50,000+ American Express Points for Free With Additional Cardholders

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

TPG reader Tassojunior tipped me off yesterday to a great American Express Membership Rewards promo: 10,000 points for each additional cardholder added to an account as long as they use their card at least once within 4 months of getting the card. All you need to do is call the Amex number on the back of your card and ask for Membership Rewards and then give them bonus code 5721. To be safe, make sure they notate your account that you will be eligible for the bonus - Amex is very good about honoring what their reps commit to over the phone.

This promo is good for Jan 1 - December 31, 2011, so if you've added an Authorized User to your account this year, ask for retroactive credit.

This is great news to me because I just got the Premier Rewards Gold Card and that card allows 5 additional users for free. So not only did I get 15,000 bonus points for signing up and 65,000 more just for asking, but now I'll get 50,000 more for this promotion. 125,000 Amex points, basically for free, since the $175 annual fee is waived the first calendar year. Not bad, especially for a card that gives 3x points on airfare, 2x on gas and groceries and 1x for everything else and an additional 15,000 point bonus when you spend $30,000 each calendar year. I will write a post about my personal card strategy, but I may keep the Premier Rewards as my primary Amex and use my Chase Sapphire Preferred for all international spend, since it has no foreign transaction fees. Expect a full post soon on my analysis of what credit cards I use and why.

You can also get this bonus for other Amex charge cards, so it can't hurt to call and ask to see if you are eligible. When I talked to the rep, she confirmed it was originally targeted, but she confirmed with a supervisor it should be open to all US Amex charge card customers.

My Platinum card charges $175 for the first 3 additional users and then $175 per person after that (since each additional card members gets lounge access and Priority Pass Select membership)(See Rates & Fees). I value 20,000 Amex points conservatively at around $450 (they can be purchased directly from Amex for 2.5 cents a piece). Plus, I can make 2 family members/friends very happy with all of the benefits of the Platinum card, like lounge access (I'll also set their spend limits to $10 so they can't run me into debt!)

Premier Rewards Card details (full analysis here):
[card card-name='Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express' card-id='22035076' type='javascript' bullet-id='1']

For rates and fees of the Platinum Card, please click here.