American express has beefed up the sign up bonuses on four of it’s credit cards. When you meet the minimum spend on any of these cards you’ll also receive a promo code for your free year of amazon prime in addition to the regular sign up bonuses. This is being added to the following four cards:
- AmEx Everyday
- AmEx Everyday Preferred
- American Express Blue Cash
- American Express Blue Cash Preferred
The sign up bonuses on all of these cards are pretty average, but American Express often sends out targeted promotions for these cards with much higher and more competitive bonuses (20/25k MR points for the Everyday cards and $200/$250 for the Blue cash cards). You can check your targeted promotions from American Express here and view information for other card issuers here. The basic no annual fee cards are also some of my recommend downgrade targets if you have another card with American Express that comes with an annual fee.
Whilst the sign up bonuses are nothing to write home about the category bonuses, especially those on the Preferred cards are. The Everyday preferred earns up to 4.5x MR points on grocery store purchases (although you need to make a minimum of 30 purchases per month) with a maximum of $6,000 in spend per year (annual fee of $95 not waived first year). The Blue Cash Preferred earns 6% cash back on grocery store purchases with a maximum of $6,000 in spend per year as well (annual fee of $75 not waived first year).
How The Amazon Prime Bonus Works
After you’ve completed the minimum spend requirement, American Express will send you an Amazon Prime promotional code which can be entered at: www.amazon.com/amexprimeoffer. This will be e-mailed to you, if they don’t have your e-mail on file (you can supply it when you apply) they will mail it out to you which could take up to four weeks.
If you already have Amazon Prime then an additional year will be added to your account when your membership is due to expire.
This is a one off sign up bonus and not something that you get every year.
Our Verdict
It’s a nice little addition to these cards, Amazon Prime usually costs $99 (you also get 30 day free trial). If you already have Prime then this is basically an additional $99 bonus (or however much you usually pay for Prime. I’m unsure if this comes on sale or not?).
I don’t have Prime, if I am in a hurry for something I buy it at a store and ask them to price match Amazon. I don’t really value the other offerings (music & video streaming service) that much either. I’d probably get about $20 in extra value out of a Prime membership.
My recommendation? Wait till you get sent a targeted sign up bonus and net an extra $100/10k points in addition to the regular sign up bonuses and free prime.
Recently applied for one of the cards?
If you’ve recently applied for one of the cards (and been approved, if you weren’t approved you should call the reconsideration line) then it’s worth asking AmEx to match the bonus and include one years membership to Amazon Prime. In general American Express is lousy when it comes to matching bonuses, but it never hurts to ask.
