Crazy! 450K Membership Rewards Points Missing

Crazy! 450K Membership Rewards Points Missing

The American Express® Business Gold Card is a great option for businesses. Besides a 50,000 points bonus available through referrals, you can get 4X points on some categories. You can earn 4X Membership Rewards® points on the 2 categories where your business spent the most each billing cycle. Those categories include things like airfare, gas, restaurants, advertising and more. But getting the extra points sometimes is not very straight forward. There’s usually issues with merchants not posting correctly.

One such case has cost a Business Gold cardmember 450,000 Membership rewards points. He detailed his case on reddit. He spent $150,000 within three weeks on Facebook Advertising. His charges show as billed in Ireland. So American Express sees this as purchases from a foreign company and is denying the 4X earning, giving just 1X instead.

Facebook terms say that “if you are a resident of or have your principal place of business in a country other than the U.S. or Canada, these Payments Terms are between you and Facebook Payments International Ltd., a private limited company in the Republic of Ireland.” But the the cardmember says that he is a US citizen, resident in the US and with a US LLC based in Texas.

Facebook has been in the news regarding these issues in the past. But a charge that I tested today, showed up pending as Facebook Advertising USA for me.

Guru’s Wrap-up

Hopefully this gets resolved. It is really a Facebook issue. Amex sees that the business is not in the US and awards just 1X points. (4X earning is for U.S. purchases for advertising in select media). This is a good reminder to always check how tour charges are posting, especially if you expect them to earn bonus points. Even more so when we’re talking about large amounts.

Have you had any similar issues with American Express? Let me know!