topic Re: 150K amex offer in Credit Cards

150K amex offer

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 06:52:05 GMT

so i was just made aware of the 150K amex offer. as someone who doesn't travel a lot or redeem for travel, does it still make sense to keep the card for 1 year just for the bonus? in general, how much can 150K provide in travel if I am really conservative and only do lower point redemptions? And if i just choose to cash out the points, how much are they worth? 1cpp? thanks

Re: 150K amex offer

notmyrealname23 — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 04:07:39 GMT

If you redeemed 150k MR as a statement credit at 0.6 CPP (worst possible redemption) it would be $900, which is > annual fee of $695. QED it is a net positive value in Year 1 if you decided "I'm going to burn AMEX and close the card after year 1, give me that juicy signup bonus".

That being said...

- you are going to have to put significant spend on the card that you COULD spend on other cards,

- a lot of those cards are straight cash back so you don't have to figure out the ins and outs of airline and hotel programs or do various tricks for MR high value redemptions,

- you don't travel a lot anyway, by your own admission,

- oh, and if you want to keep any of those points after Year 1 and nuking the Platinum, congratulations, you have to apply for another card,

- AMEX is not a big fan of churners, maybe you decide a BCP is something you would like a year or two down the road, oh hey, you applied and AMEX now gives you a popup explaining they're not giving you any more SUBs.

Frankly for someone who doesn't travel a BCP with a $300 SUB might be more useful than a Platinum with 150k MR.

Re: 150K amex offer

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 07:17:23 GMT

@notmyrealname23 wrote:
If you redeemed 150k MR as a statement credit at 0.6 CPP (worst possible redemption) it would be $900, which is < annual fee of $695. QED it is a net positive value in Year 1 if you decided "I'm going to burn AMEX and close the card after year 1, give me that juicy signup bonus".

That being said...

- you are going to have to put significant spend on the card that you COULD spend on other cards,
- a lot of those cards are straight cash back so you don't have to figure out the ins and outs of airline and hotel programs or do various dishes for MR high value redemptions,
- you don't travel a lot anyway, by your own admission,
- oh, and if you want to keep any of those points after Year 1 and nuking the Platinum, congratulations, you have to apply for another card,
- AMEX is not a big fan of churners, maybe you decide a BCP is something you would like a year or two down the road, oh hey, you applied and AMEX now gives you a popup explaining they're not giving you any more SUBs.

Frankly for someone who doesn't travel a BCP with a $300 SUB might be more useful than a Platinum with 150k MR.

thank you so much for your knowledge and writeup!

Re: 150K amex offer

SouthJamaica — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:47:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
so i was just made aware of the 150K amex offer. as someone who doesn't travel a lot or redeem for travel, does it still make sense to keep the card for 1 year just for the bonus? in general, how much can 150K provide in travel if I am really conservative and only do lower point redemptions? And if i just choose to cash out the points, how much are they worth? 1cpp? thanks

No, it would be a bad idea to add a card like that just for 1 year. Even Amex wouldn't like it.

Re: 150K amex offer

SouthernCredit — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:55:48 GMT

Churning Amex is not a good idea if you intend to do further business with them. But that aside, you could probably downgrade to the Gold after the first year. Still a higher AF, but probably more useful to those who don't travel much. I still wouldn't try to churn Amex, though.

Re: 150K amex offer

disdreamin — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 15:22:19 GMT

I hope it's okay to follow up for thoughts on the 150k offer since that was the title.

That offer greatly interests me due to upcoming international travel in a year or two. If I have a planned use for those rewards in the next 18-24 months, would it potentially be worthwhile to get the platinum and downgrade after the first year? I can effectively utilize the gold card long-term, but the platinum isn't something I think I'd get enough use out of to justify higher the AF.

Re: 150K amex offer

jcooks — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:22:29 GMT

I don't recommend downgrading from the Platinum as that would not allow for the big juicy SUB on the other cards. If you plan to travel, the Platinum has perks a traveller would love to have. If you weight the perks and benefits over the AF cost and it still doesn't justify itself, you can downgrade, but not to a no AF card. The only downgrade path would either be the Gold ($250 AF) and the Green ($150).

@disdreamin wrote:
I hope it's okay to follow up for thoughts on the 150k offer since that was the title.

That offer greatly interests me due to upcoming international travel in a year or two. If I have a planned use for those rewards in the next 18-24 months, would it potentially be worthwhile to get the platinum and downgrade after the first year? I can effectively utilize the gold card long-term, but the platinum isn't something I think I'd get enough use out of to justify higher the AF.

Re: 150K amex offer

disdreamin — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:56:03 GMT

@jcooks wrote:
I don't recommend downgrading from the Platinum as that would not allow for the big juicy SUB on the other cards. If you plan to travel, the Platinum has perks a traveller would love to have. If you weight the perks and benefits over the AF cost and it still doesn't justify itself, you can downgrade, but not to a no AF card. The only downgrade path would either be the Gold ($250 AF) and the Green ($150).

I am considering doing the platinum for a couple years and then downgrading to the gold card if I didn't find it useful enough to keep long-term - I mentioned one year, but it would be a minimum of two. Within that timeframe there are some international trips for which it would (probably) be useful, but the majority of travel I do is domestic and not through major airports, other than occasional layovers. Reading through the list, most of the other amenities aren't something I'd avail myself of either, other than the hotel credit and possibly the airline fee credit.

