Best Point Earning Credit Cards The Basics

The Fastest Way to Get Points From American Express?

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Written by Charlie

The fastest way to get points from American Express is not with sign-up bonuses! Find out how you can use your card to get the points you need quicker.

Sign-up bonuses are great and it is wonderful to see them finally drop in your account! But, it can take a little while sometimes, especially with American Express. At the least, most people have to wait until the statement after they met the minimum spending. With some Amex offers, it can take even longer than that. When you are in a hurry to book travel, that can be a pain! But, fortunately, there is a faster way to get points from American Express – if you already have an American Express card.

The Fastest Way to Get Points from American Express

Referral Bonuses

100K Hilton Surpass referral

Enter your Amex ID to get your Hilton Surpass referral link

What I have found to be the fastest way to get points from American Express in general (not sign-up points) is to take advantage of referral offers. American Express has some very generous referral offers on their cards that can help you quickly pad your point totals. This is helpful for a couple of reasons – one is that you can get more points but the more important reason is that you can get large point bundles on cards you already have. The reason that is important is because you can only get one sign-up bonus per lifetime.

Example of Referral

So, if you have the American Express SPG card, you would normally earn only 1 Starpoint per dollar on all spending outside of an SPG or Marriott property. But, if you refer that card to your family and friends, you can get 5,000 Starpoints for every successful conversion, up to 55,000 Starpoints in a year!

Not only is that great, but these referral points post very quickly! Already this year, my wife has maxed out the referrals on her Amex Platinum Business card and we both have maxed them out on our Hilton Surpass cards.

How to Get Your Referral Links

There is an example I had posted here for the Hilton Surpass referral. In most cases, you can just keep clicking the arrow to go to the next card in your account to get a referral for it.

But, there is often a Refer button on your Amex account on the right side of the page. If it is not there, simply select the card you want the referral offer for, go up to Benefits and scroll down. You will see the link to retrieve your Referral Offer there.

If it is not there, just post in the comments about which card you have and I will try to get the specific referral link for that card.

Once you have it, it will tell you what the bonus is for you and what it is for your friend. You can then send an e-mail directly to them and they will receive the offer or you can send the e-mail to yourself and take the link that is sent to share with others.

Of course, this is all depending on you convincing your friends and family to sign-up for the card you have! But, with the current offering by Amex on many of their cards, it is a no-brainer for anyone that likes travel. In fact, in the case of the SPG cards, those cards are just perfect for anyone that wants special experiences, incredible hotel and airline options, and, if they insist, even gift cards. 🙂

Also, do not forget that I welcome you to post your referral links on the posts that discuss that sign-up offer. There have been many readers that have maxed out their referral offers doing just that so give it a try!

How Fast Do These Referral Points Post?

fastest way to get points

These points started posting just 1 day after the referral!

In the last 7 months, I have had my Amex referral points post in a matter of days, sometimes as few as 1 or 2 days! That is incredible since it really lets you take advantage of deals that come up that you would like to use your points for. It is certainly much faster than the sign-up bonuses post!

How quick have you had your referral points from Amex post?

Edit: I did remove a couple of the comments with referrals below for the same reason I do not post certain credit card offers – they are not good offers and better offers are somewhat regularly available. Please do not feel bad if I delete your link, it is only what I do with regards to links I post as well.

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About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

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