OFFER EXPIRED – American Express provides extensions to meet required spend for welcome bonus offers

THIS OFFER FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

The wait is over – American Express Canada has now followed suit with what American Express down in the U.S. has done in regards to welcome bonuses for recent and new card approvals. Most welcome bonus offers for American Express cards in Canada require the newly approved cardmembers to meet the minimum spend requirement within three months of approval to receive the bonus points. This has now been extended to 6 months for eligible consumer and small business cards that were acquired on or after January 22 all the way through to June 30. This is a nice additional buffer for those who are in the market for a new card or just got one but aren’t spending as much on their cards right now.

We mention eligible cards as some American Express cards won’t fall into the 6 month extension. Namely the American Express Cobalt Card as it’s welcome bonus is actually awarded monthly for the first 12 months with a minimum $500 spend in each month.  Here is the complete list of cards that are eligible:

    American Express® AeroplanPlus®* Platinum Card / American Express® AeroplanPlus®*Gold Card is no longer available as of August 26th, 2020. For more information, please visithttps://www.americanexpress.com/ca/en/credit-cards/aeroplan-cards/

    Note: Cards with no links above are no longer available for new applications.

    The cards that are bolded have some exclusions as follows:

    Offer Exclusions
    American Express® AeroplanPlus®* Gold Card Statement Credit Offer: Receive a $75 Statement Credit when you make
    1 purchase of $75.00 or more on aircanada.com (Canadian Website Only)
    within the first 12 months of Cardmembership
    American Express® AeroplanPlus®* Platinum Card
    • Statement Credit Offer: Receive a $150 Statement Credit when you
      make 1 purchase of $150.00 or more on aircanada.com (Canadian Website
      Only) within the first 12 months of Cardmembership
    • New American Express® AeroplanPlus®* Platinum Cardmembers earn 40,000 Welcome Bonus Aeroplan®*
      Miles after spending $3,000 in their first three months of
      Cardmembership.  PLUS, receive a $150 Air Canada eGift Card after
      spending $6,000 in purchases in the first six months of Cardmembership. 

    Offer Dates: October 1, 2019 – January 10, 2020

    American Express® AIR MILES®* Platinum Credit Card

    Cardmembers acquired during Limited Time Offer:

    New American Express® AIR MILES®* Platinum Credit Card Cardmembers, get a welcome bonus of up to 3,500 AIR MILES®* Bonus Miles – here’s how:

    • Get 1,700 Bonus Miles when you charge a total of $1,500 in purchases to your Card in the first 3 months of Cardmembership.
    • Get up to 1,800 Bonus Miles – In your first 6 monthly billing periods as a new American Express® AIR MILES®*
      Platinum Credit Card Cardmember, you can get 150 Bonus Miles for every
      $500 you spend in purchases in each monthly billing period (up to a
      maximum of 300 Bonus Miles per monthly billing period).

    Offer Dates: November 4, 2019 – January 20, 2020

    American Express® AIR MILES®* Reserve Credit Card

    Cardmembers acquired during Limited Time Offer:

    New American Express® AIR MILES®*  Reserve Credit Card Cardmembers get a welcome bonus of up to 3,800 AIR MILES®* Bonus Miles – here’s how:

    • Get 1,400 Bonus Miles when you charge a total of $3,000 in purchases to your Card in the first 3 months of Cardmembership.
    • Get up to 2,400 Bonus Miles – In your first 6 monthly billing periods as a new American Express® AIR MILES®*
      Reserve Credit Card Cardmember, you can get 200 Bonus Miles for every
      $750 you spend in purchases in each monthly billing period (up to a
      maximum of 400 Bonus Miles per monthly billing period).

    Offer Dates: November 4, 2019 – January 20, 2020

    American Express CobaltTM Card
    • Earn a bonus of 2,500 Membership Rewards points through this
      referral offer when you spend at least $50 (after taxes and shipping) in
      eligible purchases using your new Cobalt Card at Amazon.ca within the
      first 3 months of Cardmembership.

     Offer Dates: March 31 – July 1, 2020

    • In your first year as a new Cobalt Cardmember, you can earn 2,500
      Membership Rewards points for each monthly billing period in which you
      spend $500 in purchases on your Card.
    American Express® Gold Rewards Card Earn an additional 2,500 points for each monthly billing period
    in which you spend $1,000 in purchases on your Card in the first 6
    months

    Offer Dates: September 2019 –current

    SimplyCash Preferred™ Card from American Express Earn 5% cashback in your first 6 months

    Once again some great news from American Express as it follows the already announced boosting of redemption value for Membership Rewards points and doubling of the points earned and redeemed on The Platinum Card. The increased redemption value of Membership Rewards points runs until September 30 so you can easily tie in a new card offer like the Gold Rewards Card (Personal or Business) and take more than the standard 3 months to earn the welcome bonus as you have about 4.5 months left in the promotion. If you want to take the full 6 months to earn the bonus on The Platinum Card you wouldn’t be looking at utilizing double redemption value as that ends in July but you’d be getting the card looking towards future travel with the welcome bonus and of course the earning of double points until July 20.

    Learn more about the Welcome Bonus extensions here!

    Title image via American Express