Some American Express Cardholders Shut Out of Referrals Again
The American Express referral system is very generous since it lets you refer friends and family members for any card, even if you don’t have that card yourself. You can even refer to business cards from a personal card and vice versa.
But when this was first introduced in 2019, it also opened up the possibility for self referrals. We have warned against referring yourself several times. Eventually American Express clawed back referral bonuses that were earned through self referrals. Later they even blocked people who had referred themselves from generating referral links.
Since then, it looked like American Express eased up on enforcing the referral ban. Those who were originally blocked from generating referrals, were able to start referring again. This was possible through new American Express cards and even existing accounts when the card number changed.
But now American Express is once again removing the ability to generate referrals for people that were originally banned due to self referrals. Several data points in the last couple of days on reddit point to a new ban. If you were impacted by this back in 2019, you should check your accounts. If you can no longer refer, then your existing referral links are no longer valid either.
Conclusion
This is another reminder to stay away from self referrals, even though that additional referral bonus might be tempting. It is not worth the risk.
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Haven’t yet made a referral for Amex. I could offer Referrals from both Platinum Personal and Aspire a couple weeks ago, but Aspire does not currently show that ability.