Amex Offer Credit Not Posting, What to Do?

[Originally posted on 3/20/15, updated and reposted 1/18/16]

We often write about Amex Offers (see our introduction to Amex Offers here), but what do you do if the credit doesn’t post as expected?

First, how fast is the credit supposed to hit?

Technically, the terms say to wait up to 90 days for the credit to post. Not only that, the terms say to wait 90 days from the end-date of the offer. Here’s a look at the terms from one offer:

Statement credit will appear on your billing statement within 90 days after 3/27/15, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase.

In my experience,  however, the statement credit invariably hits within a couple of days after the charge posts on the credit card account. There have been reports of offer credits posting automatically a few weeks later, but it’s rare; if it doesn’t post right away, you’ll probably need human intervention to get it to post.

Okay, credit didn’t post. What do we do now?

Make sure that you fulfilled all the conditions of the Offer properly. With that out of the way, you’ll now have to work on getting the credit applied manually.

For regular Amex cards

For cards issued by Amex directly (e.g. Blue Cash, Everyday, SPG, Platinum, SimplyCash, etc.), contact Amex via the online login using the chat feature or secure message. You can also call up the number on the back of the card.

Although I’m usually a fan of chat, in this case, message may actually go better as they often need time to go through all the facts. They also need to escalate the case, sometimes, before being able to manually apply the credit. (In any case, Amex often doesn’t give the option to message anymore.)

For Co-Brands and Prepaids

For bank-branded Amex cards (such as Fidelity Amex or US Bank Flexperks Amex or BBVA Amex), as well as for Bluebird/Serve cards, there isn’t any sure-fire method to get the credit, but you can try these three approaches with possible success:

  1. Contact @AskAmex on Twitter. You can tweet something like: “@askamex my Amex offer credit for Exxon didn’t post. 90 days already past. can you help?” They’ll hopefully tell you to log into your regular Amex account (not your prepaid or co-branded account, rather your login with regular ‘real’ Amex cards) to verify your identity, and they’ll then be able to process the credit for the bank-branded card or the Bluebird/Serve card. [If you don’t have a regular Amex login, it will be more difficult.]
  2. Call a special Amex customer service number at 1-800-297-7500. This number is supposed to be the official number to contact for Amex Offer problems and the Twitter reps will sometimes push you over to call this number. In practice, calling this number doesn’t always work. Many of the reps there never even heard of Amex Offers. Be persistent and ask for a supervisor; hopefully, you’ll have success. Also, note that if you are missing credits on multiple cards, this number is the better option as they can process all claims at once.
  3. Try calling the number on the card. This will never work for co-brands, but it sometimes works for Bluebird/Serve since Amex Offers is officially part of the benefits on their card and they’ll sometimes offer you a manual credit when there is a problem.

When should you contact Amex?

  • If it’s a regular Amex card, you can even try contacting them even before 90 days are up and they’ll often manually apply the credit for you then.
  • If it’s a bank-branded card or a Bluebird/Serve card you’ll probably have to wait 90 days (from the offer end-date) before contacting them. If you try contacting them before that, they’ll tell you to wait 90 days. What I’ve done in these cases is mark it down on my calendar to contact 90 days later.

Final Thoughts

I’ve done hundreds of Amex Offers and the credits post to the account very reliably, but there’s always a few that have an issue and need manual input.

In the past, the Twitter method worked great, but recently they aren’t always as forthcoming. Conversely, the Amex customer service number mentioned above was always a total fail for me, but now many are having success using that approach.

Hopefully, one of these methods will work for you!

 

Other useful Amex Offer posts: 

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42 Comments
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zjts
zjts (@guest_457593)
August 12, 2017 16:05

Amex Offer: PuritansPride.com (Spend $30 And Get $10 Back) And Others (YMMV) at Puritans Pride
expiration date 92417
Will I qualify for the Amex Offer: PuritansPride.com (Spend $30 And Get $10 Back) if I go thru a cashbk site?

William Charles
Admin
August 12, 2017 22:53

Yes

stvr
stvr (@guest_230146)
March 2, 2016 21:24

Question for Chuck!

Added offer to FIA Amex. Then FIA sent me a new card in the mail because they said my card was compromised. I swiped my NEW card at the merchant and didn’t get an email. UH OH! Read a few threads and realized the numbers aren’t as linked as they should be. So I quickly logged into Facebook and added the offer. So technically I added the offer about an hour after I swiped my card. Do you think the offer will post without fuss? Or are Amex’s systems so exact that they will know I added the offer to my card an hour after swiping my card?

Biggie F
Biggie F (@guest_221300)
January 31, 2016 13:42

Am I correct that as long as we make the purchase by an offer end-date like today (31 Jan, for jet.com), the offer qualifies? Or is it by post date (in which cast too late)?

By the way, on the Dunkin Donuts thing, I did two different shops that sure met the criteria and got no e-mail message for either. Called to get the $5 on one card (they gave it to me, along with another $10 on a local restaurant fail); the other is for an account on which my wife is primary, and life is too short to bug her to call in for $5 at DD!

Biggie F
Biggie F (@guest_221333)
January 31, 2016 15:53

Great post. And, yeah, having followed your link I realize that I had read it before, because it must have been rattling around in my mind when I was looking at some other blogs that are posting today on how this is the last day to make orders. Sheesh, as though we could blithely count on jet.com to do everything on Sunday in time for Amex.

I think I’ll pass on this last second one, since we already have from a bunch of other jet.com orders more cat litter than I can possibly eat, even laced on the various nutrition bars or mixed with our tons of strawberry jam.

