Matching Personal Referral Offers
Earning bonus points from credit card welcome offers is by far the fastest and most efficient way to earn points. That is why we're almost always working on a new minimum spend and already planning out our next credit cards moves. Referral bonuses are another way to juice up your points balances. This is when you refer someone else to a credit card and the bank awards you bonus points if that person is approved. But, personal referral offers don't always go lock step with the public offers. When will we get matching personal referral offers to the public offer is a common question we see, especially with the increased Ink Business Preferred card offer, so we thought we would do a mini guide on it.
Personal Versus Public Offers
Banks regularly change welcome offers across their credit cards throughout the year. Elevated offers can stick around for several months or just a few weeks. But, just because a bank increased the welcome offer for a credit card doesn't mean they will also increase the offer for personal referrals, at least not immediately. Let's take a look at what each bank tends to do with referral offers:
American Express
Amex exemplifies inconsistencies across welcome offers more than any other bank. Personal referrals often don't match the public offer, and you can regularly find better offers by searching with a clean browser or across different browsers.
The quick guide to matching personal referral offers with American Express:
- Refer a friend offers are often better than public offers
- They can change depending on what card you are referring from, or which browser you open them in
- Referral offers can last longer than public offers at times
Chase
In contrast to Amex, Chase tends to be more consistent, where you mostly see the same welcome offer regardless of how you're applying. Personal referrals, public offers, and affiliate links are usually aligned. But, this doesn't happen immediately. When Chase introduces an elevated welcome offer, it tends to roll that offer out in phases. It can first start with in-branch applications, following by public offers, then affiliate links, and finally personal referrals.
The quick guide to matching personal referral offers with Chase:
- The refer a friend offers often match the public offer
- They can be higher, or unique, at times – especially with the Freedom card offers.
- Very rarely they end up being worse than the public offer
- The referral offers tend to be delayed by 2-3 weeks compared to the public offer launch.
- Chase referral offers can often last longer than the public links on the flip side, hanging on for days or weeks after the offer disappears.
Capital One
Capital One has targeted refer a friend offers, but in a different way. Only select cardmembers will have access to a refer a friend link at times. It may only be for certain cards too. Having said that, they usually go lock step with the publicly available offers. I can't remember a time where they differed myself.
Discover
Discover on the other hand works a bit differently from the rest. They almost always have a better offer via personal referral. Usually it comes with a $50 – $100 bonus for the referrer and referee that isn't available publicly.
The Rest Of The Banks
I believe those are the only banks that routinely offer a refer a friend program. The rest don't give you the opportunity.
Matching Personal Referral Offers: ToP Thoughts
Banks change credit card welcome offers for various reasons throughout the year. While some banks are better than others about updating personal referral offers to match public offers available, the timing behind this is always unclear. It is also something that is never publicly released or discussed, so we are unable to give you better guidance than what he have historically seen listed above.
