$75 AMEX gift cheque for a free consultation from Ameriprise

I got this ad on the AMEX cards site by typing my password wrong..

LINK

Complimentary Financial Consultation from Ameriprise Financial
Plus, $75 in American Express(R) Gift Cheques*

Ameriprise Financial, formerly American Express Financial Advisors, has more than 110 years of providing solutions to help clients reach their financial goals. Now let us help you ? starting with a complimentary initial consultation.

What can you expect? You're likely to find our professional, confidential consultations unique. Here's why:

Your goals. Our advisors concentrate on understanding your needs and goals, rather than on promoting specific products or investments.
Options and guidance. Trained in a wide variety of retirement and investment strategies, our financial advisors can lay out the facts and provide you with options and guidance. They are a good resource for discussing things like reducing taxes, college planning or preparing for a more secure retirement.
Experience. With more than 110 years of experience and more CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM professionals than any other firm, we're fully poised to meet your financial planning needs.
No obligation. This is a complimentary consultation. There is no cost or obligation, just sound financial guidance.

* One incentive may be received per household for an initial consultation with an Ameriprise financial advisor. Offer is valid to new Ameriprise Financial clients only. Please allow 10 - 12 weeks after your initial consultation to receive your Gift Cheques by mail. The bonus you receive is subject to income tax. Please consult with your tax advisor.

Milk em for the free gift check, but DO NOT signup for their services.

read these Prior discussions from 2003 and

2003 again

2004

AMEX FINANCIAL ADVISORS IS NOW CALLED AMERIPRISE. Same tactics, same company.

I like their criteria for offering you the bonus: a mis-typed password.

...

I can just imagine how the discussion of this marketing strategy might have gone in the back offices of "Ameriprise":

Bob: "Heck, if this guy can't even type his password correctly, maybe he'll ALSO be stupid / gullible / naive enough to believe that our consultants are trustworthy and competent and miss the fact that they're nothing more than underqualified, overpriced, and biased-by-commission shills for our insurance and annuity products."

Bill: "Good idea, Bob! Gold stars and 100 shares for you."

...

Edit: I just signed up for my free consultation. Green for you OP -- thanks for sharing!

Be very careful if you go in for one of their "consultations". I went to the one several years ago and it was two hours of hard sell tactics. It took me the entire two hours to get the guy to tell me exactly how he intended to invest my assests.

Basically they charge very high prices to implement a very simple diversified investment scheme. You can implement their investment plan all on your own, without paying the high prices, if you like it.

if you tell em youre broke, theyll stress how important LTD is if you lose your job

Is this a phone consultation, or do you need to visit a B&M location?

It's a B&M location. When I did it last time, I just described a budget where simply every penny was being used. Hopefully since you're a FWer you are saving cash every month, but you don't have to tell THEM that, just inflate your mortgage, deflate your income, whatever you need so they think there's no money they can pinch from you, and then hopefully there will be no hard sale tactics. Also, designating your spouse (who couldn't make it to the meeting) as the decision maker is a great way out. I'll do that if I have to, even though I'm single

The "grilling" is about 30 min to 1 hour, but the cheque comes in the mail, in 10-12 weeks. Keep in mind though, it's a "consultation", not an "interrogation". So ask THEM as many generic financial questions you can think of, even if you may already know the answer, that way you're taking the spotlight off yourself. Just remember that they may be biased because they want to sell you services, so take their answers with a grain of salt.

What can I use the AMEX gift card for?

if you try to maximize AMEX credit lines, would it be wise to tell them youre broke??

dunno , just thought about it

theman2 said: my strategy to take advantage of this is to tell them that I have just made this year and last years contribution to a Roth ($8K) and am thus cash-strapped for another 6 months.

Either that or I tell them that I want to make a $20K BT from an AMEX credit card and use the money to speculate in options

I just had another idea - has anyone tried going in to one of these and telling them that you are only there for the $75 giftcard? that usually works for the test drive incentives.

i did that with the $50 gift card for the over the phone consultation a while ago, i just told the dude, dude i just want the gift card i dont even kno what ur talking about lol he said sure i dont want to waste my time n sent it to me

MOZZY said: didYOUsearch said: of course if shes cute, act all interested and tell her how much you like her to handle your assets

If she is cute she can handle my family jewels dont get too cozy or she'll end up taking half. And that can hurt in more ways than one.

