Amex Pilot Program: Increased Signup Bonuses on Personal Cards for Corporate Cardholders

There’s an interesting post on Reddit from user unexistant who works for a large US company. Their company uses Amex corporate cards for the business, and Amex has now partnered with them as part of a pilot program to offer employees special bonuses on personal cards.

[Update: More info in this post.]

American Express has chose to partner with XXX on a Corporate Advantage Pilot offering personal cards to corporate card holders

 

Travel rewards or cash back? You’re pre-approved and the choice is yours.

We’re pleased to present U.S. Corporate Card Members with our best offers available for two great American Express Personal Cards…These exclusive offers are only available through the American Express Corporate Advantage Program…

amex corporate pilot increased signup bonus

Here are the two cards being offered as part of this pilot program:

Premier Rewards Gold

  • $200 statement credit each of your first two years
  • Plus, earn 50,000 points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the Card in your first 3 months of Card Membership
  • $100 airline fee credit
  • $195 annual fee

50,000 is very competitive, although there have been some better offers or offers which might be considered better. Adding the $400 in statement credits over the first two years makes this offer enticing. Remember, the $400 is on top of the $100 annual airline credit which comes every year.

It’s important to note that this offer does not have it’s $195 annual fee waived the first year like other offers do. Still, factoring in the $400 bonuses it’s a great deal. After the second $200 bonus posts, you can cancel if you’re within 30 days, or downgrade to Green and get the fee prorated.

Blue Cash Preferred

  • Earn a $100 statement credit each of your first two years
  • Plus, earn $300 back after you spend $1,000 in purchases on the Card in your first 3 months of Card Membership
  • $95 annual fee

Again, we see this unique $100 cash bonus for the first two years. The $300 bonus is quite good too, although we have seen better on BCP. In any case, factoring in the $200 in additional bonuses, this is likely the best bonus ever.

Assuming you just want the card for the bonus, you might be able to cancel after the second $100 credit hits and get the $95 fee refunded if it’s within 30 days. Otherwise, you can downgrade to Blue Cash Everyday and get a prorated refund.

Our Verdict

Both of these offers are excellent deals. There are a few things that I find particularly interesting about these offers:

1) The new Amex corporate partnership. This is just a pilot program, but it might expand to affect more companies. They’ve likely determined corporate employee customers to be more profitable and are thus targeting them accordingly.

2) The lifetime angle. As we know, Amex has a strict once-per-lifetime rule on signup bonuses. These cards don’t not fall under that rule.

3) The statement credits. They are offering a statement credit for around the amount of the annual fee, and even offering it for two years. I’m fairly certain the idea is to offset the annual fee and get you used to paying an annual fee for two years with the hopes you’ll continue doing so.

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Jerry
Jerry (@guest_342976)
January 23, 2017 22:02

My wife also got the office from her company email, and she applied for the card on Dec. The 200 credit comes very fast.

Points Tutor
Points Tutor (@guest_342954)
January 23, 2017 21:07

I’m very excited about this.. I wish this would’ve been around a couple of years ago when I as a consultant.

Vincent Poon
Vincent Poon (@guest_342844)
January 23, 2017 16:11

Hi I’m the OP. There’s no lifetime language. I have the PRG already and plan on getting this, so I’ll report back on what happens. I have to get the corporate platinum card first though – which I found out is a hard pull 🙁

Robert
Robert (@guest_342873)
January 23, 2017 17:05

Hi Vincent,

Where did you see these offers? Did you get an email or just notice it on your Amex homepage?

On the homepage for my corporate Amex, I don’t see anything along these lines