American Express has decreased the bonus for those who refer friends from some of their cards.
Reader KaizenWarrior noticed this on their Everyday card that the referral decreased from 10,000 to 7,500; cowsareverywhere sees their Green referral down to 5,000 (previously 10,000, IIRC), and I see my Blue Cash Everyday down to $75 (previously $100 IIRC). All other Amex cards remain the same – it’s just the entry level cards that got a decrease, apparently.
Most of us have other cards with referral bonuses of 10,000, 15,000, or even 20,000. Thus, it shouldn’t matter much since Amex now has a universal referral system so you can just use a referral from a different card to refer friends. Those who max out their yearly limit in referrals will feel the hit.
In reality it matter more than that as these cards are often the key to getting increased signup bonus offers, as follows:
Aside from the bonus to the referrer, we want a high bonus for the new member as well. It’s well known that you can often find increased signup bonus offers by going incognito or sometimes by using a VPN. In fact, it’s often possible to find those increased offers even when using a referral link, thus enabling you to get the referral bonus at the same time that the new member gets the increased bonus.
Sometimes you’ll see the increased bonuses via referrals (when checking incognito) while other times you won’t. What’s the trick to getting the increased offer? Uscreditcardguide explains that if you use a referral FROM a card which gets increased offers, then you’ll be able to see ALL of the increased offers, across all cards. However, if you use a referral from a card which doesn’t have increased offers you won’t.
Three of the cards that often work to trigger the increased offers is using a referral from the Green card (typically no bonus; increased offer is 25,000), the Everyday card (typically 10,000 points; increased offer is 25,000), and the Blue Cash Everyday (typically $150; increased offer is $250).
Because of this, you’ll often find your Green, Everyday, and BCE referral links the most useful when referring friends or self-referral. Going forward, those referral bonuses have been decreased. Bummer.
i see 10 on a plat
What is the bonus for the person who refers the Cash magnet card?
My wife (BCE holder) referred me 4 months ago, and the referral bonus was $75 then.
My EveryDay referral bonus has indeed gone down to 7,500 ☹.
Can you avoid a 1099 trigger if you spread the referrals around multiple cards and keep Amex’s cumulative referral value from each card under $400?
No, not according to DPs from 2018
Good question
BCE’s been $75 for a while
I guess I’m mistaken, then. I seem to recall it being $100 when I last checked, but not positive. Thanks
I would bet others start going down as well. BBP dropped from 15k to 10k a while ago.
It wasn’t really a drop. It was initially 10k and increased to 15k briefly. I see it as back to normal now.