AMEX Slashes Referral Program

Another day, another devaluation. The American Express referral program has been incredibly lucrative for years, where you could get one card, refer yourself for another, refer your friends, etc. As of yesterday, the referral program took a huge devaluation.

Previously, if you had an American Express Gold Card [this is a referral… and yes, it’s ironic 😉 ], you could earn referral points by sharing your referral link with friends and family. However, as of yesterday, the following message appears when you select your American Express Gold Card as your main referral source:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Effective January 11, 2016, this Card is no longer eligible for a referral bonus. You can still refer the Card to your friends and family but you will not earn a referral bonus for any approved referral.

Now, if you have an American Express Platinum Card [this is a referral], you can refer folks to the Gold card and earn points, no problem. But if you only have the Gold card, you’re out of luck.

Think it couldn’t get worse? Oh, it has.

If you have the American Express Aeroplan Gold card, you can no longer refer as well. Oh, and the referral bonus dropped from 20,000 points to 16,000.

So it looks like American Express is quickly closing down much of the referral program, and it’s becoming more and more like the US version (which isn’t great).