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

Old Jan 7, 2018, 10:23 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: MasterGeek
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 (2017). All the listed offers below are still valid as of January 2018.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards - $250/year, FYF, 40K MR (by referral, else only 30K) after $5000 spending
(no longer FYF as of Jun 26, 2018)

Updated as of Jan 22, 2018
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
  • Jan 22, 2018, as of Sep 14, 2017 the Amex Gold MR is no longer FYF. $150/yr applies on first statement. Only another Gold or Cobalt card can refer to Gold (and vice versa) for a 5,000 MR bonus. The Personal Gold cannot refer to Business Gold, Personal Platinum nor Business Platinum.
AMEX Air Miles Platinum - $65/year, 2000 Air Miles after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback
AMEX SPG - $120/year, 25K SPG after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback

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)
Print Wikipost

American Express Canada application and reward strategies

Old Feb 24, 2018, 7:47 pm
  #106  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Originally Posted by jcaeih
My Personal Gold is untimely expiring just ahead of some travel I have to book soon and as I'm planning to change to personal Platinum anyways, I called the customer service to check if travel coverage afforded by purchase with Gold would voided with the switch (based on what I've gleaned here, MR transfers isn't a problem). Here's what they said:

1. If requesting upgrade from within account, the coverage of travel purchased with the Gold would continue to be valid (at the Gold level not the Platinum).
2. If obtaining the Platinum by a referral, i.e. such that the ex. Gold and Platinum would be active for a short time together and the bonus referral points applied, the rep. indicated that the coverage of travel purchased with the Gold would not be recognized.

Wanted to see if anyone has been in similar case, or received the same answers as I did from Amex (just worried it's variable depending on which rep. one speaks to). Thanks in advance!
You'll have 60 days to contact Amex to cancel for a full refund, once the Personal Gold annual fee posts. Would that work for your travel timing?

Otherwise, is it worth it to you to keep the card beyond those 60 days and then request for a pro-rated refund? That would be $12.50/month. However, you would need to call Amex to see if they still give pro-rated refunds, or have they followed the lead of Amex USA, and no longer give pro-rated refunds?

The Personal Plat is normally sent by courier (FedEx) so you could conceivable get the card by say Wed, upcoming. Again, no guarantees, but a good chance for it.

One more thing to nibble on...how complicated is your travel itinerary? Do you NEED to have the assurance of flight/baggage delay insurance?

Congrats on your first FT post, after being a LONG time lurker!
JJonahJ is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2018, 10:15 am
  #107  
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Programs: aeroplan
Posts: 22
How to self refer to a different card (Canada)

I keep reading threads mentioning self referrals but don't know how to do so. Would like to self refer myself to get the referral points. Did few searches on this forum but nothing turns up.

Can someone explain to me how please ? This is for AMEX Canada, if that matters.

Last edited by vantony; Feb 25, 2018 at 10:20 am Reason: Added Canada bit
vantony is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2018, 1:02 pm
  #108  
formerly BackSlash3
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: YYZ Realistically, YKZ Aspirationally
Programs: AC P25, Marriott Gold, IHG Diamond AMB
Posts: 452
To get the referral point you need to sign up using the link from a referral email.

Go go into the refer someone for a card you have, send the email to your own email and when you open that link theres an option to sign up for a different card. Do that and youre set.
RoutingWonk is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2018, 1:06 pm
  #109  
Suspended
Hyatt 10+ BadgeMarriott 10+ Badge
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: EWR/PHL/BWI
Posts: 4,412
Originally Posted by BackSlash3
To get the referral point you need to sign up using the link from a referral email.

Go go into the refer someone for a card you have, send the email to your own email and when you open that link theres an option to sign up for a different card. Do that and youre set.
To do this, you may have to have another email. Or just to be safe. I would do that.
RedSun is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2018, 1:33 pm
  #110  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 353
Originally Posted by JJonahJ
The Personal Plat is normally sent by courier (FedEx) so you could conceivable get the card by say Wed, upcoming. Again, no guarantees, but a good chance for it.
If you live in a condo building, make sure you write your buzz code on the same line as the apartment number. If you write it on the address line, they will remove it.
emilio911 is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2018, 2:37 pm
  #111  
Suspended
Hyatt 10+ BadgeMarriott 10+ Badge
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: EWR/PHL/BWI
Posts: 4,412
Originally Posted by vantony
I keep reading threads mentioning self referrals but don't know how to do so. Would like to self refer myself to get the referral points. Did few searches on this forum but nothing turns up.

Can someone explain to me how please ? This is for AMEX Canada, if that matters.
The main question is that, how do you do self referral? I do not think you can open the 2nd card of the same type. And you won't get any bonus anyway.
RedSun is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2018, 4:27 pm
  #112  
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Prince Edward Island
Programs: Air Canada P25K, Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Gold, MGM Gold
Posts: 1,581
Sign into your Amex account. Scroll down the page until you see a "Refer Now" button and click it and then click "Get Your Referral Link". Copy the link and open it in another tab or page. You can then apply from that page for a new card. Note that each card only allows you to refer to certain other cards. For example, the business platinum only allows you to refer to the personal platinum or business gold.
Low Roller is online now  
Old Feb 26, 2018, 10:26 am
  #113  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 3
Originally Posted by JJonahJ
You'll have 60 days to contact Amex to cancel for a full refund, once the Personal Gold annual fee posts. Would that work for your travel timing?

Otherwise, is it worth it to you to keep the card beyond those 60 days and then request for a pro-rated refund? That would be $12.50/month. However, you would need to call Amex to see if they still give pro-rated refunds, or have they followed the lead of Amex USA, and no longer give pro-rated refunds?

