Amex Refer A Friend Limits
It appears American Express dropped some new Amex refer a friend limits today. In the past, they have moved things around with their referral programs. They move the points earned per referral up and down, and do the same with the refer a friend earning cap per account. It looks like they are taking a different, more straightforward route this time. There is now a 5 referral limit hard cap (per card).
What Has Changed
In the past American Express would limit how many points you could earn for by referring your Amex cards. This would be capped per card number, but was usually around 100,000 points per year. It never really made sense, especially when they would increase referral bonuses to 30,000 – 40,000 points per successful referral at times. That left you earning a fraction of the referral points when you approached the points earning cap.
Here is what the terms for the new Amex refer a friend limits now say:
Why I Like This Change
If the referral bonus points stay above 20,000 points per referral then American Express has basically increased the earning cap per card in a year. Let’s say you have a 30,000 point refer a friend bonus offer, that would mean you could earn a maximum of 150,000 points. In the past you would have earned 3 x 30K and then only 10K for the fourth referral, and nothing for the fifth.
I also like that American Express seems to have reset the referral points cap for the year even though we are over three months into the year. If you had any referrals already this year then it appears that has been reset to zero with this change. You should be able to earn five more referrals before the end of the year on top of whatever you have already earned.
The Downside Of This Change
On the flipside of that, these new Amex refer a friend limits could cost you points / referrals on the low end. If you card offers drop below 20,000 points per referral then you will have the ability to earn less points overall. That is assuming you had the ability to earn more than five referrals.
Having said that, I do think the upside is bigger than the downside here. Most people likely skipped over any low end offers for referring and went with a different card’s higher referral bonus. Since you can refer to any American Express cards from many of their cards it isn’t as big of a deal. That is unless you only have co-branded cards, which have their referrals family locked.
New Amex Refer A Friend Limits
It may be a rarity, but I don’t really mind these new Amex refer a friend limits. I think it gives us the ability to earn more points via American Express referral links as long as the bonuses stay fairly high. I like the straightforwardness of it too, where we no longer get partial referral bonuses when we get up near the earning cap.
Let me know what you think of these changes down below, or over in the MTM Facebook Group.
