New AMEX Offer: Earn up to 3.3 mpd on telco bills and streaming services

American Express has launched a new AMEX Offer for Telco, Entertainment and Media spending, which allows cardholders to earn bonus miles with selected telcos, streaming services and SPH. 

Like all AMEX Offers, this may be targeted. If you don’t see it in the AMEX app or online, you can try to call up customer service to do a manual registration, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be successful.

Earn up to 3.3 mpd on telco, entertainment and media

This AMEX Offer runs from 7 July to 6 December 2021. Registration is required, and is capped at 12,000 cards. 

Registered cardholders will earn bonus miles on eligible recurring transactions (see definition below) as follows:

Card	Base	Bonus	Total
AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card	1.1 mpd	2 mpd	3.1 mpd
AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend	1.2 mpd	2 mpd	3.2 mpd
AMEX PPS Credit Card	1.3 mpd	2 mpd	3.3 mpd
AMEX Solitaire PPS Credit Card	1.3 mpd	2 mpd	3.3 mpd

The bonus component is capped at S$300 of spending throughout the entire campaign period. In other words, the maximum bonus you can earn is 600 KrisFlyer miles.

Bonus miles will be credited within 5 business days from qualifying spend, but may take up to 90 days from the end of the offer date. In practice, they post very fast though.

The full T&Cs can be found in the AMEX app or web portal. 

What merchants are eligible?

Transactions at the following merchants are eligible for this offer.

Do note that this offer is only valid for recurring payments, which means you’ll need to set your AMEX card as the default method of payment through:

• American Express Recurring Bill Payment form (Singtel, StarHub and M1 only)
• Singtel account via Singtel website
• StarHub account via the StarHub website
• Circles.Life account via the Circles.Life website or in-app
• M1 account via the M1 website or in-app
• MyRepublic account via the MyRepublic website or in-app
• Amazon Prime account via the Amazon website
• Disney+ account via the Disney+ website
• Netflix account via the Netflix website or in-app
• Spotify account via the Spotify website or in-app
• Singapore Press Holdings subscriptions via the SPH website

After adding your card to the subscription account, it’ll be charged for the following month’s bill. You’ll have to add your card in time for it to be charged by 6 December 2021. 

What are the alternatives?

Although it’s always good to see bonus miles promotions, there’s very little reason to switch your existing card if you’re already earning 4 mpd on such transactions. 

Streaming services like Disney+, Netflix and Spotify already earn 4 mpd with the Citi Rewards and DBS Woman’s World Card, as well as the Citi PremierMiles and Citi Prestige until 31 August 2021, 

For telcos bills, I’m using the Citi Rewards and DBS Woman’s World Card, which award 4 mpd so long as you don’t save your card to the system (i.e. make ad-hoc payments, not recurring). 

Conclusion

While better alternatives still exist, this offer would be useful for those who have maxed out their bonus caps on other 4 mpd cards. Be sure to register your card if you’re interested, and take a couple of minutes to swap out your recurring billing arrangement. 

As a heads up, American Express will be launching a separate offer for everyday spending later this month, which will award a bonus 2 mpd on a wide variety of merchants like supermarkets, food delivery and pharmacies.