I figured I’d post a quick update of some credit card sign-up bonuses for American Express, since there are a couple of targeted and increased sign-up bonuses out there right now.

American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card — 25,000 points after spending $2,000 within three months

While the best published sign-up bonus for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card is 15,000 points after spending $1,000 within three months, American Express is allowing existing cardholders to refer new members for a 25,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $2,000 within three months. The person making the referral also earns 10,000 Membership Rewards points. If you’re an existing member and want to refer a friend you can do so by logging into your American Express account, or if you’d like to be referred I’d be delighted to do so if you email me your first and last name at onemileatatime@hotmail.com. This offer expires February 13, 2012.

Reasons to get this card: Three points per dollar on airfare, two points per dollar on gas and groceries, and one point per dollar on everything else. You also get 15,000 bonus points when you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year. This is one of my top three credit cards, and what I charge my airfare, gas, and groceries to. In the past American Express had great sign-up bonuses whereby they would honor targeted sign-up bonuses for everyone, though that seems to be a thing of the past

American Express Platinum Card — 50,000 points after spending $3,000 within three months

While the published offer for the American Express Platinum card is 25,000 points after spending $1,000 within three months, American Express is allowing existing cardholders to refer new members for a 50,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $3,000 within three months. The person making the referral also earns 10,000 Membership Rewards points. If you’re an existing member and want to refer a friend you can do so by logging into your American Express account, or if you’d like to be referred I’d be delighted to do so if you email me your first and last name at onemileatatime@hotmail.com. This offer expires February 13, 2012.

Reasons to get this card: The $450 annual fee more than pays for itself. You get a $200 airline fee credit per calendar year, which in practice can be used to buy airline gift cards. Since it’s based on a calendar year, if you sign up for the card now you would get the $200 airline fee credit twice, meaning in practice you can get $400 in airline gift cards, bringing the annual fee down to $50. Beyond that you get complimentary Global Entry ($100 value) plus access to American, Delta, and US Airways lounges, as well as a Priority Pass membership. At the very least this card is worth having for one year for all the benefits, and then after that you can decide if it’s worth it to you or not. This is definitely a card I’d sign up for under this offer, as I can’t imagine we’ll see a better sign-up bonus anytime soon.

American Express Business Platinum Card — 25,000 points after spending $5,000 within three months

Just today American Express raised the bonus on the Business Platinum Card from zero to 25,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months. While it’s not a great sign-up bonus, I do think it’s worth mentioning since the bonus went up and it’s the best published bonus. The link for the application can be found here.

Reasons to get this card: The benefits of this card are very similar to the American Express Platinum card, and the $450 annual fee more than pays for itself. You get a $200 airline fee credit per calendar year, which in practice can be used to buy airline gift cards. Since it’s based on a calendar year, if you sign up for the card now you would get the $200 airline fee credit twice, meaning in practice you can get $400 in airline gift cards, bringing the annual fee down to $50. Beyond that you get complimentary Global Entry ($100 value) plus access to American, Delta, and US Airways lounges, as well as a Priority Pass membership. At the very least this card is worth having for one year for all the benefits, and then after that you can decide if it’s worth it to you or not. I’m not sure if we’ll see a higher sign-up bonus of this anytime soon, though it sure wouldn’t surprise me.

Starwood American Express Card — 25,000 points after spending $5,000 within six months

While the sign-up bonus remains the same for both the Starwood Personal American Express and Starwood Business American Express credit cards, they have increased the referral bonus for consumers from 5,000 points to 10,000 points, through February 13, 2012. So you can now refer someone to the Starwood American Express and earn an even better referral bonus. If you’re an existing member and want to refer a friend you can do so by logging into your American Express account, or if you’d like to be referred I’d be delighted to do so if you email me your first and last name at onemileatatime@hotmail.com or you could apply through one of the above links.

Reasons to get this card: See this recent post.

Any questions?

Full disclosure: I receive a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through the above links.