Amex Denying COVID-19 Spending Extension Based on Approval Date
Earlier this year, American Express announced that recent and new applicants would get extra time to complete their spending for welcome bonuses. This extension was for applications between December 1, 2019, and May 31, 2020 for which you are eligible for a welcome offer. In the terms, the following was clearly stated, even though it said “approved by” in some of the advertisements:
- You’ll receive the extension if you applied for Card by May 31, 2020 and were approved at a subsequent date. See terms here.
Now it looks like American Express is actually going by the approval date, and not the application date. Redditor wiivile reported his interaction with Amex reps. He was told by a couple of reps that the approval date was what mattered. This is strange, and wrong, since applicants do not have any control over how long it takes for an application to be approved. And besides, it is clearly stated in the terms of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Support offer provided by American Express.
Conclusion
Having an extra three months to complete spending was crucial during the pandemic. Spending large amounts while many businesses are closed and people were self isolating, was challenging to say the least. So the extra three months that American Express provided to complete spending for welcome bonuses, probably convinced more people to apply for new cards.
But now, the issuer is going against its clearly stated terms, saying that the extension is only given to those who were approved for a new card by May 31. It is stated in the fine print that you just needed to apply by that deadline, but could be approved at a subsequent date.
With something this clear, American Express will probably do right by cardholders on its own. Hopefully that happens, so people don’t need to fight Amex to get their bonuses.
Let us know if you have experienced similar issues with this spending extension.
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Oh it’s good to see that AC has crawled from underneath his rock.
AC, why are you even here? With all the money you claim to have can’t you pay someone to listen to your bitter ramblings?
Big deal – I run $8-$10K a month through on my cards and easy to meet required spending limits. No sympathy at all for someone who can hit $3000-$5000 in 3 months and that was before Amex extended it.
Just trying to stir the pot I see!! If you don’t reasonably have a way to quickly hit the bonus spending requirement in a month or two you should apply for the card.
A company changing their terms after the fact is never gonna be okay.
He’s trolling you, Mark. As mentioned by Randy, it was only a matter of time before AC unleashed his bitterness.