We’ve written about various offers with Amex Checkout.
- Free Money with the New Amex Express Checkout!
- Amex Checkout Credits Posting, How to Maximize, and More!
- Free $9 Per Amex Card with Ticketmaster & Amex Checkout
The Offer
- Purchase a 12-week Wall Street Journal subscription for only $12, pay with Amex Express Checkout and receive a $10 statement credit.
Net result will be a $2 charge for the 12 weeks. You can cancel before the subscription renews and you won’t pay anything more than the $2. You can choose to buy a digital subscription or a paper subscription; both have the same initial $12 cost.
Okay, that wasn’t so exciting. Now the exciting part….
There are various portals which pay out high amounts for an initial WSJ subscription. See the options here.
- $20 cashback with Citi Bonus Cash Center, Fatwallet portal (my referral link), Â or Lucky Rewards.
- 2000 points with Barclay Reward Boost [UPDATE: Mileswhip notes that this 2000 points will become $22 after the 10% travel bonus, making Barclay the best deal.]
- 2100 points with Plenti (technically worth $21, but not necessarily the best option since it’s not that easy to cash out)
- 1700 AAdvantage points with the AAdvantage Shopping portal
- 1400 Southwest points with Rapidrewards Shopping portal
- 1000 United points with Mileage Plus shopping portal
NOTE: The $12 rate is only for new WSJ subscribers who have not been subscribed for the past 180 days. The is tied to an address – it’s per household or business address. [My understanding is that you can get the introductory rate at each address separately, i.e. once at your home address and once at your office. You can try verifying this with WSJ.]
The Fine Print
Like all of these Amex Checkout deal, they are valid until 9/7/15. We don’t know if the portal deal and the introductory WSJ deals will last forver, but I’m optimistic.
Our Verdict
Interestingly, this deal could have been good even without the Amex Offer, but perhaps not worth the hassle. With the Amex Offer, you’re getting the subscription for just $2 so it really becomes a good deal. Whether you opt to buy $20/$22 for $2 or opt to buy 1000-1700 airline miles for $2 you’re in for a win.
IMPORTANT: Mark down on your calendar to cancel the subscription within 12 weeks. The second charge is around $30 and you don’t want to be hit with it!
Multiples?
Where it gets more interesting is if you can multiply the number of subscriptions you can make. We mentioned earlier that the $12 would appear to be tied to an address, so you may be able to (legitimately) make two separate $12 subscriptions for separate addresses and pay with separate Amex cards.
Also note that the terms sound pretty clear (to me) that the portal payout is irrespective of whether you are a first time subscriber or second time subscriber; only the $12/12-week deal which is to first time subscribers. (As noted above, this is is dependent on the past 180 days, and seems to be tied to the address rather than the person.) It appears that the second-time subscription is at least $28.95 so it probably won’t be worthwhile.
Another ‘multiples’ idea would be to subscribe to the introductory digital subscription for $12 and a separate order of introductory physical subscription for $12. My guess is that this would work, but I can’t guarantee it.
Note that they do require you to call in to cancel, no way to do it online.
HT: @jaywogi on Twitter
