Amex Offers Cell Phones
American Express has released two new targeted Amex Offers for those looking to save while paying their cell phone bill. Let’s take a look and see whether or not they are worth utilizing.
Offer 1 – Cash Rebate
The Offer
Get 10% of your online payment back as a statement credit each time you use your enrolled Card to pay your cell phone bill online @ these accepting major US carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon) by 1/31/17. Limit $30 in total credits.
Key Terms
- Valid for cell phone bill payments made directly with T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T Wireless, US Cellular and Verizon online and via mobile app.
- Other services, if bundled with wireless bill payment, may be eligible.
- Payments for prepaid cell phone purchases, plans or services do not qualify.
- Payments made via phone, mail, or at retail locations do not qualify.
- Payments for brands other than those listed do not qualify.
How to Load
This offer is targeted and can only be loaded via the American Express website. I was targeted for this offer on an old Blue Cash card.
Offer 2 – Membership Rewards Rebate
The Offer
Get 1,000 Membership Rewards points each time you use your enrolled card to make a single purchase of $100+ online at accepting major U.S. carriers by 1/31/17. Limit of 3,000 additional points.
Key Terms
- Valid for cell phone bill payments made directly with T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T Wireless, US Cellular and Verizon online and via mobile app.
- Other services, if bundled with wireless bill payment, may be eligible.
- Payments for prepaid cell phone purchases, plans or services do not qualify.
- Payments made via phone, mail, or at retail locations do not qualify.
- Payments for brands other than those listed do not qualify.
How to Load
This offer is targeted and can only be loaded via the American Express website. I wasn’t targeted for this offer, but look for it on charge cards that earn Membership Rewards along with the Everyday branded cards.
Are These Offers Worth It?
Some people might argue that using a Chase Ink to earn 5X Ultimate Rewards is a better deal than either of these offers. I don’t think so. For example, my Old Blue card earns 1% cashback on everyday purchases, meaning I would get 11% back by paying my bill with this offer. I’ll take 11% in cash over 5X points any day. Taking it a bit further, if I would take 11% back in cash, I’ll definitely take 1,000 Membership Rewards points plus the normal earnings too.
Conclusion
While these offers are targeted, I have a feeling many of you will have access to them. They aren’t as lucrative as some other deals we have seen (like the recent AT&T offer), but if you pay your bill online anyway, this could be a nice way to save some money or earn some extra points as a rebate.
Were you targeted? On which cards? Let us know in the comments!
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.
4/4, but three were for 1000 MR points. Not sure all the work of splitting payments into $100 increments is worthwhile though. Keep up the good work Shawn!
I had the 1000 MR offer, wife had the 10% offer, both on Amex Everyday.
Each of our Platinum, Delta Gold, and Hilton cards had nothing, nor did my SPG.
Anyone try buying stuff online to get this triggered? I guess cell phone bills are coded in a certain way so Amex knows?
No Platinum, No EveryDay NAF, No SPG, No Hilton NAF, No SimplyCash, No SimplyCash Plus… No on anything
On the Everyday Preferred but not on the Platinum.
Had it on my Everyday Preferred. I think I’ll do something in the vein of what Biggie said, pay $100 each month on the card and then pay the remaining $200 on the Ink Plus, to get 1150 total MR points and 1000 total UR points monthly versus just 1450 MR or 1500 UR if I just used the respective cards.
I definitely agree. I wouldn’t pay more than the $100 required to trigger the bonus. Everything above that should definitely go on an Ink card.
For those of us who have the Amex Business Platinum, and buy airline tickets, 3,000 MR points now equals $60. So $60 back on $300 spend is pretty good. I use UR points for Hyatt, where I value them at $0.02/point, so at 5x on $300 this would only be ~$30 in value back. If I didn’t just get the Amex Business Platinum, I probably wouldn’t go for this.
Also, there’s a potential “trap,” since if your bill is $150 and you use the Amex offer for the whole thing, you are losing 5x on the $50 above the $100 Amex offer trigger. Do you suppose the offer works if you pay $100, then another $100 (say, a day later)? Or better to split payment each month ($100 on Amex offer, the rest on Ink)?
Whoops… my question about splitting was in my case, where we seem to have it on only one card. In amy’s case — with the Amex Business Platinum — I would rotate through the cards in $100 increments.
I should have clarified, I only have a Hilton Surpass, Hilton HHonors, and a Delta card with Amex. So no bonus for this type of spending, just the 10% off. My bill is ~ $300 a month, so ~$30. With Ink I get ~ 1500 UR points. Is there a formula to figure out which is better?
I was targeted on 3/3 cards. Loaded it to all of them. But I wasn’t sure if the 10% was better than the 5x? How could I figure this out before I use this offer? Any special formula to use?
No, it really is a personal decision. I am cautious about overvaluing points and generally will take 2 cents in cash over any points currency, even Ultimate Rewards.