American Express has started showing a pop up box when you’re not eligible for the sign up bonus, there are two variations:
- One that says you’re not eligible as you’ve held the card before
- One that says you’re not eligible based on your history with American Express
Readers have been asking if it’s possible to by pass this and still get the bonus. My answer has always been no, but reddit user bplturner. They were able to call in and request the bonus be manually added to the account:
We called the “back end” and the woman verified that I had never had the card so I was eligible for the welcome offer. After that she applied the card and doubly confirmed that I would be getting the bonus points.
I don’t know what the other verbiage is about: “your eligibility will depend on card usage, open and closing cards, blah blah blah”. It only seems to depend if you’ve had the card or not. The woman said “this has been happening a lot–I think there’s some glitch in the system.”
I’m still skeptical this will result in the bonus actually posting to the account as it seems that the front line representative didn’t understand a new qualification rule had been added. If it does work it looks like it would only work on cards you haven’t held before (or American Express’ shows as not being held).
i got popup for P3 when applying for delta gold however when i use a nll link sent my amex via mail that bypass the popup
Incognito mode also worked, at least for me with a new DL card back in January 2020.
Applied for a new card via my logged in account, got the popup.
Stopped, applied again via an incognito window as a fresh application (e.g. I had to enter all my company information again). No popup, instant approval, and I got the bonus miles after I completed the minimum spend.
10/14: I tried to apply for the Amex Gold via 2-player referral. I got the dreaded popup. After reading some reddit comments, I decided to put some additional spend ($2k) on my current cards (EveryDay and BB+), which I have not been using regularly at all.
10/21: The statement closed earlier in the week. I applied and got the popup again.
10/28: I put an additional $200 on the cards in normal spend over the week. Applied and was approved instantly!
Were you getting the pop-up because you previously had the PRG, or was it because of your “history”?
Because of my history.
In case others were wondering like me, I did previously have the old gold (not PRG).
Did you get the bonus?
After all of that, I did not. Completed min spend and contacted them via chat after a couple months. CSR mentioned number of opened and closed accounts as the reason for denying the bonus. Filed a CFPB complaint. The response just cited the generic fine print of being able to deny the bonus as they wish. Boo. Also, I’m not one of the lucky ones to have the missing points show up in my account (yet, at least).
We need a lot more data on this…
I’m starting to see this language more and more. Once when I was applying (perhaps understandable as I’ve applied/met/closed fairly often in the last 3-4 years, and then once when my Mom was applying today. That surprised me, as she has only applied/met/closed twice with Amex in the last 3 years. I’m inclined to believe the phone rep’s comment mentioned in this thread that there’s some sort of glitch in the system.
I applied the Spg Luxury card yesterday and got the pop up window saying I don’t qualify for the bonus. Today I used another link and applied on my phone and was approved without the pop up window. Will I still receive the bonus? Thanks!
Can you please show me the link that you used? thanks
Did you received the bonus via mobile website?
Will, thank you for answering clickbait questions in the title. you’re the best
I second that.
No problem
Why post this publicly?
because people were asking about it?
If I had the Platinum card before but the bonus was clawed back because I made the mistake of meeting the minimum spend but then I returned too many things and went under again, will I be eligible for a sign up bonus still? Does anyone know? Thanks!
On the same card? No.
Not for at least ~7 years as this is AmEx and they don’t care about previously receiving bonus, only previously holding card.
frontline reps dont necessarily know about new rules that are implemented