Military Benefits Extend To Spouses With American Express When Military Members Are Added As An Authorized User

American Express provides benefits for military members that are above and beyond what is required under the SCRA & MLA. The most significant is the fact that annual fees are waived for those on active duty. This can provide significant value for military members due to applying to cards with large annual fees like the regular Platinum & Delta Deserve card (as well as the upcoming Hilton Aspire). The benefit also applies to account where you have an authorized user attached, but reddit user GenericWittyNameHere had his wife add him as an authorized user on her Platinum card and just received a response that for all her cards where he is an authorized user the annual fees will be refunded, they also retroactively refunded the annual fee on her Platinum card that was charged back in November, 2016.  This is a pretty huge addition for active duty military and their spouses, hopefully this helps a few people! As always you can read more about each card issuers SCRA policies here and their MLA policies here. Also apologizes for the title gore, I couldn’t think of anything better.

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Steve
Steve (@guest_537203)
December 17, 2017 13:05

I am active duty with an Amex platinum and my wife is added as an authorized user already.

Can she apply for her own platinum account and add me as an authorized user so her annual fee would be waived?

Clay
Clay (@guest_537209)
December 17, 2017 13:20

Yes! Done this for many AmEx cards. My wife has four or five accounts that I’m an authorized user on, and she gets SCRA benefits on all of them.

brian
brian (@guest_528442)
December 1, 2017 23:09

I am active duty with an amex platinum already. My spouse use my referral link while adding me as an authorized user?

Heather
Heather (@guest_529130)
December 2, 2017 21:48

Once she has the account you can apply the SCRA benefits under Account Services and just fill in your information. Super easy. If for any reason it doesn’t work then you could always be added at some point as an AU for the fail safe.

Robert
Robert (@guest_528085)
December 1, 2017 11:57

Good information. Time to double dip the Platinum Cards.

Jimmy G
Jimmy G (@guest_527813)
December 1, 2017 00:40

This is great news (even if it’s been in place for a couple of years)!

I specifically asked Amex if they’d waive the annual fee on my spouse’s cards, and they said they would not. They did not mention that they would had I become an AU.

Thank you!

Heather
Heather (@guest_527809)
December 1, 2017 00:34

This is not new and you don’t need to add your spouse to your card. Amex has waived both spouse and I for years. In fact, we have seen the same from the other banks also. The difference being that before MLA many of the other banks didn’t waive fees unless you had the card before entering the military. The exception being Barclays old rules (that ended earlier this year). When Barclay waived fees they waived both SO and I even though not on each others cards. Going to miss that Gold Card!
I had a Citi TYPreffered before my spouse went into the military. Never added my spouse to the card but they waived the fees under SCRA, so I PC’d to a Prestige and have continued to get the waived fees.
I wouldn’t suggest adding your spouse as an AU especially if they are under 5/24, you are just making it more difficult to get automatic approvals.

Heather
Heather (@guest_528407)
December 1, 2017 21:58

You simply submit the service members paperwork and marriage certificate, if needed. For Amex I have just applied SCRA benefits online under Account Services using my SO information.

Sarah
Sarah (@guest_528890)
December 2, 2017 16:04

AMEX has told me many times that this wasn’t the case when I chatted with them. Guess they don’t follow their own policies.

Heather
Heather (@guest_529126)
December 2, 2017 21:46

HUCA. However, the easiest way to apply SCRA Benefits is to log in to your account (or service members account) and choose the card.
Select Account Services. Under Card Management select the option SCRA Benefits. It will give you several prompts to input information like service members (SM) name, SSN, DOB, date that active duty started and date SM will leave military (if known, otherwise NA). On an additional page you will be asked for the name of additional cards or spouses name for their cards to apply SCRA benefits too. It is super easy. Good Luck!

Clay
Clay (@guest_527775)
November 30, 2017 23:27

I’ve been taking advantage of this for a couple of years now. Between the two of us we get four Delta companion tickets every year (we each have a Reserve and Delta Platinum), and we have a total of four Platinums, too. Very valuable deal for my family.

Don
Don (@guest_527738)
November 30, 2017 21:35

Better one: American Express extend MLA & SCRA Benefits to Primary Card Holders Who Add Their Active Duty Spouse As Authorized Users

A Stad
A Stad (@guest_527734)
November 30, 2017 21:26

This has been the case for a while (as far back as I can remember) but thanks for posting about it!

password
password (@guest_527768)
November 30, 2017 22:42

Thank you!

Not spouse’s
Not spouse’s (@guest_527730)
November 30, 2017 21:21

Spouses