Sam
Sam (@guest_218652)
January 19, 2016 21:41

Anybody have issues with certain merchants not participating in the offer?

I did the Dunkin Donuts and Orvis offer (both on two cards), but I had to fight to get the credit. They said that the DD/Orvis I went to weren’t participating in the offer, and they wouldn’t make the exception for the 2nd Orvis purchase.

Is the fact that both locations I went to were fairly new? < 3 months since opening?

Sam
Sam (@guest_218858)
January 20, 2016 15:09

The DD was a DD/BR location, which was explicitly covered in the T&C. The other DD I went to that did qualify were also DD/BR. The new DD/BR that didn’t instantly qualify appears on the DD Restaurant Locator.

Same with the Orvis. I only had a chance to go to the one new Orvis by me, but it shows up on the Orvis Store Locator.

Gesnie
Gesnie (@guest_218293)
January 18, 2016 17:19

Anyone having trouble getting the $50 credit for AirBnB (with spend or buy GC for $100) ?
It’s been more than 6 weeks and a few phone calls with promise, but still no credit showing up. Normally the credits show up within 48-72 hrs max.

Audrey
Audrey (@guest_218349)
January 18, 2016 22:07

I got it for airbnb gc, called and the rep knew all about it. Did it for all my cards, including business, and credits posted a few days later.

Kevin
Kevin (@guest_218355)
January 18, 2016 22:22

Just chat with them online. I waited like 2 weeks before chatting with them. They confirmed some information and “expidited” the credit. Had it like 3 days later. Had to do that for 9 different cards with that offer. 🙂

jnrfalcon
jnrfalcon (@guest_218284)
January 18, 2016 16:52

Not offer but charged $25 SENTRI application fee on my Amex Plat and it’s 5 days now and not reimbursed… Should I get reimbursed anyway?

Terry
Terry (@guest_172717)
September 15, 2015 13:14

Anyone had luck getting credit gc purchase on the buy $300 airline sync deal get $50 back? I used it varios and sundry fees on different airlines and it worked fine. Last day to use it today.

Todd
Todd (@guest_172421)
September 14, 2015 18:49

Does anyone have experience with getting the credit after their bank-branded card changed account numbers after syncing the offer on the card via twitter? I added the Best Buy promo when it came out, but since then, FIA decided my Fidelity card may have been compromised and automatically issued a new card last month. Not realizing that the sync offer is tied to the card number and not the account itself, I finally made my $250 purchase, but after a week with no credit I realized the twitter account is of course tied to the old number. I tweeted AskAmex, but they told me to contact the issuer. I’m not sure what FIA would do since they have nothing to do witih Amex sync offers.

Michael
Michael (@guest_172469)
September 14, 2015 21:59

Todd, you have to unsync your old card and resync new card with AMEX offers if you are using twitter. This will be a one time thing per card number change, but like you if you’re burned once it’s something to never forget again. (Keep this in mind for all future card changes) Manual, I know,but worth it for the riches.

Also this way if you automate all your twitter AMEX sync offers, they will go on unaffected once you change the card number.

Well worth the work in the end!

Todd
Todd (@guest_172928)
September 16, 2015 01:06

Thanks Mike. Yes, I already did the unsync and sync, but unfortunately that was after syncing the offer to my old card number and also making the purchase at Best Buy.

Unfortunately I wasn’t even thinking of the number change since only 2 of my 21 cards are not AMEX issued and we don’t have to worry about number changes with AMEX. I also didn’t request a new card. FIA just swapped it on me and I totally forgot that sync offers don’t follow the account for other banks. I was hopeful that AskAmex would somehow apply the credit for me.

Eric
Eric (@guest_173124)
September 16, 2015 12:36

This is exactly what happened to me a couple of years ago when FIA changed my card # and I forgot about it. If I remember correctly Amex didn’t give me the credit because they didn’t have access to my FIA card. It wouldn’t hurt to try though.

Michael
Michael (@guest_128334)
June 3, 2015 13:55

A related problem with AMEX offers. If you have an authorized user on any of your cards, apparently you need to have those AU cards matched to a AMEX login for credits. This has burned me a few times, especially with the lucrative offers. Everytime I’ve contacted AMEX about it, they state that there wasn’t a login associated with the account, be it AMEX offers tab @ AMEX.com or twitter promo. Something to watch out for as well.

Michael
Michael (@guest_128449)
June 3, 2015 18:45

Even if you save it on Twitter, one needs to have AMEX login for user on that card (besides accountholder).

GregC
GregC (@guest_225285)
February 12, 2016 15:50

Same thing happened to me. Apparently the offers are only good for the primary user’s card. Authorized users get a card with a different 5-digit numeric suffix, even though it’s considered to be the same account. This is different from VISA, Mastercard and Discover, which issue the identical account number to the authorized user. So when I realized that certain transactions weren’t receiving the statement credit, it didn’t register right away that those transactions were done on the authorized user’s card. AMEX gave me the credit due as goodwill, but I specifically asked them to make it very clear in their marketing material (emails and website) that only the primary user’s card is eligible for these offers.

Colin Z
Colin Z (@guest_597681)
May 22, 2018 06:58

This is simply false. AUs are entitled to their own offers.

rjp610
rjp610 (@guest_93430)
March 25, 2015 10:33

One reason credit might not be posting is you used an authorized/second card, not the primary card. Apparently the program is only supposed to apply to charges on the primary/registered card. Found this out through chat, but was able to receive the credits as a “goodwill gesture.”