Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs > American Express | Membership Rewards
Reload this Page >

American Express Canada application and reward strategies (2017)

Old Jan 7, 2017, 4:18 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: mia
Referrals and self-referrals are an important part of maximizing rewards from Canadian-issued American Express cards. It is appropriate to discuss how the referral process works in this thread. However, please do not offer or request referrals here. Use only this thread, and do read the Wikipost carefully before posting: Referral Offers (post only in this thread, no referral links, read Wiki post first).

This thread is a continuation of: Churning Amex in Canada (2016). All the listed offers below are still valid as of January 2017.

Jerry: Aug 2017 latest update, all-in-one summary



New as of Mar 23, 2017, minimum spend up to $3000 now
AMEX Platinum Rewards - $699/year, 60K MR (via referral) after $3000 spending in 3 months vs. 50K non-referral

New as of March 23 2016.
AMEX Business Platinum Rewards - $399/year, 75K MR (via referral) after $5000 spending in 3 months vs. 40K non-referral

Updated as of July 21, 2017
AMEX Gold Rewards - $150/year, FYF, 25K MR after $1500 spending + $50/$60 cashback from GCR. New as of Jan 15, 2017, on a referred signup: and an additional 5,000 Membership Rewards points for one approved Supplementary Card added to your account at time of online application. Thats a total of 30,000 Membership Rewards points.
  • July 11, 2017, Amex Gold MR will no longer earn referral points.
  • July 21, 2017, no other Amex MR card can refer to Gold MR

AMEX Business Gold Rewards - $250/year, FYF, 30K MR after $5000 spending (or 40K via referral)

AMEX Air Miles Platinum - $65/year, 2000 Air Miles after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback

July 18-Oct 18, 2017 - welcome offer increased 5K to 25K.
Sep 28, 2017 - Personal and Business SPG bonus drops from 10K to 5K per approved referral.
AMEX SPG - $120/year, 25K SPG after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback
- if you applied recently for the SPG card at the 20K welcome level, try contacting Amex by Secured Message to ask if they can match the current 25K offer. Several successful datapoints have surfaced with manual addition of 5K at next statement. YMMV.

New as of July 2016
AMEX Aeroplan Plus Platinum - $499/year, 50K Aeroplans after $1000 spending in 3 months (or 51K via referral). The 50K/51K, extra 10K promo expired on April 01, 2016, but started up again July - Sep 30th, 2016.

New card as of Sep 25 2017
AMEX Cobalt CREDIT card - $10/month ($120 annually)
Apply through GCR for $50 Rebate https://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/...s/Amex-Cobalt/
  • Earn 2,500 Membership Tiered Rewards points for each month where you spend $500 (up to 30,000/year).
  • Limited Time Offer: Apply by Jan 30, 2018 and you can earn a Welcome Bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $3K in 3 months.
  • See discussion thread for more details: 2017 American Express Cobalt (Canada)

This is not an all-inclusive list, only the "good" offers, so feel free to add new offers.

Referral Difference Between Cards:
Please note there is a maximum annual referral bonus you can make per card.

AMEX Platinum Rewards
- Earn 15K MR for each referral you make
(Note: from Mar 23 - Jun 29 the bonuses were 75K welcome and 25K referral points)
AMEX Business Platinum Rewards
- Earn 25K MR for each referral you make
AMEX Gold Rewards
  • July 11, 2017, Amex Gold MR will no longer earn referral points.
  • July 21, 2017, no other Amex MR card can refer to Gold MR
  • mid-May 2016, increased from $500 to $1500 required spending.
  • Jan 11 to mid-May 2016, the Gold card earned 0 referral points.
AMEX Business Gold Rewards
- Earn 10k MR for each referal you make.
Print Wikipost

American Express Canada application and reward strategies (2017)

Old Apr 7, 2017, 10:51 am
  #481  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Originally Posted by infy9001
That's my plan. To hold off on calling in until a week or 2 before the "3 month" time frame for the spend. Don't want to pass that date and find out they didn't qualify a transaction or something for whatever strange reason (first time using plastiq per your advice - but shouldn't be a problem since I did get those points). Who knows. Will update back once I get it and how long it took.
Your Plastiq charges won't be the issue, 99% guarantee on that. If you saw my post earlier in the year about how MR account numbers could conceivably get reattached to the same card product in the next iteration, it would make sense to not want new MR cards auto-merged with existing ones. If nothing else, it makes the Amex Points dish-o-meter have to think harder. Again, no guarantees, but shoot for the sky, right?
JJonahJ is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2017, 2:57 pm
  #482  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: YQM
Posts: 341
Looks like Amex is about to launch Bonus Air Miles offers to cardholders : http://americanexpress.ca/soarintomore

Received promotional pamphlet in the mail today.
Hyacinthe is offline  
Old Apr 7, 2017, 10:30 pm
  #483  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZish
Posts: 298
Originally Posted by NotJustDreaming
Bump...
Unless I missed it, no one replied to this.

