Amex Widens Refer-A-Friend Program to Products Outside Your Card Family

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

Last month, American Express made an exciting update to its refer-a-friend program. The bank started allowing cardmembers to refer friends and family to not just the product the cardholder has, but also to cards in the same card family.

For example, if you hold the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express, you can send a referral link to a friend for the Hilton Honors American Express Ascend Card and still receive a referral bonus after your friend signs up for the card. In the past, you would've only been allowed to generate a referral link for the Aspire Card.

However, Amex appears to have expanded the program even more — now allowing cardholders to send a referral link that permits a friend to sign up for nearly any Amex card (even if you don't hold that specific card) and the cardholder will still receive a referral bonus.

For instance, if you hold an The Business Platinum Card® from American Express but your friend wants to sign up for a Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express you can send send them a link that will take them to the referral page of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express. Below where they click to apply, there will be a section that says "Explore Other Cards" where they can click through to a page that has card applications outside of your card family.

After clicking on my referral link that I generated from my Amex Business Platinum card it appears that the page even links to personal card referrals — so you can refer across business and personal cards. All cards say "Referral Offer" indicating that yes, you can refer people to cards outside your family.

At the bottom of the page, the terms even state: "Your friend will receive a referral bonus if you are approved for any of the Cards with a referral offer."

When searching through my Amex Business Platinum's referral link, there appeared to be 17 personal cards available for referral and 12 business cards eligible for the program; it's possible people will have other results with their own links.

But what type of bonus will you get if you send someone a referral link for the Amex Business Platinum card but they apply for a Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card?

We reached out to American Express to clarify, and a spokesperson told us this:

“In general, the card member will get the referral bonus offer of the card they referred, regardless of what card their referred friend ultimately chooses."

So in the above scenario, had my friend been approved for the Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card, I should receive 15,000 Membership Reward points.

This is great news for people who hold premium cards and want to refer friends and family who are just getting started in the points and miles world. It may not make sense for them to sign up for The Platinum Card® from American Express right off the bat, but maybe for a card like the American Express® Gold Card which carries a lower annual fee. Now you can send them a referral link and they can sign up for whatever card they choose, and you'll still be rewarded in the process.

Keep in mind that there are reports of referral links that have welcome bonuses that may be higher than public offers. Note that these offers are subject to change at any time.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

Remember that it is TPG policy that referral links are not allowed in the comments section, but I hope you are able to get your friends and family to jump on these great offers while earning you bonus points in the process.