by John Terry |
Last Updated: March 7, 2019 American Express cards are great because they allow you to earn Membership Rewards, which are a great transferable points option. What makes American Express even better is that cardholders can easily save money or earn extra bonus points when they use American Express Offers.
Cardholders will earn points by using their card on everyday spending, but Amex Offers are special deals that allow cardholders to earn even more. By simply adding an Amex Offer to your card before making a purchase, you can get even more value out of your spend.
I routinely check my Amex Offers. Just think, instead of opening Instagram for the umpteenth time, you could open the Amex mobile app to see what offers are available. You never know when there might be a great new deal.
You don’t have to do anything special once the offer has been added to your card – the statement credit or bonus points will be automatically applied to your account.
Some of my recent American Express Offers redemptions:
- $50 back after spending $125 with AirBnB
- $10 back after spending $10 with Dollar Shave Club (Yes, you read that right!)
- $15 back after spending $60 with Lyft
- $10 back after spending $30 with Caviar
Be warned, there are many offers you will never use. As I’ve mentioned in other articles, I don’t travel for work, don’t manufacture spend, or take elaborate expensive vacations, so the chance of me spending $1,000 on Air New Zealand is probably pretty slim. But, redeeming the useful offers is free money, so there’s no reason not to check it out.
How to check for American Express Offers
Here’s the best part: checking out American Express Offers is simple.
Just log on to your account and scroll down the screen until you see “Amex Offers & Benefits.” From there, you are able to see all the offers or sort them by several categories: Travel, Dining, Shopping, Entertainment.
If you see an offer you MIGHT use, you should add it to your card. Another strategy is to just add every offer to your card since you have nothing to lose. It’ll be worth it when you see a random statement credit come through for a purchase you didn’t realize was an American Express Offer.
What cards have American Express Offers
All credit or charge cards issued by American Express have offers associated with them. But, they’re not all equal.
I have four American Express cards – Amex Everyday, Gold Delta SkyMiles, Hilton Honors Card, and Amex Gold Card. I’ve found that cards that carry an annual fee have slightly better offers. The American Express Gold card consistently has better offers.
Up until early-2018, there were tricks to redeem one offer across multiple cards by simply opening up multiple tabs on your internet browser. Predictably, American Express started cracking down on this and there are reports of American Express shutting down accounts due to abuse.
In some cases, they were charging accounts for owed money due to receiving multiple statement credits.
Final Thoughts
Amex Offers are an easy way to save money or earn extra bonus points with your American Express cards. They’re also a great way to earn back money that you paid towards the annual fee. Even though there are good opportunities to earn value back when you redeem points and credit card perks, statement credits are a VERY easy way to rationalize an annual fee.
And based on my experience, there’s a decent chance that over the course of a year, you could earn at least $100 back through statement credits.