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

[sloth]

Carlos wrote:

RE “Your Account is temporarily unable to access the Referral Programme, please read our full T&Cs here for more information.” as long as you have the ‘link’ the referrer will still get the points?

ime yes

[Harrods]

Annoyingly cannot refer across P1 or P2 accounts, dont have the link saved either. The option to refer was definitely available few weeks ago on P1 platinum and P2 gold. Ended up going for £100 cash back unfortunately…

[JDB]

Harrods wrote:

Annoyingly cannot refer across P1 or P2 accounts, dont have the link saved either. The option to refer was definitely available few weeks ago on P1 platinum and P2 gold. Ended up going for £100 cash back unfortunately…

This apparently comes and goes for certain people. I’m not sure if you saw the post yesterday highlighting that the Plat SUB eligibility rules are different (ie tougher) for a referral vs a direct application. Someone doubted this but the OP then posted the full text which confirmed the difference.

[Harrods]

JDB wrote:

s for certain people. I’m not sure if you saw the post yesterday highlighting that the Plat SUB eligibility rules are different (ie tougher) f

Just seen it!

[Carlos]

RE: “Your Account is temporarily unable to access the Referral Programme, please read our full T&Cs here for more information.”

Someone has given me their link and it comes up with an error now (didnt used to)

“Unfortunately this referral link is no longer valid or has expired. Please check again or ask your friend to resend their unique referral link to you.”

[Reney]

I have a previously saved referral link from an account that referrals are off. Has anyone tested this lately and know if the referrer will still get points?

Thanks

[Carlos]

Reney wrote:

I have a previously saved referral link from an account that referrals are off. Has anyone tested this lately and know if the referrer will still get points?

Thanks

If you open it and it tells you immediately their first name then yes

[Reney]

Carlos wrote:

Reney wrote:

I have a previously saved referral link from an account that referrals are off. Has anyone tested this lately and know if the referrer will still get points?

Thanks

If you open it and it tells you immediately their first name then yes

@Carlos, Thanks, have you tested this recently pls?

[shub]

Reney wrote:

I have a previously saved referral link from an account that referrals are off. Has anyone tested this lately and know if the referrer will still get points?

Thanks

Yes, still worked for me couple of weeks back.

[S879]

Anyone got this fixrd by Amex? It’s been a year and I just can’t refer. So many lost opportunities.

[craiguk58]

shub wrote:

Reney wrote:

I have a previously saved referral link from an account that referrals are off. Has anyone tested this lately and know if the referrer will still get points?

Thanks

Yes, still worked for me couple of weeks back.

I can also confirm this works. I’ve not had the refer a friend available for at least a month but a friend used an old link I had yesterday and the 18k points posted today on my platinum.

[Carlos]

any clue on how the referral code is generated? the first 5 characters seem to be the first name of the acc holder

[S879]

Called Amex and complained that I have been unable to refer for like a year. This is when there had been no referrals at all for quite sometime before and I have never abused the scheme. Also, have like 6 offers on my Platinum! He was quite taken aback and said it should have been like 60. Anyway, he said he’d send an email. Same situation after a few days, but not being able to refer is becoming a big issue for me as I don’t have any travel plans till summer so might just cancel!

[redethernet1]

S879 wrote:

Called Amex and complained that I have been unable to refer for like a year. This is when there had been no referrals at all for quite sometime before and I have never abused the scheme. Also, have like 6 offers on my Platinum! He was quite taken aback and said it should have been like 60. Anyway, he said he’d send an email. Same situation after a few days, but not being able to refer is becoming a big issue for me as I don’t have any travel plans till summer so might just cancel!

Suppose it depends what the reason you got banned for referrals was. Any ideas
Self referring / referring low or non spenders?

[S879]

redethernet1 wrote:

S879 wrote:

Called Amex and complained that I have been unable to refer for like a year. This is when there had been no referrals at all for quite sometime before and I have never abused the scheme. Also, have like 6 offers on my Platinum! He was quite taken aback and said it should have been like 60. Anyway, he said he’d send an email. Same situation after a few days, but not being able to refer is becoming a big issue for me as I don’t have any travel plans till summer so might just cancel!

Suppose it depends what the reason you got banned for referrals was. Any ideas
Self referring / referring low or non spenders?

Have never self-referred and as I said, I hadn’t even made any referrals in like a year. I have referred my spouse and vice versa in the past, but we are not low earners and I know it is allowed. I didn’t realise it was a ban to be honest; thought it was just a temporary thing.

