Thursday, October 3, 2013

No Annual Fee American Express Cards - Extra Promotions

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:  Travelocity American Express, USAA Rewards American Express









American Express runs a lot of promotions throughout the year that apply to every American Express card you have and many times to Authorized users as well.

Authorized Users


As with every American Express promotion, if your card has a unique account number on the front of the card it is eligible for a separate promotion, even if it is an Authorized User on someone else's account.

Authorized users of American Express cards that are processed and issued by American Express will have unique account numbers.

Authorized users of American Express cards that are processed, but not issued by American Express will not have unique account numbers and you are therefore only eligible for one promotion per account.


An example using Visa is easier to understand.  Chase Freedom is issued by Chase and processed by Visa or Mastercard.  American Express can be either just the processor or also the issuer.  It would be the same as if you had a Visa Freedom card instead of a Chase Freedom.


No Annual Fee Cards

The best way to take advantage of promotions is to have many American Express cards and your best bet are cards without annual fees.

Here is a list of American Express cards that are both issued and processed by American Express and therefore are eligible for multiple bonuses per account.  For example, I am an authorized user on my wife's cards and she is an authorized user on my cards.

American Express Blue Everyday
Blue Sky
Hilton HHonors
American Express Blue
Old AMEX Blue


American Express limits you to 4 credit cards at a time so if you have no specific reason why you want a card with an annual fee you can limit yourself to these four.


Other Issuers Besides American Express


There is no limit to the number of cards you can have that are processed by American Express but issued by another bank.  However, you will only get one bonus per account.

These are all the examples I could find.  Please comment if you find any others.

The Travelocity® Rewards American Express® Card - The one exception - authorized users have separate account numbers so they will qualify for their own bonuses
Fidelity American Express x3 - There are 3 cards at that link.  Regular, 529 and Retirement
NBA American Express
USAA Rewards™ American Express®
Macy's American Express
Bank of America Accelerated Rewards American Express
Bloomingdales - must apply in store only
PenFed Travel
PenFed Defender
First National Bank of Omaha American Express Card

My next App-O-Rama will include many of these cards.  One day I hope to have the full set both in mine and my wife's name!