American Express: $10 for Xbox Live + $25 for Halo 4 and more!

[Pheran]

OK, this is one of the weirdest deals I've seen, but it sure makes Halo 4 compelling (which is getting great reviews, by the way).

First, you must have an American Express card (my Costco one worked). If you have this and an Xbox Live account, you can get $10 free on your Amex account. You must sync your Amex to your Xbox Live account by going here:

Amex Sync

You can then claim the $10 Amex credit via your Xbox.

Now's where it gets really weird - if you beat Halo 4 on normal difficulty or harder by the end of the year using your synced Live account, you get the "Wake Up John" achievement, and Amex gives you $25. Basically, Amex is paying you to play Halo 4!

Furthermore, if you complete any Spartan Ops (a multiplayer mode) mission, you get the Operation Completion achievement and Amex will give you $50 off $100 at Best Buy.

Finally, if you haven't already purchased Halo 4, you can combine this with the Microsoft Halo 4 preorder deal to get a $25 Microsoft store credit. So between Amex and Microsoft you get $50 for your $60 Halo order, even if you don't use the Best Buy deal. Sweet!

 

[gorcorps]

Hmmm... odd, but nice deal. I have an Amex card but it's through work. It's technically just my card (I pay the bill) but I probably shouldn't link such a thing with my Live account :\

 

[Pheran]

Hmmm... odd, but nice deal. I have an Amex card but it's through work. It's technically just my card (I pay the bill) but I probably shouldn't link such a thing with my Live account :\

If the bills come straight to you, then you are the card owner. I don't see any reason not to. It would be different if the company got the bills.

 

[Cuda1447]

Woah. Strange deal. Dunno how you figured this out, but well done. To bad I don't have an AMEX card 🙁

 

[Blueoak]

Nice. Got it all set up here. Amazon is going to be losing orders to Microsoft Store this time around based on pre-order credit. $10 amazon video credit for Halo 4 vs $25 Microsoft Store credit is a no-brainer for me.

 

[CPA]

Have an AMEX, have an XBox Live Account, don't have Halo 4. Is it worth it to go through the effort? Wasn't a big fan of Halo 1.

 

[Pheran]

Have an AMEX, have an XBox Live Account, don't have Halo 4. Is it worth it to go through the effort? Wasn't a big fan of Halo 1.

Well, you can still get $10, even without Halo 4. If you don't want to play Halo 4, then I wouldn't bother with the rest.

 

[SunnyD]

Is this the same as tying a credit card to your XBL account for renewing XBL Gold? I don't want Microsoft to have ANYTHING credit card related tied to my XBL account.

 

[Pheran]

Is this the same as tying a credit card to your XBL account for renewing XBL Gold? I don't want Microsoft to have ANYTHING credit card related tied to my XBL account.

I've linked my Amex and my Live account still says:

Automatic Renewal: Off
Expires on: xx/yy/zzzz
Payment Option: None

You never enter the credit card number into the Xbox, only the code Amex gives you.

 

[purbeast0]

Is this the same as tying a credit card to your XBL account for renewing XBL Gold? I don't want Microsoft to have ANYTHING credit card related tied to my XBL account.

i doubt it. it doesn't even ask you for your expiration date or the security code, so they can't really use the info for anything on the MS side.

thanks for this OP. i just linked my account and will be purchasing halo 3 probably at gamestop next week. i have like $130 gamestop credit so i won't be spending any actual money on this game, but will be getting $35 lol.

any idea how long it takes to get that $25 from AMEX? where did you see about the $25 back?

 

[Pheran]

any idea how long it takes to get that $25 from AMEX? where did you see about the $25 back?

Well, you do have to beat the game first, I think it said something about 6-8 weeks after that. Look at the Xbox dashboard thing when you register, it tells all about it.

 

[Mytime34]

Corporate Cards are not authorized for this deal. Just read the fine print. So no go for me

 

[purbeast0]

Well, you do have to beat the game first, I think it said something about 6-8 weeks after that. Look at the Xbox dashboard thing when you register, it tells all about it.

Ah okay, was just wondering. i will check it out tonight most likely. i mean i was going to buy this game and beat it before the end of the year anyways lol, might as well get it at a discount!

 

[gregp20009]

Awesome deal, thanks for posting!

 

[Pheran]

For the record, I got my $25 credit for beating Halo 4 a few days ago, and of course I got the $10 signup credit before that. I still need to do a Spartan Ops mission for that Best Buy deal though.

 

[GiN]

Same here. Got my 10 for sign up and 25 for completing the campaign. Also got the confirm for spartan ops. Looks like I'm heading to best buy for some shopping during black Friday.

 

[Pheran]

I put the coup de grace on this deal last night by purchasing $100 worth of Amazon gift cards at Best Buy with my Amex. They sell the Kindle cards - which are really generic Amazon cards. That's $100 Amazon credit at half price. 😀

Just a reminder, if you've still got Best Buy credit from your Operation Completion achievement, you have until the end of January to make the $100 purchase. Otherwise the deal is dead, as you had get the achievements by the end of 2012.