The 75 Best Credit Card Referral Bonuses [2024]

The ways you can earn credit card points and miles are almost endless. These include credit card welcome bonuses, regular spending, and shopping portals.

Another way to earn lots of points quickly is to refer your friends to a credit card. By doing so, you’ll earn a credit card referral bonus.

However, this approach can be surprisingly involved due to policies and referral structures that differ from bank to bank.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to maximize credit card referral bonuses, as well as what referral bonuses you should expect from each card.

What Is a Credit Card Referral Bonus?

A credit card referral bonus is a reward that banks and credit card issuers offer to cardmembers who invite their friends, family, and business colleagues to open a card.

Usually, referral bonuses are awarded in points, miles, or additional cash-back. For example, a referral bonus might be 15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, 10,000 Delta SkyMiles, or $100 cash-back.

You’ll generally only earn a referral bonus if the person you refer is approved for the credit card. If the person you refer gets denied, you will not earn a referral bonus.

Current Referral Bonuses

In the next section, we’ll discuss the current referral bonuses offered by different banks and credit card products.

American Express

American Express is one of the most generous credit card issuers in terms of offering referral bonuses. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to grow membership and American Express takes full advantage of that principle.

With American Express, you can earn a referral bonus on any card your friend is approved for, not just the card product you referred from! For example, you can earn a referral bonus if you refer your friends from The Platinum Card^® from American Express and they are approved for the American Express^® Gold Card. In that case, you’d earn the referral bonus for the Amex Platinum card and they would earn the Amex Gold referral bonus.

Hot Tip: Check out our complete guide to Amex’s Refer a Friend program!

American Express might offer you targeted referral bonuses to help you earn more points from a referral, though there’s no way to predict who gets targeted for these.

Here is the complete list of referral offers from American Express:

*All information about these cards has been collected independently by Upgraded Points.

Capital One

Capital One’s credit card game is quickly catching up to its peers American Express and Chase. As part of this effort, Capital One cardholders are eligible to earn referral bonuses.

With Capital One, you will only receive a referral bonus if whoever you refer is approved for the same product you have. Capital One offers cash-back referral bonuses on cash-back credit cards and miles referral bonuses on Capital One miles credit cards.

While most of the major Capital One card products are eligible for referral bonuses, its store cards and other co-branded products are not.

Here is the complete list of Capital One referral bonuses:

Chase

Chase has a great referral program for its credit cards. Although its referral bonuses may change from time to time, Chase does not target specific customers with higher bonus offers. If Chase changes its referral bonuses, it does so across the board so that anybody with a certain credit card will be eligible for the same referral bonus as everybody else.

In addition, Chase has expanded its referral program — if you have a Chase card, you may be able to earn a referral bonus when your friend is approved for a product within the same card family. For example, if you have the Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card and you refer a friend who gets the Ink Business Unlimited^® Credit Card, you will still earn a referral bonus!

This isn’t applied uniformly, though. For example, Chase offers a referral bonus for its Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card cardholders only if their friends apply for the same card — Chase Sapphire Reserve^® applications are not eligible.

Here’s what the table of current Chase referral offers looks like:

Citi

Citi doesn’t currently have a referral program for any U.S. credit cards. A referral program is offered to cardholders in countries like the Philippines, India, and Singapore, but it’s not available in the U.S. at the moment.

Referral Bonus History

Referral bonuses change all the time. These changes can happen on an individual or widespread basis.

What we mean by that is that on an individual basis, Amex may choose to target you for an increased referral bonus for a few months, while it might not offer any increased referral bonuses to other cardholders.

On the flip side, Chase will almost always offer the same referral bonus to all cardholders. It is extremely unlikely to offer a 15,000-point referral bonus to the public and a 20,000-point referral bonus to specific cardmembers.

So in this next section, we’ll share the highest-ever referral bonuses from each bank and card to give you an idea of whether you should wait for a better bonus or pull the trigger immediately.

American Express Referral Bonus History

American Express changes its referral bonuses the most often out of all the major credit card issuers.

American Express consistently offers limited-time, enhanced referral bonuses on its flagship cards like the Amex Gold card or the Amex Platinum card.

Here’s the complete list of historical-high referral bonus offers:

Capital One Referral Bonus History

Capital One offers targeted referral bonuses on a few of its credit cards and consistent referral bonuses on its other eligible cards.

Here’s the table:

(Information collected independently. Not reviewed by Capital One.)

Chase Referral Bonus History

Chase is currently offering all-time high referral bonuses on its most popular credit cards, including the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, the Ink family of cards, United cards, Marriott Bonvoy cards, and Southwest cards.

All of the highest-ever offers are current, with the exception of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which no longer has a referral bonus.

Citi Referral Bonus History

Citi has never offered a publicly available referral bonus on its credit cards. However, in the past, Citi has sent out targeted campaigns, mostly over email and postal mail, for a few of its credit cards.

These limited-time promotions mark the extent of Citi’s referral bonus program in the U.S. for credit cards — here’s the complete historical list:

Here’s hoping that Citi brings back a referral bonus program!

Final Thoughts

Despite how prevalent referral bonuses are in the world of credit cards today, we shouldn’t take them for granted.

The major credit card issuers offer excellent referral bonuses that can allow you and your friend to get rewarded for expanding your relationships with banks.

The exact structures and inner workings of each referral bonus may vary, but at a high level, the best referral bonuses come from American Express, Capital One, and Chase.

We’ll continue to update this guide with new referral bonuses, as well as the highest-ever referral bonuses to help you make the best game-time decisions possible on whether to refer now or later.

Keep this guide bookmarked if you’re referring often!

The information regarding the American Express Platinum Card^® for Schwab, Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred^® American Express Card, The Amazon Business American Express Card, The Platinum Card^® from American Express Exclusively for Goldman Sachs, The Platinum Card^® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley, Capital One Spark Classic for Business and United℠ TravelBank Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.