How to Redeem Overlooked Amex Offers and Benefits

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One great perk of being an American Express cardholder is access to Amex Offers, a variety of discounts that you can redeem for purchases at select retailers. Today, TPG Contributor Akash Gupta explains how you can take advantage of these offers even if you forget to add them to your card before making a purchase.

After making an online purchase using one of my Amex cards, I noticed a statement credit offer for that merchant in the Amex Offers & Benefits section below. If only I had remembered to check that section, and then add the offer to my card before making the purchase! But now that I had already finalized the payment, nothing could be done about it, right? Actually, such didn't seem to be the case.

My initial encounter with this loophole on my SPG card. I ended up getting dual credit for the qualifying purchase – one requested manually, and the other through the offer added in deferral. — My initial encounter with this loophole on my SPG card. I ended up getting dual credit for the qualifying purchase — one requested manually, and the other through the offer added in deferral.

Feeling disappointed, I added the offer to my card anyway, and opened up customer chat. I expressed that I didn't feel too great about missing out on the rebate offer, and asked whether the rep could consider manually issuing me a statement credit for it. And get this: American Express customer service instantly accommodated my request and little mess-up, issuing me a credit for the offer amount.

It promptly showed up by next morning as an "adjustment" in my online account. A day or two later when the specific purchase posted, I also received the statement credit from the offer itself, which I had added after completing the transaction, but before it had posted. I couldn't resign myself to thinking this was just a one-off mistake.

Not just a one-off mistake. Results were exactly the same when tried on my Platinum Card. — Not just a one-off mistake: Results were exactly the same when tried on my Platinum Card.

So, I again made a qualifying purchase using my Amex card — this time, intentionally overlooking the respective rebate offer available in the section below. I then added the offer shortly after completing the payment, while the transaction was still "pending." Et voila — it happened again. Even though the Amex terms instruct cardmembers to add such offers to their cards before making the qualifying purchases, I was able to capitalize on the benefit despite adding it later on in the sequence in both scenarios. Just to be sure, I tried it a third time and on a different Amex card. The results were the same!

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Maximize Your Purchases

If you're using an Amex offer found through your account online, you'll need to pay with the card for which you see the discount offered. However, you can also find offers via Facebook and Twitter, in which case you can choose the card you want to connect. In that case, one of your first choices should the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card for American Express, which TPG has named as his top choice for non-bonus-category spending.

Have you ever used this technique to redeem Amex Offers?