American Express Membership Rewards - "Corporate" Questions

I have to get Amex corporate cards as part of my new job. One is the general corporate green card with just the company name on it, and another is with my name.

Would I be an authorized user on the named card?

Can I link it to my existing platinum card for rewards activity or annual spend credit toward Centurion?

Will they do a credit pull to add me to the account (I'm about to buy a new house so I'm trying to avoid pulls or new accounts)?

I'm curious how this all works. Thanks in advance.

Ed,

Whoever you worked with in your company to apply for the cards should be able to answer your questions by talking to your Amex account rep.

I'm the program administrator (=liaison with Amex rep) in my company here in Tysons (I see you're in MD?), so I've learned a little bit about this:
-Yes, you can link all your Memb. Rewards programs together, but I think you have to pay the annual fee (if applicable) PER CARD.
-Double-check this of course, but I think if you can combine points, you can probably combine your spending if you're working towards a Centurion card.

-I'm preparing a table comparing the perks of each card (Green v Gold v Plat v Black), and it seems to me that unless you really use the Black card's perks (free things at hotels, events, etc), it's not worth the $2500 fee over the $300 Platinum card (current corp rates). It's just for status from what I see.

-As for the credit report- they do check it, but since it's a charge card and not a credit card, it will NOT appear on your credit report unless you're in default. I assume just like any credit card company, they don't want to extend $ to you unless they think you can pay it. You could also ask the Amex rep about how it affects your credit report--even better, ask a mortgage broker or two- they should be happy to help you to gain your business.

Good luck, hope I helped a little!

Hadley48 right on the money :) The only thing I would add is that some corporate arrangements do not allow the employee to participate in Membership Rewards. But as the previous post advised if you check with your company representative they would certainly know the answer.

Thanks everyone. Our corporate admin is a contractor, so she didn't now a whole lot about it. I dug deeper and got answers.

Here in the UK, same kind of thing applies:

- It is up to your employer whether they allow employees to participate in MR
- If they do, then you have to pay the MR fee which for some reason is higher:

If you have just a Corp card, fee is £30+VAT, £35.25
If you have any other MR capable card, annual fee for all cards is £20+VAt, £23.50
Obviously if you have a Platinum or Centurion where there is no charge for MR, then you can enroll a Corp card FOC.

One thing that is often overlooked is travel cover - here in the UK, your highest level of AmEx Card cover applies to your journeys, so if you have a Platinum card but book on your corp card, you still get Platinum level of cover. Which is a good thing as Corp cover is a joke.

Thanks,
Richard