“Your Account is temporarily unable to access the Referral Programme”

[Mojack]

AFAIK this isn’t a glitch and can happen when your account is under internal review – even if its not an active review – and can happen for months while the card is active and then they can freeze the card while they ask for docs and conduct their review. Most agents wont know why is this or how to fix it. and AFAIK theres no workaround either. Sorry.

[DJ]

Well, it is a weird one. Because P2 can refer under her BA card, but not the free Amex Reward card.

So I wouldn’t worry too much.

[Ryanfozzie]

P1 has an error: “Apologies – something has gone wrong! Please check your login details or try again alter.”
P2 has an error: “Your Account is temporarily unable to access the Referral Programme, please read our full T&Cs here for more information.”

Can anyone else check if they are getting the same issue? Part of me thinks this may be an Amex system issue more than anything.

[Ryanfozzie]

Just to add, I spoke to Amex about the error for P1 and they raised a ticket. They did say on the 8th Nov, they had internal comms to state the following:

Not all cardmembers are eligible to access the Refer A Friend scheme due to new risk rules in place.

[Swalwell]

The response I received on the issue from the online chat was …

“I have done a deep check, and I am sorry to know that your refer eligibility is not available as of now. Eligibility is based on these and other factors:
Account history
Bankruptcy
Credit rating
Lending behaviour
Missed payments
Participation in internal payment holiday programmes”

Other than the rather vague “account history” none of those apply to me so I am confused.

[BuildBackBetter]

I guess it’s all due to referring same person or a couple referring each other.
Strange as Rob seemed to suggest that should be ok as long as there’s no self referral.

[alexb]

I got the same message yesterday on my ba card contacted chat got no where with them .
Phoned Brighton was told that not everyone gets the referral offer now told the agent I was going to
Cancel my card in 2 weeks once I got my 2 for1 voucher .
I have only referred 1 person in last year .
When I checked my account last night referral option had been added to my offers on BA and Platinum cards.
I have never seen this happen before.

[supergraeme]

I found this yesterday as well. It’s the same this morning and Chat were no help, pasting the same responses as on page one of this thread. My account is healthy so I can’t think what it could be. Might waste some time and call later.

My fear is that this is the beginning of a crackdown on historical circular referrals (although I haven’t done that since it became a no-no). Very annoying as I need that 12k.

[Crafty]

This thread makes it seem like it’s a blanket approach, so just to provide a counterpoint, my wife and I only ever refer each other, yet the option to do so remains available (for now!).

[supergraeme]

CS (not Brighton) just kept repeating the T&Cs with no hint at why I might be blocked. After a lot of insisting, they lady said she’d e-mail a team to ask why and then call me back. That was about 9am but obviously I won’t ever hear back.

[Ned]

Sure, I have checked the chat above and You may not be able to access our referral programme right now because of internal factors related to your account history which affect your current Card Member profile. We base the eligibility for our referral programme on various factors relating to individual Card Members and their account history. This includes numerous factors affecting your Card Member profile, but we continue to monitor this over time.
Right. A lot of words but didn’t actually say anything!
Katherine, referring an friend is just like an offer that Amex provided to its card members.
As I have checked the details for you, I wish to inform you that referring a friend is like an Promotional offer and it depends as to when this offer is available to you on the account like the other offer that we deliver, Once it is available in your account you will be able to refer your friends and avail the benefit. You are AmEx valued card member, and we are here to assist you in all possible way. It is just thatt the offer is not added for you as of now
You would get the offer as soon as the card becomes eligible for the offer criteria like the other Amex offer’s you get when you make some specific kind of spending.
We both know that the above is nonsense
Is there a specific reason
I have done some googling – appears that this is something Amex is pushing at the moment
last month or so
Has there been a push to restrict referrals?
Katherine there is no specific reason as to why the offer is not to your card account as of now and you would have seen hat you could refer the family members before and as similarly you would again get the offer section active soon again for you, it is just that this offer is not available on the account as of now.
But my point is that this is the first time i have ever not been able to make a referral – this isn’t some limited time offer
THough i appreciate the T&Cs might be worded as such to allow Amex flexibility

[Ned]

Conversation above with Amex – internal push maybe? Seems strange to do this now with the Barclaycard push

[alig4th]

My word Chat are really useless, aren’t they, just regurgitating T&C and badly worded platitudes but not actually answering the question you ask nor about able (be that willing, authorised, given the accesses to, or trained) to actually help with anything other than the most basic of queries…

[Molly]

I have the same issue on my account but still have the referral link saved. Not sure the points will still post if I still share the same referral link. Any thoughts, don’t want to waste a referral.

[JDB]

@Ned there are no T&Cs around whether referral offers are available to you. Clearly many people are abusing referral offers so it is hardly surprising they are tightening up.

[alig4th]

I’m not really sure you can “abuse” the programme, can you? It’s a simple refer and get rewarded. The more you refer, the more reward you get?

If the system says you can refer your partner/family/friends for cards, and you do it, how is that abuse?

Obviously self-referral is a no-no, but how can cyclical referral between partners be against the rules (they’re friends/family, right?)

I suppose there are people who offer their referral link to “randoms” on the internet, including on site (which are not, as per the T&C, “family or friends”), but these are not unsolicited (so not breaking that T&C), and isn’t one person’s “randomer on the internet” just a friend you haven’t made yet?

[alig4th]

And I think there are T&C:

https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/legal/refer-a-friend/terms-and-conditions.html

[supergraeme]

The referral programme is clear – earn up to X Avios per year; which means you can refer up to X people. Simple. I’ve never referred anyone outside my close circle so I don’t think it’s that. The suggestion here is that those of us who can’t refer are blocked for another reason, which is a concern.

[Molly]

Logged on this morning and the referral link appeared in my offers. When I clicked through I received the same message “Your Account is temporarily unable to access the Referral Programme”. The offer for referrals then disappeared from my normal Amex offers. Logged on later and the referral link open as a pop up on the home page, clicked through and received the same message.

[supergraeme]

Needless to say, no-one called me back and I still can’t refer. I assume no-one else has heard anything?

[RK228]

Molly wrote:

I have the same issue on my account but still have the referral link saved. Not sure the points will still post if I still share the same referral link. Any thoughts, don’t want to waste a referral.

After the refer a friend option disappeared for me just as I was to refer P2 for Platinum in late Oct, I tried using an old referral link from six months prior. I still got my referral points and P2 got enhanced Platinum welcome offer without issue.

[babyg]

+1 (which i kept an old referral link) — i have this issue

[craiguk58]

I also had this issue and presumed it was due to me being in negative avios due to a recent refund. The option to refer has recently reappeared though despite my negative avios balance on my BA card

[AndyGWP]

Defo no shenanigans that I’m aware of that will have lead to this being removed from my account and unfortunately, my old referral link appears to be so old that it doesn’t work (it appears to be a link structured differently to how they’re no structured?)

never mind!

[TGLoyalty]

Mojack wrote:

AFAIK this isn’t a glitch and can happen when your account is under internal review – even if its not an active review – and can happen for months while the card is active and then they can freeze the card while they ask for docs and conduct their review. Most agents wont know why is this or how to fix it. and AFAIK theres no workaround either. Sorry.

They’ve got this many accounts in review? I know of multiple people.

I know of someone who has never referred anyone with no link after I asked others at work that I know have an Amex