I received a bonus offer on my American Express Platinum Card for 20,000 Membership Rewards points. To earn the points, I have to add an authorized user to my account, and that card needs to spend $2,000 in the next six months.
While I’m not a big fan of adding authorized users, 20K bonus points made me consider if it’s a good deal.
The main thing to consider is that adding authorized users to your American Express Platinum Card isn’t free. It costs $175 to add up to three authorized users to your account. At face value, that equates to buying 20,000 Membership Rewards for $175.
I easily value AMEX Membership Rewards points over 1 cent each, making this look like a sensible offer. However, I have more Membership Rewards points than any other transferrable currency and don’t need any more for our upcoming travels. Therefore I’m not in the market to buy points right now.
There are advantages to having an authorized user on an American Express Platinum card which might make the $175 fee worthwhile. Authorized users get almost the same perks as the primary cardholder, including access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection, Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit, and status with several hotels and rental car companies.
While the bonus point offer is only for one card, you can add three authorized users for the same $175 fee. Adding additional cardholders makes sense if you have three people who can benefit from having a Platinum card in their name.
For our case, we’d only be adding one authorized user. We have plenty of cards that offer Global Entry credits. The only added lounge benefit would be for entry into Delta SkyClubs, which do not allow cardholders to bring free guests, but we have no current plans to fly with Delta for the rest of the year.
I was about to pass on this offer until I remembered something from when I added my dad as an authorized user to my AMEX card so I could transfer miles to his frequent flyer account. American Express Platinum cardholders can also add additional Gold Cards to their account for no charge.
The Gold Card you’ll get as an Authorized User isn’t the same as the AMEX Gold Card you’ll get when applying for a new card or doing a product change. The authorized user Gold Card has the same earning categories as the Platinum Card, including 5X on flights and 5X on prepaid hotels through AMEX Travel. However, it does not have any of the travel benefits.
Even though I don’t currently need another 20K Membership Rewards points, I’ve learned that it’s unwise to pass up points when offered. Since we can sign up for a free authorized user Gold Card and only need to spend $2,000 over six months to earn the points, it’s not that hard of a task to complete. I might hold off a bit until I’m done meeting our current spending requirements. I have until July to apply and another six months to spend the $2,000.
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