Do they do any type of credit check for this? I don't want this to affect my FICO.

It says the bonus you receive is subject to "income tax".

Now explain to me how a "GIFT Check" is subject to income tax? I didn't know there was a tax on receiving a GIFT which is clearly marked "GIFT" ... did you?

Thanks PO. Just applied. How long before any of you guys receive the actual offer for the presentation?

Wonder if it will fly again. I did this before, when I had a little debt, and even told them that I am doing this to get that reduced, at least by $50 that time. I think they would become a little dumbfounded when I tell them I am running a Vanguard Target Roth with an average of 9%-10% retun with 1/4 % management fees, have liuid assests in a 4.25% Emigrant Direct Account, and am filtering funds into Energy, Small Cap and RE notes using Vanguard Viper ETF's with respectable returns. I could see them now, "well maybe you need a good whole life insurance policy" - Just like I need an hole in my pocketbook, now gimme that $75.

DamnoIT said: Wonder if it will fly again. I did this before, when I had a little debt, and even told them that I am doing this to get that reduced, at least by $50 that time. I think they would become a little dumbfounded when I tell them I am running a Vanguard Target Roth with an average of 9%-10% retun with 1/4 % management fees, have liuid assests in a 4.25% Emigrant Direct Account, and am filtering funds into Energy, Small Cap and RE notes using Vanguard Viper ETF's with respectable returns. I could see them now, "well maybe you need a good whole life insurance policy" - Just like I need an hole in my pocketbook, now gimme that $75.

They'll probably push the disability insurance instead. Both times, that's what they tried pushing on me.

I used to be an advisor for American Express Financial Advisors--it was my 1st job out of college. I quit shortly before the spin-off to Ameriprise. I met with people who had these various miles or gift cheque vouchers, but more commonly costco members who were getting a $25 Costco cash card (which you still may be able to do by the way, costco mambers). I would sign them and mail them in after i presented and tried to sell the prospects. I did actually get a few to bite. The initial consultation is definitely a hard sell. I could write out here the 23 page script I had to memorize that virtually every advisor recites in these meetings. There is virtually no way out of saying yes to something...except one. "I'm unemployed and I have 20k in credit card debt, and it's at about 22%". No good advisor will tell ytou to buy Disability insurance, or, term, whole life unless they're a total (insert explitive). Nothing pises off an advisor like a "non-qualified lead". They walk out of the PMM (that's what that first meeting is called by advisors) tict off that their time was wasted.
However, if you've never been to meet with these advisors, you'll probably learn something if you get a good advisor. THe "Tax control triangle" though definitely manipulated in their presentation is a good strategy to tax plan your retirement.
I've wroked in the financial and investment world ever since I left, and I still think they do some of the best comprehensive financial planning in the industry. Second only to some good independent planners, and a compnay called Savant--which is only for the super rich. But, it all depends on the advisor you meet with.
If you guys have more detailed questions, post them, and i'll try to respond soon enough.
Check out amexsux.com for a good hate site

I signed up a few days ago and no contact yet.

Anyone been contaceted? How long did you wait?

I just went to my consultation. One hour and forty minutes later we were done. She was actually pretty smart and knowledgeable about a pretty broad range of products. I couldn't trip her up with a single question. I'm not saying it is worth $500 a year, that is that what I was offered to use her as a financial advisor ($400 if Costco member), but it wasn't a terrible service in my opinion.

Although I already take advantage of most of the things she mention (Roth IRAs, 529s, etc), to someone who didn't have those the advice she had definitely would have paid for the $500 to sign up.

One problem though, I can't get the $75 unless I give a certificate to sign talking about the deal. I never got a certificate but I know I signed up through the $75 offer. I told her she got my information through the $75 sign up (how else could she have called me in the first place?) but she said that wasn't enough.

Anyone have an scan? Please???? I put in a good 100 minutes, I want my $75. Thanks