Nothing really, they essentially paraphrased this bit of the T&C's, in particular #3
American Express discourages spamming. You should only send referral messages to friends and family who genuinely want to receive them. By participating in ‘Refer a Friend’, you agree to these ‘Refer a Friend’ terms and conditions:
1. Only Friends & Family: You must only send referral messages to close friends and family.
2. Ask Their Permission First: You must ask the person for their permission to if you choose to send them an email about your Card product. Sending emails to people without consent is considered spam.
3. Cap Referrals: You may only send referral messages to a maximum of 20 friends and the amount of Velocity Points you may receive under the Refer a Friend program is capped at 200,000 Points.
The main issue I have with this whole thing is they clearly haven't kept the T&C's up to date with their actual promotions, i.e.
1. The only options Amex provide to publish are via Facebook and LinkedIn. I have about 700 LinkedIn connections and 100 Facebook friends. So they have essentially made it impossible to comply with 1, 2, and the first half of #3 above. This would be clear to anyone with a basic understanding of social media, and clearly their legal and marketing teams don't talk together!
2. Having posted to Facebook/LinkedIn (or in my case AFF), I have no control over who shares it or points other to my link, e.g. cove has pointed a number of people to my link, greatly appreciated but I had no control over it! Once again, no understanding of Social media!
3. And finally there is no way I can cap at 200K points, that's their job. Their failure to do so is their own problem, i.e. they are the one breaching the T&C's not me!
Do I care that much, well the T&C's also state the below.
Why should I comply?
If you fail to comply with these ‘Refer a Friend’ Terms & Conditions, your participation in the programme may be cancelled and you will no longer be eligible for any Velocity Points from the ‘Refer a Friend’ programme.
But they don't actually state any ability to reclaim, so you can claim they are in breach of the T&C's here too. Generally a slack performance by Amex but I'm not really that upset, they did let me keep the points that had already been sent through to Velocity.
Looks like the Amex website is now showing the bonus (non-referral) as 50,000 after $500 spend.
Being retired is not a barrier. If you mention this because they don't earn enough, AFAIK many people with a lower than official income have got it. Worth a try!
Tried my luck with the old girl tonight, but no dice. She thinks I'm mad to have spent $1400 on imaginary points. I've probably got enough VA points for the moment anyway.
Yes I completely agree. How are you supposed to control who uses your link when the only option they provide for you to refer people is a social media link available for all of your contacts to see! I signed up dozens of people through these links, but now I realise I probably will only receive the limit of 200000 points... I have just checked my Amex account and I have 10 lots of 20000 points credited in one allotment a few days ago. I am assuming this will be it.
Has anyone else had more than the 200000 point limit credited? How am I supposed to cap that myself when I can't control who used my link?!!
Tried my luck with the old girl tonight, but no dice. She thinks I'm mad to have spent $1400 on imaginary points. I've probably got enough VA points for the moment anyway.
Has anyone linked it to PayPal, or know what the earn rate would be on PayPal spend to this card?
Has anyone linked it to PayPal, or know what the earn rate would be on PayPal spend to this card?
1 point per dollar on AU amounts, I'm assuming it would be 2 points per dollar in foreign currency as per their T&Cs but haven't validated that.
Interestingly enough I used it on Skip (a service allowing you to pre-order from cafes etc) and only .5 ppd.
Hi all,
When does Amex Velocity Platinum sweep Velocity Points over to your Velocity account?
Three weeks after statement date for me. Please Virgin and Amex, this quantitative easing of velocity points must cease now, I'd actually like to hope there will be some flights to redeem. It's going to be a long queue.
Hi all,
When does Amex Velocity Platinum sweep Velocity Points over to your Velocity account?
I have just paid my first bill statement on September 30th.
But the Velocity points have not been transferred by AMEX.
Thank you.
Three weeks after statement date for me. Please Virgin and Amex, this quantitative easing of velocity points must cease now, I'd actually like to hope there will be some flights to redeem. It's going to be a long queue.