Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great Fourth of July Weekend.  I spent the week in Orange County, CA and the weekend in Boulder, CO at a wedding.  While I was down in Orange County visiting my family, I went out to dinner with my grandparents.  My grandpa used his Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card to pay for dinner (3x on restaurant purchases).  My grandpa has been an American Express customer for 30+ years and is a mini travel hacker, so after dinner, I told him that he should get the American Express Gold Card because it offers 4x on restaurants and grocery stores (2 of his most frequent expenses).

Later that week, I was over at his house and he asked me to help him get the new American Express Gold Card.  He asked me to send him a link for the card, so I logged into my American Express online account, copied my referral link, and emailed it to him.  According to the referral page, you can earn 10,000 Membership Rewards Points for each referral, up to a maximum of 55,000 Membership Rewards Points per year.  The referral points should post within 8-12 weeks, but in my experience, the referral points posted within 3 days.  I sent my grandpa the referral link on July 2 and he applied and was approved for the card on the same day.

On July 5, 3 days after my grandpa was approved for the American Express Gold Card, I received this email from American Express regarding the referral.  The email also showed how many referral points I earned so far this year and how many more referral points I can earn in the future.

I was curious if the referral points would post right away, so I logged into my American Express online account.  I was happily surprised to see the referral points already posted to my account.

Frequent Miler created this table that shows how many referral points you can earn from each referral and the maximum number of referral points you can earn for each American Express card.  This chart was created last year, so some of the card names have changed (SPG cards have been renamed to Marriott Bonvoy cards), but I believe the numbers are correct.  Doctor of Credit has a helpful post that explains how you can refer anyone to any of these cards using universal referrals.

Image source: https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/maximizing-value-from-amex-multi-referrals/

If you have any questions about the referral points, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!