[ANALYSIS] 20,000 Referral Bonus Points with the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card

We recently wrote a post about the increased signed up bonus points, from 10,000 to 20,000 on both the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Regular and Business version of the Credit Card. At that point in time, the referral bonus had not change, it remained at 5,000 referral bonus points and only 10,000 sign up bonus points. So it was even more worthwhile to sign up on your own.

Now that has change on one of the credit card. The American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card now has a 10,000 referral bonus points and 20,000 sign up bonus points. Oddly enough, the Business version of the credit card remains the same.

If you have been contemplating whether to get this credit card, now is as good a time as anyway, especially if you have a friend or family member who can benefit from the additional 10,000 points.

If you do not know anyone who has the credit card, what you can do is pair up with someone (especially a spouse) where you can sign up for the credit card first, get the 20,000 sign up bonus points. Then refer your spouse to gain an additional 10,000 sign up bonus points and your spouse receiving their 20,000 sign up bonus points. That will give you two a total of 50,000 points for $240 ($120 x 2 annual fees). If you can leverage the points well, it could actually be a good deal.

So far, there does not appear to be an expiry date on when this higher than normal sign up bonus will last, which also means that it can be shut down at any time.