Now I have two friends telling me they used my referral from my Amex Biz Platinum. Both were for the Amex Gold Personal (where I used the shortcut by preselecting the card for them).
The referral points have not posted yet. IME they post the day after approval.

Does anyone have a datapoint on the 'select a different card' route? I looked at the URL and don't really see anything associated to me specifically.

Thanks much!
Just an update (and a tardy one), both sets of referral points posted. Though on Monday and Wednesday.
NotJustDreaming is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 9:21 am
  #484  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 305
Amex Canada is giving me a major run around.

I've applied for a card and they are saying that everything looks good but they want to verify my address through another financial institution.

The way this allegedly works, is that they send me a form where I fill out my account details with another bank, and sign it saying that I consent to Amex verifying my information with this bank. Then I have to send it back to Amex, and Amex sends it to that bank (by fax). This has been met with a resounding NO from two of my banks (CIBC and RBC). They say they won't reply to any such requests due to privacy concerns, that I can come to the branch and they will provide me with anything I want, but they will not send anything to a third party.

Amex claims that this is all normal operations and that they routinely get these requests filled by the banks, at a rate of about 100 a day. Hard to believe. They say their policy is to only accept the address verification directly from the bank, and not from me. They offer to try with another bank, but when I ask if they know of a specific bank that does not make a fuss about this, there is no definitive answer.

Has anyone experienced this? It feels like they don't really want my application approved, except why complicate things so much, just deny it and stop wasting everyone's time.
martzipan is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 9:29 am
  #485  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: YUL
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 107
Originally Posted by martzipan
Amex Canada is giving me a major run around.

I've applied for a card and they are saying that everything looks good but they want to verify my address through another financial institution.

The way this allegedly works, is that they send me a form where I fill out my account details with another bank, and sign it saying that I consent to Amex verifying my information with this bank. Then I have to send it back to Amex, and Amex sends it to that bank (by fax). This has been met with a resounding NO from two of my banks (CIBC and RBC). They say they won't reply to any such requests due to privacy concerns, that I can come to the branch and they will provide me with anything I want, but they will not send anything to a third party.

Amex claims that this is all normal operations and that they routinely get these requests filled by the banks, at a rate of about 100 a day. Hard to believe. They say their policy is to only accept the address verification directly from the bank, and not from me. They offer to try with another bank, but when I ask if they know of a specific bank that does not make a fuss about this, there is no definitive answer.

Has anyone experienced this? It feels like they don't really want my application approved, except why complicate things so much, just deny it and stop wasting everyone's time.
Yes they ask me the same information and it's a normal operation, the bank should have a desk in their backoffice for those requests. The way it works is American Express is going to contact your branch and the branch is sending the request to their backoffice and then the backoffice is sending the confirmation directly to American Express. That's the way it was done with TD.
matthieugd is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 9:35 am
  #486  
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 305
Originally Posted by matthieugd
Yes they ask me the same information and it's a normal operation, the bank should have a desk in their backoffice for those requests. The way it works is American Express is going to contact your branch and the branch is sending the request to their backoffice and then the backoffice is sending the confirmation directly to American Express. That's the way it was done with TD.
I sure hope they can figure it out. I don't have a TD account
martzipan is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 9:52 am
  #487  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Originally Posted by martzipan
Amex Canada is giving me a major run around.

I've applied for a card and they are saying that everything looks good but they want to verify my address through another financial institution.

The way this allegedly works, is that they send me a form where I fill out my account details with another bank, and sign it saying that I consent to Amex verifying my information with this bank. Then I have to send it back to Amex, and Amex sends it to that bank (by fax). This has been met with a resounding NO from two of my banks (CIBC and RBC). They say they won't reply to any such requests due to privacy concerns, that I can come to the branch and they will provide me with anything I want, but they will not send anything to a third party.

