The Amex Blue for Business signup bonus offer has been extended for three weeks through February 22, 2017.
Here’s our full analysis of the offer. I won’t bore you with the full details again, but briefly you get 10k right away + 2.3x MR everywhere for a year up to $50k + up to 20k MR with $2k spend at restaurants the first six months.
Hey Doc, do you know when the 30% bonus will show up? I signed up last February and just check my account today that I still haven’t received the 30% bonus on the spent I made in 2017.
I just applied for this and was denied for having the max number of Amex revolvers open. Had a chat agent cancel one card so that I have only 3 Amex revolving cards now, but what should i do about getting the application approved? just immediately reapply? or call the phone application team?
Call reconsideration
oh shoot I didn’t see this until reapplying just now. Instant approval though, so it looks like we have another data point that at least for some of us 4 revolving cards is still Amex’s limit.
Same – have recent DP’s been showing that getting the 5th revolving card isn’t working anymore even if it is a business card?
John – I have seen a few lately. In my case I had 2 personal and 2 business, applied for a 3rd business one and was denied for having the max number and type of accounts open. Closed a 3k SimplyCash Plus, waited 24 hours, applied again for this card and was instantly approved for 10k.
Is anyone else having problems linking this account to their other Amex accounts? I have the Everyday Card (no annual fee) and I’m not able to link the two online accounts. Im concerned that these MR points will be useless. I wanted to check in here before I called AMEX.
I was able to link my accounts at the end of the sign up process for the card. They linked up just fine and it is working, but my other card was a PRG and not an Everyday but that should not matter.
Signed up last night, was getting it to then cancel my PRG before annual fee but they covered half the fee when I called to cancel so I will keep it for one more year.
So, this does not count in 5/24, right? I can get this to keep my MR alive. Close other fee MR cards?
This is a “crippled” Membership Rewards rewards card. Ie, yes, you can keep your MR points alive, but you can’t transfer them or do much with them if this is the only Amex card with any kind of MR that you have. The personal Everyday card with no annual fee is what you should get longterm to keep your MR alive and be able to transfer and do anything with your points, but that one does count in 5/24, while this one doesn’t.
So as long as you have this one, you may want close ALL BUT ONE of your other fee MR cards, but keep one of them alive until you can get an Everyday card.
Anyone else getting an error when submitting an application?
Assuming you meet all the spending, it would be 52k spend to earn 145,000 MR (10k +20k +100k + 0.3x50k). If you happen to have the Amex Biz platinum (50% rebate) this makes it an effective 4.6% cashback everywhere card when redeeming for travel through Amex. Couple this card with an EDP you are earning 9% back on grocery, 6% back on gas and 4.6% everywhere else. Hard to find a combo of cards that could possible top that
That’s true, but you are also paying >$500 in annual fees for that combo
There’s an opportunity cost to putting all that spend on a card just to get 2.3x points, and that is that it is spend that isn’t working towards a more substantial signup bonus. So it’s hard for me to view this as any more than a 30k signup bonus for $2k in restaurant spend proposition, and a good card to drop spend on when you’re not working towards a signup bonus for the next year (which for me will be hardly ever!)
If you throw in the Mercedes Benz credit card you get 3 MR for gas and 5 MR at Benz dealerships. I have PRG, Benz and EDP for maximum MR earnings.
Anyone know how strict the terms’ language are being enforced “*Qualifying purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, or purchases of other cash equivalents. Additional terms and restrictions apply.” I’m specifically interested in the cash equivalent regarding the additional point bonus (1x or 9x, 30%) on purchases if there will be clawbacks if at the end Amex reviews your account for the 30% bonus and excludes “cash equivalents”
Is this language pretty much standard for all Amex cards?
Think it’s standard
Those terms are indeed standard on all AmEx cards 🙂
This is good news. I applied a week or so ago with the previous version of the limited-time bonus, but was declined after 30 seconds and given the reasons that “my balances with Amex are too high” and my relationship with Amex is too short.
I had a 3k statement balance on 10k SPG Business and 2k balance on 8k Everyday, but will have the SPG paid in full and the Everyday down a bit (it is still on the 0% promo APR through October this year so I have not been worrying about it).
Hopefully by dropping a 3k payment to bring the SPG back to zero they will approve this BfB on round two.
not sure if i can eat $2,000 worth of restaurant food in 6 months… without any business expense involved.
any MS opportunity here?
Not MS, but you could just buy gift cards/certificates to places you regularly eat. Offer is probably best for those that can do reimbursable business lunches. Some of us can knock out $1,000+ in a single sitting.
Take me to lunch !
Haha, I don’t get to choose my lunch partners unfortunately.
Not MS, but you can buy Chipotle gift cards through MPX if you eat a lot of Chipotle
So is this now a public offer and not restricted to affiliate links?
I think the link in the post is non-affiliate AFAIK. Can’t remember if it was only affiliate before.
While it was offered primarily through affiliate channels, it used to be a public offer in that you could get it by searching “Blue for Business” or heading to https://creditcard.americanexpress.com/blue/. Those two avenues no longer work, but a direct link to the offer does work, so it’s still public in that sense.
Don’t think it was ever affiliate only
Am I correct that Blue for Business offers only MR Express points rather than full MR points?
Yes, but as long as you have a card in the full program you can transfer points out and all that jazz. The no-fee Everyday is a fine companion.
They can still be transferred to travel partners if you have another MR earning card.