Two Useful Things American Express Does for Replacement Cards
I wrote last week about my Walmart account being hacked. Basically someone was able to get into my Walmart account and use an American Express card that was on file to purchase a bunch of merchandise. It was quite the ordeal, but I ultimately was able to foil their plans.
Just to be safe though, I decided to call American Express and have them issue a new card. The phone agent was very nice and the process took just a couple of minutes. My new card is in the mail, but since then I have received two incredibly useful emails from them regarding recurring charges and Amex Offers.
Amex Offers
It used to be that you would have to resync offers onto your American Express card if the number changed. This was a pain and was also costly since many offers go away and can’t be resynced. Thankfully American Express seems to have fixed this process. Here is an email I received from them within hours of ordering a replacement card:
Dear SHAWN COOMER ,
We are pleased to let you know that we have your new Card ending in 2***2 on record.
If you added offers to your previous Card ending in 2***9 through the Amex Offers program that are still available and not yet redeemed, your connection status and enrollment(s) have automatically been transferred to your new Card ending in 2***2.
This communication is for informational purposes only and you do not need to take any further action.
Thank you for your Card Membership.
This is really great and convenient. I plan to test this out with the Dollar General Amex Offer as soon as I receive the new card, but I expect it will work.
I don’t expect this same thing will happen with Serve/Bluebird cards and third party issued Amex cards though. My guess is those cards will need to be resynced. Even so, this is great for regular Amex cards, since offers disappear form your online account after they are synced and it can be impossible to get them back.
Recurring Charges
If you are like me, then you probably have way too many credit cards. While I am almost always strategic, from time to time I will use whatever card is lying around, especially if it is for a small recurring charge. Not the best strategy overall, but it is something I have been known to do.
One of the reasons this isn’t advisable is that it can be hard to keep track of which charges go where. I have thankfully moved away from this behavior lately, but there are still legacy charges that need to get changed. One good example is Hulu. Apparently I had my monthly Hulu Plus subscription on the now cancelled Amex card.
Thankfully American Express sent me an email showing my charges from the past couple of months that could be recurring just to make sure I set them up with the new account number. I think I’ll let the Hulu subscription go, but this helpful email could have saved me from losing an important subscription.
Here is the text of their email:
Dear SHAWN COOMER,
According to our records, we recently issued a replacement Card for your AMERICAN EXPRESS Card. We have changed some of the Card information to protect the security of your account. As a result, you may want to notify any merchants that have your Card information on file that your information has changed.
For your convenience, we have listed below some merchants at which you have used your Card in the past and may have your previous account information on file.
Conclusion
It is little things like these that make a company stand out to me. American Express has always been known for their customer service and this is just another example of them proactively trying to help a customer. These emails are no doubt automated, but someone at the company decided to spend the resources to program this feature in order to help customers. It is the small things like this that make me continue to value American Express.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Yeah we have HuluPlus + Netflix + Amazon Prime, and love not paying a rediculous cable bill. I’m testing Sling but not yet sold on the $20 fee. I just can’t see paying for satellite or cable anytime in the near future.
Am I correct that this just is referring to offers already saved to the card, meaning that you’ll still have to unsync/resync for future offers?
What does Dollar General sell that would make the Amex offer (save $5!) worthwhile? Visa GCs using CC?
Who do I contact to change my sync info?
I can’t access my Twitter for one and I have no idea what Twitter account I used for the other account.
If you get a good answer, let me know! I’ve got one card that I can’t remember what the twitter account it is linked to and no one at Amex seems to be able to help me!
Got it. We ditched cable and use strictly Hulu and Netflix. $14/month for Hulu Plus + Netflix vs Charter minimum of $60/month
I almost ditched Directv, but they gave me $200 to stick around plus free Sunday Ticket and movie channels. A bunch of freebies. Then that Amex Offer came around and I got another several hundred dollars free as well. In the end, my tv this year is pretty much free!
Surprised you haven’t taken advantage of any of the retail sync offers to buy Hulu gift cards…
Truth be told I am not a fan of Hulu Plus. I joined in a free trial a couple of months ago and had been meaning to cancel it. I put all small recurring charges on my Chase cards now, because I feel it helps with them and then I know they are all in one place for me to see.