Amex claims that this is all normal operations and that they routinely get these requests filled by the banks, at a rate of about 100 a day. Hard to believe. They say their policy is to only accept the address verification directly from the bank, and not from me. They offer to try with another bank, but when I ask if they know of a specific bank that does not make a fuss about this, there is no definitive answer.

Has anyone experienced this? It feels like they don't really want my application approved, except why complicate things so much, just deny it and stop wasting everyone's time.
Is this your first Amex Canada card? Or have you been applying wildly for MANY new cards? It's part of their routine with new card members who have little credit history (or suspicious ones). The option that was given to our first-time cardholder was to fax back an authorization form for banking info, or alternatively to bring an Amex-supplied letter to Canada Post for picture ID'ing. Perhaps you can ask Amex if you can use this second method of ID verification?
JJonahJ is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 4:18 pm
  #488  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Spend $50 get $10 credit with Amex Contactless payments

Check your emails for a "Spend $50 get $10 credit with Amex Contactless payments" offer:
Between April 12, 2017 and April 30, 2017, spend $50 or more (after taxes) using contactless at any American Express accepting merchant where contactless payments are accepted1, and you can get a $10 statement credit.

Simply tap your contactless Card or mobile device while using Apple Pay2 or Amex Pay3 (within the Amex App on an eligible AndroidTM device) and be on your way!

Only the first 15,000 eligible Canadian Basic American Express Consumer Cardmembers to successfully register will be eligible for this offer. Dont miss out!
Appears to be targeted? I clicked on the "Register Now" button in my email message and it automatically registered my Gold card.
JJonahJ is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 4:33 pm
  #489  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
Link (from RFD)
https://merchantgeo.secure.force.com...language=en-us
jerryhung is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 4:41 pm
  #490  
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: YVR to SEA
Posts: 2,527
Targeted on my blue sky.
crimsona is offline  
Old Apr 12, 2017, 5:21 pm
  #491  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Canadia
Programs: A loyal Amerisuites customer... oh wait
Posts: 2,033
Originally Posted by jerryhung
Originally Posted by JJonahJ
Check your emails for a "Spend $50 get $10 credit with Amex Contactless payments" offer:

Appears to be targeted? I clicked on the "Register Now" button in my email message and it automatically registered my Gold card.

I got this message:
Unfortunately this campaign is by invitation only.

jerry305 is offline  
Old Apr 13, 2017, 9:18 am
  #492  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Originally Posted by jerry305
I got this message:
Unfortunately this campaign is by invitation only.

Hah. I bust a rib with that animated GIF!

Well, Charlie Brown, don't feel bad. I tried to register 10 primary Amex cards and only 1 was registered. I also unsuccessfully went through a bunch of supplementary cards but I don't have time to try them all, as I doubt they will qualify.
JJonahJ is offline  
Old Apr 13, 2017, 3:50 pm
  #493  
alc
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,519
Can someone please let me know what is the current offer for Biz SPG? Is it the same for Referral vs. regular? Does the referee bonus the same for Personal SPG vs. Biz SPG?

Last and un-related question. My wife got decline on AMEX Plat (personal), didn't got email or letter telling us why, but I figure she was not approve since I didn't receive my 25K referral bonus. Does she need to wait a few months before applying another AMEX card?
alc is offline  
Old Apr 13, 2017, 7:30 pm
  #494  
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 822
Originally Posted by alc
Can someone please let me know what is the current offer for Biz SPG? Is it the same for Referral vs. regular? Does the referee bonus the same for Personal SPG vs. Biz SPG?

Last and un-related question. My wife got decline on AMEX Plat (personal), didn't got email or letter telling us why, but I figure she was not approve since I didn't receive my 25K referral bonus. Does she need to wait a few months before applying another AMEX card?
20,000 SPG points after $1500 min spend.It's the same with or without a referral.

10,000 referral points from both personal or biz

Ask the wife to call Amex,they might simply want to confirm identification/information.
jubberly is offline  
Old Apr 16, 2017, 2:32 pm
  #495  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 6
Still waiting on referral bonuses I made in February from Personal Platinum. Anyone else in the same boat? January referrals arrived late as well, in march, posted as "remediation jan", but no such "remediation" for February yet. Must be unlucky as sign up bonus hasn't shown up even though I crossed minimum spend a couple of weeks ago...
artstate is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.