Jan 7, 2017, 4:18 pm
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. That’s a total of 30,000 Membership Rewards points.
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/
This is not an all-inclusive list, only the "good" offers, so feel free to add new offers.
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
- Earn 10k MR for each referal you make.
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. That’s 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.
- Earn 10k MR for each referal you make.
American Express Canada application and reward strategies (2017)
Apr 25, 2017, 9:01 am
#526
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: YVR to SEA
Posts: 2,532
Must be separate, but SPG has free household transfers in 1k increments anyways
Apr 25, 2017, 9:21 am
#528
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Business Platinum referral email contains the following text (my bolding):
To qualify for a Welcome Bonus of 75,000 points you must have at least $5,000 in net purchases posted to your account in your first 3 months of Card membership. Account must be in good standing. This offer is not applicable to holders of an existing American Express Small Business Card product. When we stop offering the Welcome Bonus, we reserve the right to accept applications but you will not be eligible for the Welcome Bonus.
In this particular case, the recipient is going to cancel their Business Gold supplementary card, and get their own Business Platinum primary card. Would you interpret this as saying that they will not get the bonus because they were previously holding the supplementary card?In a scenario where you may have other PRIMARY Amex Small Business cards in your profile, you do run a small risk that if an Amex rep is alerted and aware of this, then you may get denial of the new Biz card's bonus points. There have been reports of this happening, but so seldom that I wouldn't be deterred from applying for different second/third Amex Biz card product. Anyways, in this case, I would not contact Amex if points are not posting right away, and play it like the personal cards...wait patiently for up to 8-10 weeks, or more.
However, if a person only has a SUPPLEMENTARY Amex Business card (as you mentioned), my opinion is that it does not matter, it will be not be treated as a second Biz card in the profile to cause denial of points. I haven't seen mention of this scenario though, thus it's just my 'opinion', so if others can provide clearer anectdotal info that SUPPLEMENTARY Biz cards will negate eligibility for welcome offers on a new Biz card, please share.
When I posted my reply above, it was for a case where there appeared to be NO OTHER Business card in the mix, so I suggested to call Amex to query for the status of points.
Apr 25, 2017, 9:26 am
#529
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Canadia
Programs: A loyal Amerisuites customer... oh wait
Posts: 2,033
In a scenario where you may have other PRIMARY Amex Small Business cards in your profile, you do run a small risk that if an Amex rep is alerted and aware of this, then you may get denial of the new Biz card's bonus points. There have been reports of this happening, but so seldom that I wouldn't be deterred from applying for different second/third Amex Biz card product.
I plan to apply for Amex Business Platinum sometime soon.
Should I wait, cancel Amex Business Gold in May (7th month), and then apply?
Apr 25, 2017, 9:50 am
#530
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Edit: just wanted to mention that if you've added Plastiq as a 2x fav merchant, unique to the Biz Gold ONLY, then you may want to keep your Biz Gold card alive if you've taken advantage of the Fee Free Dollars to use at Plastiq. I just referred my 'family' during the recent 'double FFD' promo, and loaded up $4800 worth of FFDs. I used it to pay the CRA and saved on the 2.5% Plastiq fee for paying the CRA with an Amex card...naturually, I used my Biz Gold MR card, earned 9600 MR points and saved $120 in Plastiq fees.
Last edited by JJonahJ; Apr 25, 2017 at 9:59 am
Apr 25, 2017, 10:03 am
#531
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 227
Approximately how long does it take to get the referral credit on an spg card -- both minimum and maximum time frame please ? Referee (actually self referral) met spend and had his statement generated including the annual fee and the points within two days.
Keen on maximum churn while spg still exists.
I also would like to do another Marriott chase, but since I am out of the country for a few months an application will not even load -- applying over the phone offers only 30000 points .
Thank you
Keen on maximum churn while spg still exists.
I also would like to do another Marriott chase, but since I am out of the country for a few months an application will not even load -- applying over the phone offers only 30000 points .
