topic Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG?? in Credit Cards

No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:54:54 GMT

I was perusing the AMEX card offerings and noticed the PRG says "the annual fee for the premier rewards gold card is $0". Do you guys think it's true that they've cut the $195 fee or is it a glitch? I've attached a screenshot for reference.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

kdm31091 — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:57:28 GMT

It is almost definitely just a glitch. They still charge a fee for the Green which has fewer benefits. Makes no sense they would have no fee on the PRG.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

601flyguy — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:59:37 GMT

I can confirm seeing this about a week ago while looking through their cards. Would be nice

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 01:10:43 GMT

I looked at an incognito offer for thr 50K MR points after $2K spend and it still lists the AF at $195 after the first year so that page definitely is a glitch. They seem to be having a few of those lately.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

UpperNwGuy — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 01:16:30 GMT

The PRG would be a great no annual fee card, but that will never happen. Heck, I'd take it for a $95 annual fee with no airline incidentals credit.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 01:16:51 GMT

I saw that too a few weeks ago prior to PC'ing to the Green. I am thinking it was a definite glitch. Would be nice if it didn't have an AF though!

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 01:17:21 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
The PRG would be a great no annual fee card, but that will never happen. Heck, I'd take it for a $95 annual fee with no airline incidentals credit.

Why, you don't ever fly?

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Credit_hawk — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 02:59:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I looked at an incognito offer for thr 50K MR points after $2K spend and it still lists the AF at $195 after the first year so that page definitely is a glitch. They seem to be having a few of those lately.

I've been sitting on that 50,000 MR after $2k spend for months on my account. Its tempting me. I havent gotten a new card for over a year but its a great offer.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 03:22:08 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
The PRG would be a great no annual fee card, but that will never happen. Heck, I'd take it for a $95 annual fee with no airline incidentals credit.

As an alternative, they could just update the Green card to make it better, but still not as rewarding as the PRG.

Perhaps 2x on all gas and grocery purchases, and 1x on everything else with free roadside assistance or something like that.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 03:37:03 GMT

@Credit_hawk wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I looked at an incognito offer for thr 50K MR points after $2K spend and it still lists the AF at $195 after the first year so that page definitely is a glitch. They seem to be having a few of those lately.
I've been sitting on that 50,000 MR after $2k spend for months on my account. Its tempting me. I havent gotten a new card for over a year but its a great offer.

Yes it is. If you can make use of the MR points, I'd seriously consider getting it.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Credit_hawk — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 05:00:42 GMT

Irish, now you really got me thinking. I have a BCP but no MR product. Are MRs valuable? I'm not too familiar with their worth.

@Anonymous wrote:
@Credit_hawk wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I looked at an incognito offer for thr 50K MR points after $2K spend and it still lists the AF at $195 after the first year so that page definitely is a glitch. They seem to be having a few of those lately.
I've been sitting on that 50,000 MR after $2k spend for months on my account. Its tempting me. I havent gotten a new card for over a year but its a great offer.
Yes it is. If you can make use of the MR points, I'd seriously consider getting it.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 06:48:55 GMT

Asking about the value of Membership Rewards is a very broad question.

You can use MR's for cash redemptions at a worth of 0.5 cents a piece.

You can use MR's for Amazon cash redemptions at, I think, 0.7 cents a piece, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Airline redemptions are where MR's shine, such as 1:1 transfer to Delta Skymiles or 5:4 transfers to Jet Blue.

Even Hilton may be a poor transfer value at 1.5:1 because of the 0.6/point value for most Hilton stays. If you look at the Hilton Honors card (like I have) you'll see the minimum point earning potential per dollar is 3 with many categories at 5 points per dollar.

An additional note, you'll find many of the MR transfer partners are also partnered with Citi (Delta, Jet Blue, and Hilton for example).

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

UpperNwGuy — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 11:54:47 GMT

Membership Rewards points are valuable only if you devote a large portion of your spending to the card(s) earning those points. Unlike cash, where any amount, no matter how small, is legal tender, MR points only have value when you have collected a sufficient quantity to redeem them for a flight or for a hotel stay. Before applying for an MR card, figure out how you will use the points and calculate how long it will take you to earn enough points to get there.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

MrDisco99 — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:05:03 GMT

The $100 incidentals credit is a silly benefit. Even when I do fly, which isn't often, I typically don't buy food onboard or pay to check bags. If it came without the $100 credit and I got to keep $100 off that annual fee, or if the credit was a more useful CSR or Prestige style travel credit, I might have considered keeping it past the first year.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

mongstradamus — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:17:16 GMT

When I had the card I used the 100 credit for pesky fuel surcharges . On to the topic of value of mr points if you fly internationally and want to fly in business or first you can get really good value for them. I am actually eyeing nyc-bkk for 100k mr round trip via Ana in business class . Before switching to an mr card I Lulu make sure you know what you want to do with those mr points .

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:18:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Asking about the value of Membership Rewards is a very broad question.

You can use MR's for cash redemptions at a worth of 0.5 cents a piece.

