Watch Out for $100 Charge for Motley Fool Stacking
American Express has an Amex Offer that gets you a free subscription to Motely Fool. You get a one-time $99 statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to make a single subscription-based purchase of $99+ online at The Motley Fool or at fool.com/amex by 5/8/2021.
But when that offer came out you could also get some big bonuses from shopping portals, either in the form of cashback or miles and points. That would make it a profitable deal since the subscription itself was free with the Amex Offer. But soon after the offer came out, we were told that you can no longer stack the offers from shopping portals with the Amex Offer.
Right around that time, shopping portals also started changing their terms. So stacking the offers was really dead. But it seemed like those who jumped on the offer early were the winners. Especially when they started receiving their bonus miles and cashback over the last week. And then Amex came knocking.
A redditor reports that American Express has sent out email to those who stacked the Amex Offer with portal deals. In the email they explain that their credit card account has been charged $100, since the cardholder also received credit from the merchant.
We’ve charged your account listed above for $100.00, and we would like to explain why. We discovered that, while we issued you a credit under our Amex Offers program, you also received a credit from the merchant for the same charge(s). To correct this error, we have charged your account for the amount identified above to offset the credit(s). You will see this adjustment on an upcoming statement. There’s nothing further you need to do.
The email doesn’t specifically say Motley Fool so the poster could be mixing it up with an unrelated Amex Offer as well.
Conclusion
First, the credit is not really from the merchant here, but from shopping portals. Also, there was no mention of this restriction in the terms of the Amex Offer. It did say that you need to make the purchase at fool.com/amex, but that could also trigger a portal bonus in some cases.
There of course could be more to this story for sure and something else could be going on but you we thought it was worth alerting people to in case it comes down the pipeline.
Let us know if you took advantage of this offer, and how it has played out so far.
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My Offer credit posted about 4 days after I did the TMF purchase, went through Glamour Rewards for an $80 refund. 2 weeks later nothing there, filed a missing refund ticket, they wrote back a day or so later, said it should post in a couple of weeks. That makes sense to me since TMF will do a full refund up to 30 days after purchase, would expect the GR credit post shortly thereafter. We’ll see.
I managed a $99 subscription on the 27th, received credit on the 2nd shopped through UR… it never tracked… showed I visited….. guess I can read about investing and cancel in a month or two.
The offer says “Offer valid only on US website or at Fool.com/amex”. So i don’t think the terms require that you go through Fool.com/amex”
My Motley Fool charge was actually $106ish and then a subsequent $99 credit. I went thru Ultimate Rewards portal supposedly for 5k or 10K points as a new subscriber but have not seen them post on the Chase UR site yet.
On another note about The Motley Fool credit. I shopped before the terms were changed but I have not received the credit. I filed for missing points (Alaska) and the final response yesterday was that Motley Fool will not pay them, so they will not pay me. At first they cited the new terms with me and then I told them that the offer was still there when I clicked on it and that terms changed later were not the terms when I shopped, so shouldn’t be applied. That is when they just said they couldn’t pay out because they couldn’t get paid. It is a crappy way to do business.
Pretty sure this is about Home Depot or Best Buy. I saw chatter on a private board about how a canceled home depot order triggered the credit. This is why it’s always so hard to understand people’s stories about adverse action from credit card companies; they often don’t want to own up to every shady thing they have done.
This doesn’t sound right. Why would they use this language: “you also received a credit from the merchant for the same charge(s)”. That sounds like someone either cancelled their membership (if you do so within 30 days, I believe they credit it back automatically) or it’s related to a different offer. FWIW, I did this twice (1P & 2P) and nothing has changed in my account, credits are still there. And yeah, why $100, when the credit was $99.
I added something in that there could be more to the story. I do wonder if it is talking about another credit since Motley Fool isn’t explicitly mentioned by Amex.
Especially since Amex is offering $100 credits right now with BB & HD, etc. Returning what you purchased after the credits post & statement closes doesnt mean you get to keep the $100…
I’ve noticed that a lot of the new AMEX offers require you to use their provided link. This screams the end of double stacking AMEX offers with shopping portals. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
Lots of issues with the home depot and avis credits not positing too!
Still waiting on my HD one too. Best Buy posted after a week or so but nothing on HD.
My HD $100 credit came through in a couple of days after at $250 purchase. With BestBuy I did a $50 purchase and it took almost 2 weeks for the stmt. credit to post. Just did another $50 purchase at BB so expect that one will take another 10 days or so.
Also started to get several of the restaurant credits on multiple AX cards after about 10-14 days.
My credit came through on 2/2. No email or additional charge yet. I stacked with Chase UR.
I think the guy/gal on reddit is wrong. Why would Amex clawback $100 on a $99 maximum offer? It makes no sense. I bet the clawback is related to another offer/airline credit.
Damn – the AMEX RAT has finally figured out how to become a profit center!
It could be – added that in since the email doesn’t specify Motley Fool.
That’s Amex…
I mentioned this a few months back in a post on this site, but will say so again here. I am NOT trying to pick on you guys, but for a short several paragraph post it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two to proofread before posting.
It is jarring to some folks (me, for example) to read something and then keep getting thrown off by errors of wrong words, missing letters, missing words, etc. Please, try to add a bit more professionalism to the site with an extra minute or two of effort. Yes, I know this is free, but it makes the posts on the site look bad when they are not edited and have many mistakes.
I offer up just this one line as an example: “Let is know if you tool advantage of this offer, and how it has played out so far.”: is should be us, tool should be took. There are several more errors in this short post. A little more attention would make the posts a lot easier to read straight through.
Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts Carl.