The Personal Plat is normally sent by courier (FedEx) so you could conceivable get the card by say Wed, upcoming. Again, no guarantees, but a good chance for it.

One more thing to nibble on...how complicated is your travel itinerary? Do you NEED to have the assurance of flight/baggage delay insurance?

Congrats on your first FT post, after being a LONG time lurker!
Thanks for the advice! Sounds like to play it safe, I should maybe keep the Gold until my trip is over (will check about the refund/pro-rating for Canada), in case there's any mis-sync'ing between the Gold-to-Plat. coverage. I didn't see much worth to keeping the Gold compared to a Plat. upgrade besides this (other than as a MR storage, since I would otherwise transfer to Aeroplan which is winding down). Good to know though that the Plat.delivery would be so prompt.

The itinerary is an open jaw flight redemption, and then by ship over Scotland/northern Norway, so the Amex insurance would be handy.

Yes, long-time lurker =)...careful reading of FT had always answered my quandries before, hopefully this question/response is useful to others too!
jcaeih is offline  
Old Feb 26, 2018, 10:45 am
  #114  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 28
Originally Posted by grandgourmand
Biz Gold is definitely the better deal. But if you're willing to get the Plat Biz and can spend $10k on Amex cards over the next 6 months (to meet min. spend requirement) you should probably go #1 biz plat then refer from biz plat to biz gold. You get 25k referral vs. 15k. Not much, but if you also happen to have other referrals (friends families) picking up an extra 10k/referral is great.

CAVEATS: there's some speculation the 25k referral from Biz Plat will be reducing at the end of March AND the FYF Biz Gold could go away at any time.

I'd also enter your SPG Amex card # instead of your Plat Card on your application.
Applied for the Plat Biz and just got the 15k on my personal Plat account. Used the SPG card as reference as you suggested, thanks for that. No instant approval again, but points were posted on the 2nd business day after without me calling in.

As for the extra $5k if I refer again from Biz Plat to Biz Gold, I'll have to see if there are other major charges I can do within April to June. There is a portion covered if I pay my TDMM auto insurance early due for renewal in July, but that's not enough (should be thankful for that!).
ayking is offline  
Old Feb 27, 2018, 8:30 pm
  #115  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Originally Posted by ayking
Applied for the Plat Biz and just got the 15k on my personal Plat account. Used the SPG card as reference as you suggested, thanks for that. No instant approval again, but points were posted on the 2nd business day after without me calling in.

As for the extra $5k if I refer again from Biz Plat to Biz Gold, I'll have to see if there are other major charges I can do within April to June. There is a portion covered if I pay my TDMM auto insurance early due for renewal in July, but that's not enough (should be thankful for that!).
Be careful here with TDMM Insurance. If you're on the pay-once-annually program, then even if you schedule your payment in June, the charge won't actually post to your Amex (or other CC) account until the day or 2 AFTER the policy renewal date. If that date is within 90 days of your approval date, then no problem. If it's beyond, prepare to fight to get the bonus points after meeting the minimum spending beyond the required time period. That's what I faced a couple of years ago when I tried to pay early.
ayking likes this.
JJonahJ is offline  
Old Feb 28, 2018, 9:42 am
  #116  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: YYZ
Programs: Aeroplan, Alaska, Marriott
Posts: 435
^ can confirm this. We're also with TDMM, and the insurance charge always occurs when policy renews, not when you call in to give payment information. They did tell me this since I started with them though, so I've never assumed it was anything else, and just lined up the renewal to fall within the min spend period. One more thing, I think it takes a couple days for the charge to actually happen so i wouldn't cut it too close either. Best to make sure your spend period ends at least 1 week after the insurance renewal date.
ayking likes this.
Cerenity is offline  
Old Feb 28, 2018, 12:23 pm
  #117  
Formerly known as newbie elite
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: YUL
Programs: IHG Diamond Ambassador, Accor Platinum, AC50K
Posts: 2,918
Anyone else get a survey asking us to compare credit cards and which benefits we would like to see? Quite extensive in its options and it seems they are going to be some changes (obviously with AE going down the drain) in the coming months.

EDIT: By email from AMEX

Last edited by Admiral Ackbar; Feb 28, 2018 at 5:35 pm
Admiral Ackbar is offline  
Old Feb 28, 2018, 2:05 pm
  #118  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Canadia
Programs: A loyal Amerisuites customer... oh wait
Posts: 2,033
Originally Posted by Admiral Ackbar
Anyone else get a survey asking us to compare credit cards and which benefits we would like to see? Quite extensive in its options and it seems they are going to be some changes (obviously with AE going down the drain) in the coming months.
By phone? By email?
Do you know if it was American Express conducting the survey?
jerry305 is offline  
Old Feb 28, 2018, 3:31 pm
  #119  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 28
Thanks JJonahJ and Cerenity. With the looming "deadline" of March 21 for the application to be done for 25k referral, it means I will just miss with an insurance renewal date of Jun 26th.

I guess it'll be time to prepay for a few months of 407 plus some other recurring charges again.
ayking is offline  
Old Mar 2, 2018, 1:12 pm
  #120  
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan, Bonvoy, Alaska, Avios
Posts: 1,290
I quickly scrolled through 2 months of posts but I can't find anything about not being able to refer to a personal gold from a Biz Plat. Is this new for march?

I waited to do the Amex churn in vain as Hometrust told me to get lost, no visa for me! The $$ I have with them means nothing I guess. Rogers did give me their Visa.
mikeycanuk 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.