For 5+ years, Amex Offers has been one of my favorite money saving/money making deals. I’ve written about them often, spoke about them at conferences, and have taken advantage of them myself quite often. A few weeks ago I wrote about Amex limiting customers to only being able to register for a particular Amex Offer on a single credit card. The “multi-browser” method no longer worked and instead of taking advantage of an offer on every single Amex card you have, you are limited to just one going forward. Like all good deals, they come to an end at some point.
Unfortunately though, it looks like American Express has started clawing back statement credits from some customers. Both Dan’s Deals and Miles to Memories have reported that some of their readers have received an email from American Express stating that they will be charging them for the overage of statement credits they’ve received on the Staples Amex Offer.
As of right now, the clawbacks seem to be targeted to just the Staples offer and I have not read reports of any other offers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they come soon. And if that does happen, I am sure I’ll receive some notice from American Express as well!
While I understand them limiting them to one account, the terms have always been a little unclear. Many times the terms stated that you could only take advantage of the offer once per account. Well, was that once per credit card account or once across every single American Express account you’ve had? And American Express has allowed the multiple statement credits to go through year after year. I’ve been writing about the “multi-browser” method for about 5 years, so this is not something new to American Express. If American Express wanted to limit it to just one statement credit regardless of the number of American Express credit cards they’ve had, then they should have put the technology in place years ago. They absolutely should not be charging people for these statement credits that they’ve already handed out. But of course, that is just my opinion.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If you currently have a specific offer on multiple accounts and plan on using the offer more then once, just be cautious that there is a chance you might receive some notification from Amex taking back that statement credit. I personally only use Amex Offers on purchases I’d be making anyways, so while Amex Offers do save me money, if the statement credit ends up not going through or is taken away, I still would have spend the money.
Did you receive any notification from American Express?
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They must’ve clawed back two $5 off $25 staples offers I received.
I went to spend at staples and the offers were just vanished from my two accounts.
(A third account was fine and I used it there).
No announcement of this clawback, though they never credited it to me in the first place in my case.