Thank you
Last edited by Jared Ito; Apr 25, 2017 at 10:11 am Reason: Confusion
Apr 25, 2017, 11:08 am
#532
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Canadia
Programs: A loyal Amerisuites customer... oh wait
Posts: 2,033
Personally, I would just go ahead and apply for the Biz Plat while still holding the Biz Gold. But, if you want to play it safe, cancel your Biz Gold card first (almost 6 months now, anyways, right?). Your wife is going to refer you to the Biz Plat with her own Biz Gold/Plat/BizPlat, if I know you 'well', like I think I know you, so you won't be missing out on referral bonuses. Or are you going to self-refer from your Biz Gold?
Edit: just wanted to mention that if you've added Plastiq as a 2x fav merchant, unique to the Biz Gold ONLY, then you may want to keep your Biz Gold card alive if you've taken advantage of the Fee Free Dollars to use at Plastiq. I just referred my 'family' during the recent 'double FFD' promo, and loaded up $4800 worth of FFDs. I used it to pay the CRA and saved on the 2.5% Plastiq fee for paying the CRA with an Amex card...naturually, I used my Biz Gold MR card, earned 9600 MR points and saved $120 in Plastiq fees.
Edit: just wanted to mention that if you've added Plastiq as a 2x fav merchant, unique to the Biz Gold ONLY, then you may want to keep your Biz Gold card alive if you've taken advantage of the Fee Free Dollars to use at Plastiq. I just referred my 'family' during the recent 'double FFD' promo, and loaded up $4800 worth of FFDs. I used it to pay the CRA and saved on the 2.5% Plastiq fee for paying the CRA with an Amex card...naturually, I used my Biz Gold MR card, earned 9600 MR points and saved $120 in Plastiq fees.
Thanks, JJonahJ.
• Good advice. I appreciate it.
• Uh, not sure you know me that well. There are a lot of Jerrys on this forum. You may be thinking of someone else.
• Plastiq: That sounds like a great offer. I missed out, though.
Apr 25, 2017, 11:26 am
#533
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Approximately how long does it take to get the referral credit on an spg card -- both minimum and maximum time frame please ? Referee (actually self referral) met spend and had his statement generated including the annual fee and the points within two days.
Keen on maximum churn while spg still exists.
I also would like to do another Marriott chase, but since I am out of the country for a few months an application will not even load -- applying over the phone offers only 30000 points .
Thank you
Keen on maximum churn while spg still exists.
I also would like to do another Marriott chase, but since I am out of the country for a few months an application will not even load -- applying over the phone offers only 30000 points .
Thank you
Preacher7 mentioned in the past that you can't apply online for the Chase Marriott Canada Visa card, if outside of Canada. Is that your issue?
Apr 25, 2017, 11:35 am
#534
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Another Plastiq FFD promo just came into my email yesterday:
- For every person you refer to Plastiq, you will earn 1,000 fee-free dollars*, and the person you referred will earn 500 fee-free dollars.
- Pay $500 worth of bills through Plastiq (doesn’t have to be
a one-time payment)
Apr 25, 2017, 10:09 pm
#535
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 28
Hi everyone,
I have the business gold card since 6 months and recently got approved for the business plat card.
I'd like to get the business SPG card.
Do you think I should first cancel the business gold card before applying to a third business card?
Thanks
I have the business gold card since 6 months and recently got approved for the business plat card.
I'd like to get the business SPG card.
Do you think I should first cancel the business gold card before applying to a third business card?
Thanks
Apr 25, 2017, 10:26 pm
#536
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
SPG is a AMEX CREDIT card vs. a CHARGE card
Keep us posted
Apr 27, 2017, 8:50 am
#537
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,519
Can someone remind me if either the Personal Plat or the Biz Plat provide Club Carlson status?
Apr 27, 2017, 8:56 am
#540
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
You submit online (Platinum benefit page) and fill in your CC #