You can use MR's for Amazon cash redemptions at, I think, 0.7 cents a piece, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Airline redemptions are where MR's shine, such as 1:1 transfer to Delta Skymiles or 5:4 transfers to Jet Blue.

Even Hilton may be a poor transfer value at 1.5:1 because of the 0.6/point value for most Hilton stays. If you look at the Hilton Honors card (like I have) you'll see the minimum point earning potential per dollar is 3 with many categories at 5 points per dollar.

An additional note, you'll find many of the MR transfer partners are also partnered with Citi (Delta, Jet Blue, and Hilton for example).

I transfered my 50k sign-up bonus to British Airways with the 40 percent bonus. And then used he points to book a hotel. It ended up being 1.1 cents per mile. You can get better value booking American Airline domestic flights with the points but I have tons of Southwest Points and American Airline Points I would rather save the 550 dollar hotel cost. So I will also get two 100 hundred dollar Southwest Gift Cards so ends up being 750 dollars of value the first year. British Avios are pretty worthless for international flights and Delta doesn't have a consistent rewards value and my local airports are pretty lacking in Delta flights and just about anywhere you want to go you have to make a stop in Atlanta.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:21:47 GMT

@MrDisco99 wrote:
The $100 incidentals credit is a silly benefit. Even when I do fly, which isn't often, I typically don't buy food onboard or pay to check bags. If it came without the $100 credit and I got to keep $100 off that annual fee, or if the credit was a more useful CSR or Prestige style travel credit, I might have considered keeping it past the first year.

It is likely that a majority of customers don't use the incidentals credit, but do consider it an essential benefit when selecting the card. I personally have little use for it (other than buying airline gift cards until that loophole closes) because I tend to fly first or business and only eat on overseas flights.

That said, the reduction in fee wouldn't be a direct offset. Because most of their customers don't use the full credit, AMEX would probably only be able to reduce the fee by half or less to maintain the same profitability. I would be happy to see my platinum fee reduced by half the incidentals credit, and would consider that a reasonable vaule exchange.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

MrDisco99 — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:21:52 GMT

MR points are best transferred to airlines. Amex has more airline transfer partners than Chase or Citi. Of course it depends on which partners would be more useful to you. FlyingBlue (Air France/KLM), Singapore Krisflyer, and Virgin Atlantic can transfer points from Amex, Chase, and Citi.

Beyond airline transfers, MR points lose value pretty quickly. Most redemptions are less than 1 cent per point. This is in contrast to TY points or UR points which always return at least 1 cent per point as cash and higher on their respective travel portals.

My strategy is to collect MR points just for FlyingBlue miles. I'll supplement that with some TY points and do the rest of my travel purchases with TY points or from my pool of travel credits and cash back from other cards.

I've figured out once I've collected the miles I need for flights, I'm better off putting non-category spend on a 2% cash back card and pool those rewards plus restaurant/gas spend on the TYP to put towards hotels and other expenses.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:21:59 GMT

@MrDisco99 wrote:
The $100 incidentals credit is a silly benefit. Even when I do fly, which isn't often, I typically don't buy food onboard or pay to check bags. If it came without the $100 credit and I got to keep $100 off that annual fee, or if the credit was a more useful CSR or Prestige style travel credit, I might have considered keeping it past the first year.

You can use the credit for airline gift cards. I used my first one to get a Southwest gift card and then pay the taxes on the Southwest award flight with the gift card. I will probalby get 500 dollars more in Southwest gift cards. Which will be nice as I will have a companion pass next year and can use the gift cards to pay for the main ticket and save my 100k of Southwest miles for 2019.

Re: No more annual fee for AMEX PRG??

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:27:51 GMT

@MrDisco99 wrote:
MR points are best transferred to airlines. Amex has more airline transfer partners than Chase or Citi. Of course it depends on which partners would be more useful to you. FlyingBlue (Air France/KLM), Singapore Krisflyer, and Virgin Atlantic can transfer points from Amex, Chase, and Citi.

Beyond airline transfers, MR points lose value pretty quickly. Most redemptions are less than 1 cent per point. This is in contrast to TY points or UR points which always return at least 1 cent per point as cash and higher on their respective travel portals.

My strategy is to collect MR points just for FlyingBlue miles. I'll supplement that with some TY points and do the rest of my travel purchases with TY points or from my pool of travel credits and cash back from other cards.

I've figured out once I've collected the miles I need for flights, I'm better off putting non-category spend on a 2% cash back card and pool those rewards plus restaurant/gas spend on the TYP to put towards hotels and other expenses.

Even after booking 3 flights to Florida I will end up having 100k in Southwest Points, A Southwest Companion Pass for 2018, 550 dollars in Southwest Gift Certificates, 190k American Airline miles. Plus I will probably hit up the British Airways sign up bonus. I am thinking I have airfare covered for at least the next year and a half. And my wife doesn't even have a Citi AAdvantage card so perhaps airfare is covered for the next 2 years. Better to save 550 dollars today han to potentially use the points for more value in 2020.