American Express Membership Rewards - Employer pays late; I lose points

I have an Amex Corporate card through work. We are required to put all business related T&E expenses on it, unless of course the business does not take Amex.

After the billing cycle closes on the 17th of the month, we have to prepare our expense reports and submit them by the 1st of the next month. Usually the company pays Amex on the 12th, just in time to avoid forfeiture of my Membership Rewards points. Our employer allows us to collect the points, but we have to pay the annual fee to get points ($75).

This month our company has not paid my account, nor a number of others who I spoke to. I will lose 4500 points or have to pay $29 to reinstate. A friend in sales says he sends them a minor payment himself every month and then debits that off when he prepares his expense report. The Amex website is ambiguous as to whether a token payment would suffice - see below:

When you click on "What are pending points", the pop-up says:

Pending Points are points accrued for every eligible dollar charged and billed on your most recent Card billing statement. Pending Points become available as soon as your next billing statement is mailed provided you have paid your current bill prior to the "Payment Due" date.

It does not say "provided you have paid your current bill in full"

When you click on "What are forfeited points", the pop-up reads:

If the amount due on any linked account is not paid in full within one month of the closing date on your charge card billing statement, points accrued in the program for that linked account for that month may be forfeited.

So that one says you have to pay in full, but says they "may" forfeit your points.

Any and all advice welcome as apparently I can not rely on my company to make timely payments anymore, and if I'm gonna pay the $75 I want my points without having to pay $29 ransom to get them back.

So, what's new?

I would pay the charges out of my own pocket and submit for reimbursement.

Alternatively, just re-adjust your expectations, that you may have to pay this reinstatement fee from time to time if you want the miles.

Also, you could transfer the balance to Discover or another low rate card with no balance transfer fee, such that the interest you pay (on such balance transfer) is either $0 (on Discover, which I think is S.O.P. for them, as opposed to a teaser rate) or an amount smaller than the $29 mileage reimbursement fee (if the interest rate is low). There is, of course, a time gap between initating a balance transfer and the time it hits your Amex account, so it's an imperfect science, at best, timing these things.

Hope that gives you some ideas. :)

Be grateful your company even LETS you have points on a company card. My company Amex cannot be enrolled in MR - even if we offer to pay the fee ourselves.

If you ask, AmEx will usually let you choose your billing cycle (closing date), at least with personal cards. I don't know if that works with Corporate cards, but if so you might be able to get the cycle moved to the right a bit to give your company more time to pay the charge in a timely manner, e.g., close on the 22nd rather than the 17th.

Since the Corporate card is not a 'revolve' card (where, you can pay just a minimum amount, and 'roll' the balance to the next month), you would need to pay the full amount in order to avoid forfeiting the full point balance for the month.

My company used to do this on our corproate Amex also. Often times it was because the company's liquid investments were making more money than they'd lose on late fees.

Pending Points are points accrued for every eligible dollar charged and billed on your most recent Card billing statement. Pending Points become available as soon as your next billing statement is mailed provided you have paid your current bill prior to the "Payment Due" date.

It does not say "provided you have paid your current bill in full"

It doesn't have to say "provided you have paid your current bill in full" because it's a CHARGE CARD and by definition means your bill needs to be paid in full by the due date.

Counsellor Wrote:
If you ask, AmEx will usually let you choose your billing cycle (closing date), at least with personal cards. I don't know if that works with Corporate cards, but if so you might be able to get the cycle moved to the right a bit to give your company more time to pay the charge in a timely manner, e.g., close on the 22nd rather than the 17th.

Well, Corporate Cards don't work that way. Amex has 2-3 billing cycles for large companies and they are not changeable for the individuals involved.

Can you not mysteriously find a suitable claim for the $29 the next time you are dinged with that to claim your MR points? :D

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I have found out the root cause, my secretary turned the expense reports for the entire work group in a day late on Sep 2nd. Our corporate travel department pays all bills submitted by the deadline of the 1st of the month and does the others "if they get around to it". Naturally they did not.

Interestingly I learned my boss has probably lost 13K points (to my 5K). Perhaps he will fire her lazy a*s*s now, we have all been complaining about her performance for a year but he has not chosen to do anything about it.