Update 8/19/25: They’ve added an online tracker now
Update 10/22/18: Some people are now seeing the tracker in their online login as well. It’s not showing for everyone, and it seems to come and go, so obviously a work in progress.
Original Post:
A reader reached out with an images of an email they received from American Express confirming their signup bonus and informing them of their progress toward meeting their spend requirement. The email also helpfully notes that gift cards and cash equivalents don’t count (this isn’t new). The email came less than a month after getting approved for the card.
Readers note interestingly that the progress bar in the email gets updated continuously as time goes along, so you can just continue to refer to the email along your way towards meeting the spend. There is some delay until the data gets there – not sure if it waits for statement close or if it just takes a few days to update.
Not sure if they are now sending this to everyone or it’s still in the testing stages. Would be fantastic if all banks have a bonus tracker, like Citi and Wells Fargo have. It’ll save lots of customer service time and it generally leaves a good feeling for customers. It might be the banks put off doing this with the hopes there’ll be some customers who forget about it, thus saving them money.
This comes on the heels of Amex adding a signup bonus eligibility checker during signup. Seems like Amex finally decided to tackle the gorilla and just make everything as clear as possible for users, which is great news. Hopefully, they’ll add a tracker in the online login at some point in the future as well.
