American Express Membership Rewards - Supplementary Card

I want to give a supplementary platinum card to someone with a less than brilliant credit history with Amex - do they look at the persons credit record or is it automatically given because it is on my account. It would be terrible if they were refused a card.

Thanks

I am not sure if I would want to give a supp. card to someone with a "less than brilliant credit history."

[This message has been edited by Flyaway (edited 02-27-2002).]

fair point but if you did whose history would they look at?

They generally require the SSN for the add'l person and run a credit check on him/her. If you don't happen to have the number with you, they WILL issue the card for the other individual and YOU will be exclusively responsible for any charges posted to that new account (last 5 digits will be different). You will need to activate the new card once it's sent out, since they will send it only to your address under these circumstances, and will typically ask for your birthday, the last 4 digits of your SSN, etc.

How do the statements for the secondary cardholder show...are they apart from the primary holders?

[This message has been edited by WhiteAMEX (edited 02-27-2002).]

Whiteamex,

The secondary account activity is included with the primary holders statement.

Oh, barakcar is correct. You can actually get an additional card without giving Amex any info. about the cardholder, as the primary holder is responsible for the charges made by the other cardholder. If you do provide the SS# of the other cardholder, Amex will run a credit check on that person.

[This message has been edited by eperaltaotero (edited 02-27-2002).]

The best way for secondaries to manage their account is to sign up for AMEX's online services and to link their checking account to the secondary account. They will be able to view the real time status of their account online and to pay their portion of the overall bill w/o any fees. Only the primary member may get both hard copy and online statements detailing the activities of all accounts.