How long for an Amex Referral Bonus to show?

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How long for an Amex Referral Bonus to show?

American Express Business Platinum is currently offering an outstanding 100k sign up bonus after $15k spend in 3 months. What’s even better than this, is if you already have an Amex Business Platinum you can refer people to the card and receive a 25k referral bonus. Some people don’t get the 25k link when they use the normal Amex refer-a-friend site ( I was one of them), nor is it available on their profile, but I was able to find a back-end into the 25k referral and wrote about it a while back. Anyways – here’s how long it took for a referral bonus to show up in my account.

My buddy applied and was approved on Monday, November 14th

and BAM!

Amex Referral Bonus

The very next day I received my referral bonus!

I tell you…one of the best decisions I’ve made this year ( regarding credit cards and points ) was to upgrade my Business Gold to a Platinum when I was targeted for a 50k upgrade. Once I hit my min spend on that card ( 10k in 5 months), I’ll make a minimum of 75k ( 50k upgrade + 25k referral so far ) bonus points. Unreal. I was targeted for that card 2.5 years ago and received a 75k sign up offer. At my account anniversary I received a 15k retention bonus. I paid the annual fee of $175, then got targeted for an upgrade for 50k combined with this referral bonus of 25k means I’ve earned a whopping 165k off just that card not counting spend and spend bonus. Woot Woot!

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

4 Comments

  • The Value Traveler April 10, 2018

    I sent my sister in law and my brother links for the Hilton Ascend card….I still havent gotten the referral bonus. ANy idea why? My SPG referral was almost the same day as they got approved.

    • Miles April 11, 2018

      I’d call and inquire. Mine in the past have usually posted within days of approval. The may say 6-8 weeks, but I’d get the ball rolling

  • Tom November 19, 2016

    Did you ask for the retention bonus?

    • Miles November 19, 2016

      Hey Tom – Thanks for reading! I said I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep the card for another year and pay the annual fee. They then asked if I’d rather have the fee waived or bonus points. I took the points

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