Amex MR Points Sharing/Transfering

[851]

My wife recently opened a personal Amex Platinum.  I recently opened a business Amex Platinum.

My wife's amex login id shows both her personal amex platinum and our business plum card (she's the AU on the plum).

My amex login id shows my plum and my platinum (only business cards). 

What's the best way for us to "pool" our MR points with Amex?

[TheFIGuy]

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@851 wrote:

My wife recently opened a personal Amex Platinum.  I recently opened a business Amex Platinum.

My wife's amex login id shows both her personal amex platinum and our business plum card (she's the AU on the plum).

My amex login id shows my plum and my platinum (only business cards). 

What's the best way for us to "pool" our MR points with Amex?

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IIRC (I could be wrong and something updated), think of AMEX pooling like your SSN/EIN. The points will be pooled into SSN buckets ONLY to be used with that SSN/EIN. You cannot pool two different people's SSN/EIN accounts into one larger bucket, unfortunately.

Options I can think of:

1. Find an airline/hotel rewards program you both use and transfer your MR points combining them in that ecosystem.
2. Both of you apply for an AMEX Schwab Card and "pool" both of your cashed out MR points into a shared brokerage account. I have never tried this and haven't heard of anybody here doing this. In theory, it sounds like it could work.

[Loquat]

There isn't a way that I'm aware of where you can pool your points. The best I can think of is allowing each other access to points by way of being authorized users on each others account.

[851]

thank you.  that lines up with what i've been reading.  If I combine the 2 points above (tied to SSN/EIN and adding AUs), then would this be possible...

A year from now, add my wife as AU on the business card, then she could transfer her accumulated points from her personal Amex to her business Amex (all under her same amex login id)?  Or maybe a transfer isn't even necessary at that point - maybe she'll just see her combined points at that time?

[K-in-Boston]

Whether you are an AU with management privileges or not, MRs cannot be transferred between MR accounts.  Period.  MRs stay in the same MR account they were earned in, unless they are spent or transferred.

If a primary member has multiple MR-earning cards, their MRs will all pool to the same account.  If they are an AU on another account, even with the same login to manage the card, they cannot move points from one MR account to another.  The primary cardholder's MR account is where points go.

The sole option for combining MR points is to transfer them elsewhere, whether that is to an airline partner, a hotel partner, or to a brokerage account.

[851]

I see.  Seriously, this forum's knowledge sharing is golden!

Just want to make sure I've got this right... so if my wife is an AU on the business card, then my MR account will accumulate points for all of her purchases too?  That's good for us. 

However, I need to also make sure I understand the nuances of this:

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@K-in-Boston wrote:
..

The sole option for combining MR points is to transfer them elsewhere, whether that is to an airline partner, a hotel partner, or to a brokerage account.

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Can I transfer my MR points to my wife's airline partner, hotel partner or her brokerage account? 

[TheFIGuy]

"Just want to make sure I've got this right... so if my wife is an AU on the business card, then my MR account will accumulate points for all of her purchases too? That's good for us." - Yes

"Can I transfer my MR points to my wife's airline partner, hotel partner or her brokerage account?" - Yes, so long you set it up correctly. I cannot confirm the Joint Schwab Brokerage Account "pooling" is an option, it's a theory not tested by myself.

[K-in-Boston]

Correct.  Let's just use your accounts as an example.  You are the primary and wife is the AU.  All purchases go to your MR account.  IF she is set up with privileges to manage the rewards on the account (this is disabled by default but you can set this up online, along with allowing viewing of all charges not just that of the AU), she can intitiate a transfer to any partner where the loyalty account matches her name.  Reverse that if it is her MR account and you are the AU.

For brokerage accounts, I have not heard of this being done before but it's plausible if the account is joint and the AU's name is on the account.  Going to tag @simplynoir on the off-chance they have done this.

[simplynoir]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

For brokerage accounts, I have not heard of this being done before but it's plausible if the account is joint and the AU's name is on the account.  Going to tag @simplynoir on the off-chance they have done this.

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We have not done this. Both because of simplicity to just redeem points of her MR account and fact she has much more points than I do. I know before redemptions they ask you verify the basic/main cardholder's card that is linked between the two programs before any cash out is made. So based on that it might not work. In any case even if it was technically possible there's too much money on the line with both AMEX and Schwab for any possible AA to be worth us testing out lol

[TheFIGuy]

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

For brokerage accounts, I have not heard of this being done before but it's plausible if the account is joint and the AU's name is on the account.  Going to tag @simplynoir on the off-chance they have done this.

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We have not done this. Both because of simplicity to just redeem points of her MR account and fact she has much more points than I do. I know before redemptions they ask you verify the basic/main cardholder's card that is linked between the two programs before any cash out is made. So based on that it might not work. In any case even if it was technically possible there's too much money on the line with both AMEX and Schwab for any possible AA to be worth us testing out lol

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Yeah, I'm also not going to try, one (1) because I currently don't have a SO lol  and two (2) because my main bank is Schwab and I have multiple investment accounts. My daily drivers are with AMEX and would like to keep both these issuers "happy". No AA for me.

But if you ever try @851 do report back with DP's for the community