[JDB]

@S879 – while referring spouses or others in the same household is permitted, that doesn’t mean Amex actually wants to encourage it and it may even frown on it by blocking future referrals, notably for those who regularly referred back and forth.

While allowed, it’s clearly not within the spirit of the rules nor how Amex intends the programme to work. They hope cardholders will refer genuinely new customers to them.

If one takes a step back and imagines that you owned and/or ran a business, would you wish to give out money in this way for nothing?

Times have got much tougher for Amex in the UK, so it’s not really surprising that they have been tightening up in various areas to reduce gratuitous leakage of funds.

[RK228]

JDB wrote:

@S879 – while referring spouses or others in the same household is permitted, that doesn’t mean Amex actually wants to encourage it and it may even frown on it by blocking future referrals, notably for those who regularly referred back and forth.

While allowed, it’s clearly not within the spirit of the rules nor how Amex intends the programme to work. They hope cardholders will refer genuinely new customers to them.

The Referral Programme Terms explicitly state that “you must only send the referral link to close friends and family” and they even further emphasise this by also emboldening the text “only friends and family” in the heading for that section. They also indicate that we must discuss the offer with our friends and family before we send it along, which suggests the links are not meant to be shared frivolously or with random people.

Based on this, if referring close family (e.g., a spouse, brother, parent, etc.) is not within spirit of the programme, then I suggest a rewording is needed.

At any rate, I had a colleague that I wanted to genuinely refer and I when I logged into my account today it showed:

1. a prominent “Limited Time Offer For You and Your Friends” pop-up message when I first logged that said “get 18,000 points until 9 January 2024” if I invite a friend today.
2. an offer of “Get 18,000 points until 9 January 2024” consistently available in my “Available Offers” in the Amex Offers section.

As you can guess, however, given the thread I am posting in, when I try to follow the pop up or the available offer, it then states that I am temporarily unable to refer.

Because I’ve had very few offers on my card since signing up for Platinum in October and the only currently available offer on my card (i.e., 18,000 for referring a friend), which they are prominently advertising to me, is not seemingly available, I lodged a complaint.

I can sort of understand that offers may come and go or may only be available to select customers at times, but they shouldn’t present something as available to customers if it isn’t. Amex has basically got the benefit from the referral promotion from me (because I promoted Amex to a friend), but now I get nothing for it.

[JDB]

@RK228 – yes, of course referring a spouse once is totally fine and what Amex is maybe even hoping for, but back and forth referrals are quite obviously not the use Amex intends. The only people I know who can’t refer are players.

[RTS]

I think the referral ban is in relation to the retention points that was given…

[Scott]

RTS wrote:

I think the referral ban is in relation to the retention points that was given…

Never had, nor asked for, any retention bonus and I was one of the initial ones to lose the ability to refer. Also never self-referred.

After a few months of still being without it (other than a short spell where it reappeared, then quickly disappeared, I cancelled my one and only Amex.

After a 9 month gap I reapplied successfully and can once again refer.

[degsy]

Scott wrote:

RTS wrote:

I think the referral ban is in relation to the retention points that was given…

Never had, nor asked for, any retention bonus and I was one of the initial ones to lose the ability to refer. Also never self-referred.

After a few months of still being without it (other than a short spell where it reappeared, then quickly disappeared, I cancelled my one and only Amex.

After a 9 month gap I reapplied successfully and can once again refer.

Make sure you take a copy of the link in case it disappears again

[RTS]

degsy wrote:

Scott wrote:

RTS wrote:

I think the referral ban is in relation to the retention points that was given…

Never had, nor asked for, any retention bonus and I was one of the initial ones to lose the ability to refer. Also never self-referred.

After a few months of still being without it (other than a short spell where it reappeared, then quickly disappeared, I cancelled my one and only Amex.

After a 9 month gap I reapplied successfully and can once again refer.

Make sure you take a copy of the link in case it disappears again

Does this work for sure? i still have my old referral link…

[degsy]

Anecdotally I think it does. Nothing to lose though, I guess.

[jsto]

I seem to be able to refer again, having not been able to do so for some time.
My referral link is identical to the one I had saved ~9 months ago, before my access to referrals was revoked. So I suspect anyone who saved old links in the relatively recent past should be in luck. But frankly who knows!

[Harrods]

P2 got this email in December, offered ending 9 January –

Don’t miss this limited time offer. You could get 14,000 Membership Rewards® points1 – and your friend could receive 30,000 bonus points2 as a welcome gift, if they are accepted and spend £3,000 in the first three months, as a new Gold Credit Cardmember.

Can’t seem to refer again now… although have saved link