Amex Cardholders Can Now Earn Up to 40K Points for Each Referral
American Express has a great referral system. You can refer people to almost any American Express credit card from most cards, and you can net some sweet referral bonuses as well. Just make sure to stay away from self referrals, as we have often mentioned here on the site. Just have a friend or family member refer you, or vice versa. You can find referral links here.
40K Referrals
Some Membership Rewards cardholders are seeing some amazing new bonuses for referring friends. The referral bonus has been increased to a whopping 40,000 Membership Rewards points for each person you refer and is approved for a new card. That is the type of bonus you wouldn’t mind for a new card, but instead you can just get it for referring someone.
You will earn the 40,000 Membership Rewards points bonus even if the person you refer applies for a card that doesn’t earn Membership Rewards.
The annual limit for referral bonuses is still at 100,000 points for each card that you refer from. But you can now maximize it with just 3 referrals. This seems to be targeted, so check your accounts and hopefully you have the increased bonus there.
It’s also worth noting that the highest referral bonus we have see was 45,000 Membership Rewards points.
Tax Implications
American Express has been reporting referral bonuses as taxable income, whether it’s cash or points. You will receive a Form 1099-MISC for these points. Based on last year, each American Express Membership Rewards points is valued at 1 cent for tax purposes.
Conclusion
This is a great referral bonus. Those 40,000 Membership Rewards points are worth $$600 if you value your MR points at 1.5 cents, and you are getting them just for referring someone to sign up for a new card.
This is a great opportunity to apply for cards that normally don’t have a big welcome offer such as Blue Business Plus, or it can make any welcome bonus 40,000 points better.
Let us know in the comments if you see the 40K referral bonus in your accounts!
