Check Your Statements: Amex Business Gold 4x Bonus Points Not Posting Correctly
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
When American Express redesigned the American Express® Business Gold Card, one of the biggest highlights was the addition of "intelligent" bonus categories. Instead of earning extra points in fixed categories, Amex recognizes that your business expenses may vary month to month.
Business Gold card holders earn 4x points in their top two spending categories each month from the following list (on the first $150,000 in combined purchases each calendar year; then 1x), and 1x point everywhere else:
- Airfare purchased from airlines
- US purchases for advertising in select media
- US purchases for shipping
- US purchases at gas stations
- US purchases at restaurants
- US purchases made from select technology providers
These categories are automatically calculated by Amex each month, allowing your business to earn the most possible rewards without putting in any extra work. However, Doctor of Credit is reporting that bonus points have not been posting correctly for statements that closed mid-April or later. A number of readers in the TPG lounge are reporting the same problem: Their Business Gold cards are earning 1x on all purchases, but not the additional 3x they should be earning in select bonus categories.
According to Doctor of Credit, Amex is aware of this issue but hasn't fixed it yet. In the meantime, readers have reported success calling in and asking for a manual adjustment of their points, though that can take a while to post (and completely defeats the "hands-off" approach to the Business Gold's earning structure). (This issue may be resolved).
While it's easy to adopt a "set it and forget it" mentality when it comes to your points accumulation, this should serve as a reminder that it's always important to double-check that you actually received all the points you should have. Whether it's Marriott and its glitchy IT, an online shopping portal (that may not always track correctly) or even your credit card bonus categories, it's worth spending a few minutes at the end of each month auditing your points balances and making sure everything has posted correctly.
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