First Person: Signing Up for AmEx’s ‘Link, Like, Love’ Program

I’ve been intrigued by AmEx’s sponsored ads on Facebook promising $5 off for a $20 purchase at Whole Foods. So I signed up for AmEx’s program, which is a JV with Foursquare.

Signing up for the program is a little unsettling. It requires you to provide your AmEx number, which is not something I’d normally want to do for an unverified Facebook app. But I did it anyway. It gave me the option of publishing that I was a member of the club to my profile. OK, done.

My experience? I actually couldn’t find the Whole Foods offer, at least at first. Instead, I saw page after page of offers from very well-known brands (and clearly not targeted to me on the basis of my male name, my location, my Facebook profile or other demographic info). What all the offers have in common is they give you money back for a certain amount of spending — something a credit card company is in an excellent position to pull off.

Most of the offers, in fact, were for things like Diane Von Furstenberg, AmEx Vacations, Celebrity Cruises, H&M, 1-800-Baskets, 1-800-Flowers and DKNY. The only offers that appealed to me were 10 percent back on a Virgin America ticket and $10 back on a $100 Best Buy purchase. The best offer was probably $10 back on a $20 purchase at The U.S. Open. Of course, that’s in New York. Another good offer for East Coasters was Dunkin’ Donuts, which provides $2 back on a $10 purchase. That’s a lot of doughnuts.

On the fifth page, I finally found the Whole Foods offer. One finds out after the fact that it expires Sept. 30. I hope I get there in time (actually, I go there anyway).