Amex sent a check for $800 saying they owed me the value of 40k points??

I assume it must have been for a AMEX promo I signed up for at some point in the past. I know it had to be from one I had seen on here. The card # it lists is not currently open, I am not sure what card promo it could have been for, I have strong feelings it was for a gold card that was floating around last year. I know one thing, I would have remembered if AMEX had not given me the points I signed up for. But I seem to remember with this offer some people reported getting an extra allotment of Rewards points that I never got, maybe this is what it is. Anyone received one of these? Perhaps keep an eye open for anything from AMEX, and make sure not to shred anything before opening!!

Here is the text of the letter:

Account Ending in: XXXXX

Dear JOHN SMITH:

We have enclosed a check for the cash value of 40,000 Membership Rewards points. You should have received these points with the promotional offer you redeemed when you spent $500 in the first three months of Cardmembership. Due to a system error, we were unable to award these Membership Rewards points before you Card was cancelled.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Sincerely,

American Express Customer Care

This program is manager by American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., with assistance from RUST Consulting, inc. RUST Consulting, Inc. is a program administrator retained by American Express for this purpose.

40,000 for only a $500 spend in 3 months? I'd be happy enough to see more offers like that..

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

I had a similar thing on my Hilton AMEX card. When I was getting close to the 3 month date for the minimum-spending bonus, which had not been credited, I called up to remind them. The bonus points appeared within a few days. Then, 6 months later, I received a letter like the OP's, stating that I should have received points within 3 months. I still had my card so I received a second set of 30,000 HHonors points.

that's awesome..because typically 40,000 points only get you $400 in gift card.

fatbaby said:   AMEX accidentally gave a number of us 125000 points when we were only supposed to get 50000.

Yep. I think this was for the Gold Membership Rewards card from the deal last year. My DW got this in the mail too.

Got one here too. That gold American Express card was great.

any one here got one for an account that's still open??

I was like $100 short on spend or 2 days late on the promo spend on this one. I doubt they'll round up on me (though I did close not long after) so we'll see. I assume they don't cut & mail checks piecemeal so would know soon.

parmenides said:   AMEX MR is just the gift that keeps on giving. Between churning gold cards for profit and these kinds of sporadic overpayments, the value in these things has been really nice.

AMEX has certainly overachieved in the last 1.5 yrs in terms of giving out points. Of course they drew my ire when they doubled the price of AMEX gift cards in the delta portal.....

So will AMEX 1099 this check? And maybe that is why they are giving you $0.02/point instead of $0.01/point, to offset taxes from an upcoming 1099-INT. Whereas, the points themselves would not have been taxable.

americano said:   Any chance this could be fraud? Like we deposit the check and a few days later they debit the money (and more) from our accounts?

No, depositing a check, does not give anyone access to your account, now if it was a fraud it might bounce, but you wouldn't have to worry about unauthorized access to your account.

Though the first thing that crossed my mind when I first opened it was "this is too good to be true, must be a scam".

I just received this letter today too. Free $800. Funny thing is, the membership rewards points are still sitting in my AMEX account unused. They migrated them to my Blue Cash card when I closed the Gold Rewards account.

Claymore said:   Do you have to endorse the back with your full name, DOB, SSN, employer name, and bank account numbers?
Doesn't say anything specifically at the back of the check. Why do you ask?

I just got a $1000 check today from AMEX along with a similar letter stating the check was for the value of 50000 points that I should have received. I assume this for a platinum card I closed a few months ago, and what's odd is I actually did receive the bonus points for this card, not automatically, but they were manually issued eight weeks after meeting the spend requirement.

were these related to the platinum bonus link that was denied?

It is like the gift that keeps on giving, just got another letter saying they credited me $100 and 4,000 miles on my delta skymiles card because there was a system error and they were not able to provide me with an instant account # online.

Checked my account and sure enough there was a $100 credit that posted on 12/18

AMEX is awesome!

Got a check today for $102 from AMEX. Mine wasn't for points, but the refund of an annual fee (which I never paid in the first place) on a card closed last spring. The credit had apparently been sitting there since last fall, but I didn't notice since it was a closed account. I checked DH's account, and he has a check coming for the same thing, too. Both of us also received 15K random Delta points last spring.

Indeed, the gift that keeps on giving! Definitely watch your AMEX-related points accounts and always open your AMEX mail!