How To Track Your Progress Toward an American Express Credit Card Welcome Bonus Offer

Congratulations! You’ve just been approved for a new American Express credit card, and you’re ready to earn the bonus from its welcome offer. But that comes with a spending requirement and a deadline, so how do you keep track of those?

Knowing how much to keep spending to hit your welcome-offer mark — and when to stop — is key to a successful points-and-miles strategy, but that’s easier said than done if you’re new to the game. Amex often has spectacular welcome offers on many Membership Rewards and cash-back cards, but you need to use workarounds to track your progress on co-branded cards.

Here’s how you can track the progress toward your bonus on the Amex website and mobile app.

How To Find the Welcome Offer Tracker

Finding the welcome offer tracker should be easy as soon as you log in to your American Express account. If you don’t see it immediately above the Rewards section for your card, follow these steps to track your welcome offer on a new American Express card in the Amex mobile app:

• Open the Amex app and select your new card in the Accounts tab.
• Select Membership Rewards.
• You’ll see the welcome offer tracker at the top of this section with your spending progress and deadline.

The tracker includes your offer expiration date, how much you’ve spent, the spending requirement, and how much you can earn if you meet the spending requirement before the offer expires.

Chat With a Representative

If your account doesn’t show a welcome offer tracker, the simplest way to confirm your progress is by chatting with an American Express representative.

Start by logging in to the American Express website and initiating a chat. First, inform the chat agent that you want to confirm the requirements for your bonus and track your progress, then go through the process of verifying your identity.

From here, the agent can provide useful details like the day you opened the account, the bonus you’re working toward, its spending requirement, and the deadline. You also can check how much you’ve spent on the card so far.

Getting all of this information in a single place while also being able to ask questions makes the process simple. You’ll know the bonus deadline and how much progress you’ve made.

Use Offer Tracker Alternatives on the Website

Another option if you can’t access the welcome offer tracker is to use spending reports and tracking tools for benefit-related spending to see how much you’ve spent.

Benefit-Related Spending Trackers

American Express offers spending-related benefits on several of its credit cards. Whether you’re working toward a free night award on a hotel credit card or elite status benefits on an airline card, you can track your spending progress.

While that’s not the same as explicitly tracking the spending toward a welcome bonus offer, all spending on your card should show up in these trackers, helping you know what you’ve spent so far toward your new Amex card’s welcome offer.

To access these spending trackers, log in to your account and select the relevant card in the top right corner. Then click on Rewards & Benefits in the menu.

On the next page, click Benefits to see the perk offered on your card, as well as the spending trackers for those that require spending on your card to unlock the benefit. Depending on how many benefits there are, you may need to click Show all.

Not all of the spending trackers are helpful here. For example, the tracker for the airline fee credit (enrollment required) on the Platinum Card^® from American Express won’t help you know how much you’ve spent toward a welcome bonus offer because only certain purchases apply with a preferred airline that you select in advance.

However, another benefit on the Amex Platinum card does count all of your year-to-date spending: earning guest privileges at the Centurion Lounges. You could use this tracker to see what you’ve spent on your card, and this number should be the same as, or relatively close to, the spending that counts toward the welcome bonus offer you’re working on.

Spending Reports

It’s also possible to find a year-to-date spending report and use that to check your bonus progress. This can be helpful if your card doesn’t have the trackers discussed above or if you just wish to see the information in a different way.

To access this report, click on View All in the recent transactions when looking at the home page for your credit card. On the next page, under your charges and balance, look for the option Your Spend Report.

The default view for your spending report is recent transactions that posted since your last statement closed. In the Date Range menu, choose the option for Custom, starting with the date you opened the card. That way, you see how much you’ve spent on your card during that period and how much you’ve spent toward the welcome bonus offer.

Caveats

These reports aren’t an exact measure of how much progress you’ve made toward an Amex welcome bonus offer, though the welcome offer tracker is reliable. When you apply for a new card, American Express always highlights certain types of purchases that don’t count toward the welcome offer.

Excluded purchases include prepaid gift cards, person-to-person payments, and cash-like transactions, such as buying traveler’s checks. If you’ve made any of these types of purchases, then you might see spending on your report that doesn’t count toward the welcome bonus offer. Be sure to clarify with Amex directly how much progress you’ve made toward the spending requirement before the deadline.

Final Thoughts

American Express makes it easy to track progress toward the welcome bonus offer on your credit card with its welcome offer tool. If the tool isn’t available to you, you can use reports to get close to this number or find information easily with a customer service chat.