|
| Offers up to 175,000 points |
| by Brian Kelly |
|
 |
Hi everyone,
Last week I promised to share my full review of my La Compagnie business-class flight home from Paris — here’s a link to the Instagram reel. Overall, the experience was mediocre at best, but a decently priced option, considering I booked at the last minute. So if you can’t find any points availability to or from Europe, or airfare is sky-high, this might be your next best option.
Massive welcome bonuses
One of the top trends I’ve seen in the credit card industry over the last several years is the proliferation of personalized and targeted offers. Credit card companies will offer juicier sign-up bonuses — sometimes double or triple the amount publicly available — to customers they deem to be more valuable.
The companies consider many data points, including whether you have an existing relationship with that bank and your credit score. So, I always recommend opening mail from the credit card companies to see if you have any targeted offers.
How to seek out targeted offers
You can seek out targeted offers by using TPG’s CardMatch tool, which is a soft credit check that does not affect your credit score. The CardMatch tool shows targeted offers for The Platinum Card® from American Express and a few other cards. Just note: If you have a credit freeze to prevent fraud, you must temporarily unfreeze it for the CardMatch tool to provide you with offers.
Amex Platinum
Some TPG readers have been receiving 175,000-point bonus offers, which is huge considering the highest publicly available offer right now on the Amex Platinum Card is 80,000 points. According to TPG’s August 2024 valuations, a 175,000-point bonus would be worth a massive $3,500.
If you check CardMatch, you could be targeted, but even if you aren’t offered 175,000 bonus points, there are 100,000- and 150,000-point offers in there, too. Either way, you’re still getting offered more points than the public offer, so I recommend you grab it if you see it.
All of these targeted and public welcome offers for the Amex Platinum Card have the same spending requirement to earn the bonus points — $8,000 on eligible purchases on the card in the first six months of card membership.
Amex Gold
There are also offers for the American Express® Gold Card with up to 90,000 points. The current public offer is 60,000 points plus 20% back as a statement credit for eligible restaurant purchases within the first six months (up to $100).
I’ve had my Amex Gold for as long as I can remember, and it is my go-to card for earning 4 points per dollar on spending at U.S. supermarkets and restaurants*, which is unmatched. Even though the annual fee was increased during the card’s recent refresh, I will still be able to offset that because of the new biannual up-to-$50 Resy credit that was added (enrollment is required). There are a ton of Resy restaurants in New York City so the card is still a no-brainer for me.
I’m also a sucker for a Dunkin’ cold brew at an airport, so I will still get plenty of value out of my Amex Gold Card.
The welcome offers for the Amex Gold (publicly available and targeted in CardMatch) have the same spending requirement to earn the bonus points — $6,000 on eligible purchases on the card in the first six months of card membership.
Whether you’ve looked before or are doing so for the very first time, you might be surprised this time around. You might be lucky enough to get in on some of the biggest bonuses of the year if you check CardMatch.
Have a great weekend,
BK
* U.S. supermarket purchases earn 4 points per dollar on up to $25,000 per calendar year and restaurant purchases earn 4 points per dollar on up to $50,000 per calendar year, then 1 point per dollar.
|
|
| Posts in this newsletter contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products, and this may impact how or where they appear. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page. |
| Photo Credit: WYATT SMITH/THE POINTS GUY. |
|
|
|
