Score! 47,000 Bonus AMEX Membership Rewards Points (and Then Some) From a Single Phone Call!

Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.

The annual fee on my Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN is due this month, and I decided to call American Express to see if they’d offer me any sort of retention deal (they won’t offer them via chat).  To my amazement, I was presented with not just one, but THREE spending offers across three different AMEX cards!

I’d call that a success any day of the week.  Here are the details of how my conversation with the AMEX phone agent played out.

On the phone with the AMEX rep, I started off by mentioning my annual fee was due, but that I wasn’t sure whether it made sense to keep the card any longer.

Truth be told, I don’t put a lot of spending on this card because I have other cards with bonus categories that are better aligned with my spending habits.  That said, I HAVE put a lot of spending on my Business Platinum® Card from American Express over the last few months because of a number of large expenses from one of my side hustles.

So, I explained to the rep I could shift spending to my AMEX Business Gold card if and when I had more business expenses.  And that while my spending wasn’t necessarily on the AMEX Business Gold card, I was indeed a good customer for AMEX overall.

I also mentioned I was frustrated about never being targeted for spending offers.  I told the rep that I hear about spending offers fairly frequently (like spend $2,000 and get 5,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points).  And as a longtime customer, that rubbed me the wrong way.

The rep acted quickly and said he could immediately offer me 2,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points, then an additional 5,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points after spending $3,000 within 90 days of accepting the spending offer.

I agreed and thanked him.  Then he asked if I’d like him to check for offers on my other AMEX small business cards!

He ended up presenting offers for both my AMEX Business Platinum card AND my Blue Business℠ Plus Credit Card from American Express.

I got an instant 5,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points on both the Business Platinum and Blue Business Plus cards (10,000 points total).  And I can earn another 15,000 bonus points per card after spending $10,000 with each card within 90 days of accepting the offer!

If I can meet all of those spending thresholds, I’ll earn a total of 47,000 bonus AMEX Membership Rewards points!  That’s on top of the normal points I’ll earn with each purchase.  And that’s worth at least $470 in travel, and potentially lots more if I end up transferring them to an AMEX travel partner like Delta or British Airways (which is what I’ll likely do).

Sure, the spending requirement is big, but I have more business expenses coming up.  And getting retention offers is one way to earn bonus points without having to apply for new cards.

Moral of the story?  It definitely never hurts to ask!

Have you ever been presented with a retention offer?  If so, what card was it for?  And did you take the deal?  Tell me about your experience in the comments!