The Hilton Business card has 180,000 points after $10,000 in spend in three months. All versions of this card also award free night certificates after $15,000 and $60,000 in spend per year. The annual fee is $95.

In theory the credit card limit with American Express is five (or six) per cardholder. But it’s possible that those limits aren’t enforced for everyone right now just like the charge card limit.

Happy Monday!

AmEx’s concept card design for the new HHonors cards proves that marketing spent too much time on /r/WSB.