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If you’ve got an American Express card, the Amex Offers program should be an integral part of your shopping strategy. The offers are extremely easy to use, and the savings can be astronomical — even casual shoppers can easily save hundreds of dollars each year by using them.
There are a handful of rules and tricks you need to know about Amex Offers in order to get the most value from them. Below, CNBC Select takes a look at how they work — and how to maximize them.
Which cards are eligible for Amex Offers?
Nearly all American Express cards are eligible for the Amex Offers program, including no-annual-fee cards, cobranded airline and hotel cards as well as debit cards. The only Amex-issued cards that do not qualify are gift cards and corporate cards.
The ability for even the lowest-tier American Express cards to register for Amex Offers is a big deal, as it’s one of the most powerful money-saving card benefits in existence. Here are some of our favorite top-rated American Express cards to consider signing up for, whether you’re interested in earning cash back or rewards points:
What is Amex Offers?
To keep things simple, think of the Amex Offers program as targeted opportunities to earn statement credits and bonus rewards by shopping with select merchants. It is not to be confused with welcome bonuses for applying for a new card.
Amex Offers are typically curated for the type of card you have. For example, if you’ve got a travel rewards credit card such as The Platinum Card® from American Express, you’ll tend to find more travel-related offers letting you earn statement credits by booking stays at Marriott properties or bonus points by booking cruises with certain cruise lines. Alternatively, if you’ve got a small business credit card such as The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, you’re more likely to find small business-related offers letting you earn statement credits by shopping with FedEx or bonus points for using certain wireless providers.
There are also plenty of Amex Offers that all cards share access to when it comes to dining, online shopping and entertainment, among other popular spending categories.
Each Amex Offer requires a specific activity to trigger the bonus. For example, for some offers, you might need to spend at least $50 at a particular store to receive a $10 statement credit. For other offers, you might receive a percentage back on purchases made with certain merchants or you might receive bonus points per dollar spent with certain merchants.
The gamut is wide enough that nearly everyone can find something that will save them money on purchases they were already planning to make — the key is to not be wooed by an excellent offer into spending money that you weren’t going to otherwise.
How to use Amex Offers
Register for each offer
To use Amex Offers, you must enroll your card for each one. You’ll find them listed on the dashboard of your online American Express account — when you see one that suits your spending habits, simply click “Add to Card.” Once you satisfy the offer’s terms, you’ll automatically earn the bonus.
While American Express will often only display up to 100 offers at a time, you can actually view more than that by adding them to your card. For instance, if you were to add all of them to your card, you may see another 100 unique Amex Offers the next time you sign into your account, allowing you to add significantly more offers to your card.
Add your offer to the right card
Note that each Amex Offer can only be added to one of your American Express cards. If you’re targeted for one that appears on more than one of your American Express cards, keep in mind that adding it to one card will cause it to disappear from the list of available offers on all your other cards. In other words, when you add an Amex Offer to your account, make sure it’s for the card you actually plan to use.
For example, if multiple American Express cards are offering a $100 statement credit for booking stays at Marriott, it would be wise to add that benefit to your co-branded Marriott American Express card, such as the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card. That way you can take advantage of the 6X points per dollar the card regularly earns for Marriott spending in addition to the potential $100 statement credit.
Stack Amex Offers with other deals
Here’s a big reason Amex Offers are so special: They are not discounts or coupon codes, but are actually rewards that happen after you make your purchase. That is to say, the merchant you’re doing business with has no clue that you’re using an Amex Offer, which is helpful for two reasons:
- You can stack Amex Offers with any promo codes you might find — just be sure your final total satisfies the offer’s minimum spending requirement.
- You can use shopping portals in conjunction with Amex Offers.
And because you’ll receive statement credits after you’ve made your purchase, often within just a few days, you’ll still earn rewards for the entire purchase amount.
Bottom line
Amex Offers can save you hundreds of dollars on purchases you were already planning to make, and since all American Express cards are eligible — with the exception of corporate and gift cards — they are extremely accessible, even to those with a simple American Express prepaid debit card.