If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you are probably aware that I love FREE money… I mean, who doesn’t! Although not a money tree, American Express comes to a close second! For over a year now, American Express has ran many promotions where all you need to do is sync your Amex credit card and on certain promotional purchases you’ll receive a statement credit. To date, I’ve receive over $1,000 back in statement credits back! While this does take some effort (although not much), there is a real benefit here.

So let’s go through the basis:

1. Which cards qualify? You can register almost all cards that have the American Express logo. For example, this includes, American Express Platinum and Gold, Hilton American Express, American Airlines American Express, Starwood American Express, American Express for Students, Bloomingdales American Express, Macys American Express, etc. You get the picture! The only cards that do not qualify are corporate American Express cards.
2. Which means of social media allow me to sync my credit cards? Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook. If you do not have these three accounts, get them just for the promotional benefits.
3. How do I sync my American Express card to these social media sites? You will need to sync your card with all three:
1. Twitter: Sync your American Express card here
2. Foursquare: Sync your American Express card here
3. Facebook: Sync your American Express card here
4. Once my card is synced am I all set? Unfortunately no. Your card is synced, but then you must register for each particular promotion. Some promotions are available via all three social media methods, while others are limited to one or the other.
5. So then how do I register for a particular promotion? Each of the three social media sites, have a different method. Below are the basics, but I will dedicate another post to the step by step directions for each:
1. Twitter: You must “tweet” the promotion code, with the hash tag included
2. Foursquare: You must “check in” at the participating merchant.
3. Facebook: You must “like” the promotion in the “Link, Like, Love” app.
6. Am I able to get the promotion multiple times if I registered via all three social media channels? You used to be able to double or triple dip, but American Express has now linked up all promotions so you will only be eligible once.
7. Am I able to get the promotion more than once if I have multiple Amex credit cards? Although you are only eligible for the statement credit once per card, no one is stopping you from having multiple social media accounts, right? So let’s say you have three Amex cards, you can have three Twitter accounts, for example, all with a different card synced to it. This will allow you to maximize your statement credits. Just make sure to register all accounts and keep track on the cards being used.
8. How long should the credit appear on my statement? In my experience all credits have appeared within a week!
9. Am I able to purchase gift cards at a promotional merchant? Typically yes! For example, right now American Express will give you a $20 statement credit with a $200 or more purchase at Best Buy. Purchasing a $200 gift card to use at a future date will trigger the statement credit.
10. How do I find the various promotions? For starters, my Free Money page does a great job on having the latest American Express syncing promotions (not to toot my own horn or anything!). This page is updated weekly (if not more), so you can keep on checking if any new ones have been added. You are also able to find out on the respective social media channels:
1. Twitter: This Twitter page lists out all of the Twitter synching promotion.
2. Foursquare: Go to Explore > Specials on your Foursquare app and you will be able to find the sync promotions that are in your local area.
3. Facebook: On your Facebook account, click on the “Link, Like, Love” app on the left-hand column. This will list all the Facebook sync promotions. If you are in New York or Los Angeles, make sure to update your zip code as there are some specific promotions for those two cities. Hopefully other cities will be added in the near future.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions and I’ll add them to the list above. And stay tuned to post Free Money 201 where I detail out the steps for registering for the promotions on all three social media channels.