Can you get an American Express sign-up bonus if you have the same card as a supplementary?

This is the second part of our two articles on how American Express supplementary cards work.

In Part One earlier in the week we looked at why you might want to add a supplementary card to your account and how to earn a few thousand bonus Avios or Membership Rewards points for doing so.

Today I want to pick up on a question which features regularly in my inbox.  Is it possible to get a sign-up bonus on an American Express card if you already hold the same card as a supplementary on your partner’s account?

Can you apply for an American Express card if you already have the same card as a supplementary?

The answer is yes, you can.

Here is the reason.  If someone issues you with a supplementary card on their American Express account, it is NOT your card.  It is their card.  The main cardholder is the person who is legally responsible for your spending.

As far as American Express is concerned, you are NOT the cardholder.

This means that you are able to apply for the same card yourself if you choose.

Here is an example:

If your partner has a British Airways American Express Premium Plus card as a supplementary card on your account, they are still able to apply for their own BAPP card and receive the 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

You can also pick up 9,000 Avios for referring them via the American Express ‘refer a friend’ scheme.

Obviously they need to meet the usual rules for receiving the bonus, which on this card are that they must not have had either of the BA Amex cards in the past 24 months in their own right.

Here are some points to think about first

Whilst this is good news in terms of maximising bonus points across your household, there are some key things to remember:

When your partner gets their own card, there is another annual fee to pay.  On the other hand, if they simply remain as a free supplementary cardholder on your account, there is no extra fee.

You may struggle to hit the spending bonus on your own card for, say, the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher, without the help of spend from your partner.  Partner spend could also help you hit the annual 10,000 points bonus for spending £15,000 on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.

On the positive side, high spenders can trigger a second set of annual spend bonuses across the household.  My wife has her own BAPP card, for example, and as we can easily spend £10,000 each on the cards we can earn 2 x 2-4-1 vouchers each year between us.  With two kids, that’s very handy.  On the other hand, she does not have her own Platinum card, because she gets all of the benefits for free as a supplementary cardholder on my account and I don’t want to be paying 2 x £450 annual fees each year.

Conclusion

The key thing to take away from this article is the knowledge, if you didn’t know it already, that if you or your partner have a supplementary American Express card in your purse or wallet, you can still apply for the same card in your own name and earn a sign-up bonus, subject to the standard bonus rules.

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