That said, the 150k SUB is VERY attractive to me. I'd like to have them for international awards travel, and this seems like the quickest way to accrue a significant chunk of MR points. I've got a few UR banked but I was thinking having MR might offer flexibility/choices.

Re: 150K amex offer

Duriel — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 21:57:52 GMT

The fine print says if you close it before 12 months, they can take the bonus back. I'm a little terrified as to what that means if you already used it. Would they assign an arbitrary cash value and put it as a charge on the card?

Re: 150K amex offer

FinStar — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 22:42:42 GMT

@Duriel wrote:
The fine print says if you close it before 12 months, they can take the bonus back. I'm a little terrified as to what that means if you already used it. Would they assign an arbitrary cash value and put it as a charge on the card?

In a variety of cases, AENB can claw back the SUB if unused (or any remaining portion thereof). I don't think I've ever seen negative MR account balances (maybe @K-in-Boston knows?). With that being said, if SUB has been used AENB reserves the right to make any future AmEx accounts ineligible for any SUBs (or upgrade offers).

Re: 150K amex offer

K-in-Boston — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 00:53:28 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
@Duriel wrote:
The fine print says if you close it before 12 months, they can take the bonus back. I'm a little terrified as to what that means if you already used it. Would they assign an arbitrary cash value and put it as a charge on the card?
In a variety of cases, AENB can claw back the SUB if unused (or any remaining portion thereof). I don't think I've ever seen negative MR account balances (maybe @K-in-Boston knows?). With that being said, if SUB has been used AENB reserves the right to make any future AmEx accounts ineligible for any SUBs (or upgrade offers).

If a card is closed or downgraded before a year, or they otherwise suspect abuse, they will subtract the Welcome or Upgrade Offer, which can indeed make your MR account go negative and then any MR points you earn in the future would be applied to get you back to zero.* I have not heard of them applying a monetary value to MRs, simply having a negative balance, but they have reversed cash Welcome and Upgrade Offers, as well as things like incidental credits, so it would not be surprising if they did so in the future.

* No idea if this would potentially follow a person for life if they opened up another card years down the road, but this policy did not start becoming enforced until around the time the "you are not eligible for this offer" popup started, so presumably if someone had a large negative MR balance, they would likely have pretty good odds of seeing that popup and those that get clawbacks like that aren't generally interested in no-SUB high AF cards.

Re: 150K amex offer

disdreamin — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 01:28:29 GMT

To be clear, I'm not looking to churn - this card would be a good fit for the international travel I've got coming up in 2023-2024 but I don't know if I could justify the card beyond that. That would mean a minimum of two years of card membership, with the MR likely being used during the second year as cardholder, so no concerns about clawing back the SUB.

I've got a fairly lengthy history with AmEx dating back to a green card that converted to the original Optima way back in the late 80's when it launched. This wouldn't be my first product with them (more like the 6th or 7th over the years) but it would be my first SUB involving MR.

Re: 150K amex offer

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 05:03:11 GMT

@disdreamin wrote:
To be clear, I'm not looking to churn - this card would be a good fit for the international travel I've got coming up in 2023-2024 but I don't know if I could justify the card beyond that. That would mean a minimum of two years of card membership, with the MR likely being used during the second year as cardholder, so no concerns about clawing back the SUB.

I've got a fairly lengthy history with AmEx dating back to a green card that converted to the original Optima way back in the late 80's when it launched. This wouldn't be my first product with them (more like the 6th or 7th over the years) but it would be my first SUB involving MR.

Right, so then the question is whether the SUB (+ benefits!) is worth two years AF, and potentially downgrading to the Gold and thus missing out on the SUB for that. As usual, there are some hardcore Plat users who find no problem getting value well above the AF each and every year, so the 150K MR SUB is just great. Others with much less travel find the SUB enticing but not so sure of the value prop. If you really plan two years of AF, make sure it makes sense. 150KMR can be really valuable, 2 years of AF is real money!

Re: 150K amex offer

disdreamin — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 13:05:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Right, so then the question is whether the SUB (+ benefits!) is worth two years AF, and potentially downgrading to the Gold and thus missing out on the SUB for that. As usual, there are some hardcore Plat users who find no problem getting value well above the AF each and every year, so the 150K MR SUB is just great. Others with much less travel find the SUB enticing but not so sure of the value prop. If you really plan two years of AF, make sure it makes sense. 150KMR can be really valuable, 2 years of AF is real money!

It isn't that I can't utilize the benefits, it's that I am not sure I'd be using them to offset normal spending so I have a difficult time saying they help justify the annual fee. I guess at this point I'll just hope the UR I'm able to accrue will cover at least a couple of the flights I need for the two trips (ideally, 2x business class from eastern US to Tokyo and Scandanavia) and forget trying to accrue MR.

Re: 150K amex offer

notmyrealname23 — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 15:24:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@disdreamin wrote:
To be clear, I'm not looking to churn - this card would be a good fit for the international travel I've got coming up in 2023-2024 but I don't know if I could justify the card beyond that. That would mean a minimum of two years of card membership, with the MR likely being used during the second year as cardholder, so no concerns about clawing back the SUB.

I've got a fairly lengthy history with AmEx dating back to a green card that converted to the original Optima way back in the late 80's when it launched. This wouldn't be my first product with them (more like the 6th or 7th over the years) but it would be my first SUB involving MR.
Right, so then the question is whether the SUB (+ benefits!) is worth two years AF, and potentially downgrading to the Gold and thus missing out on the SUB for that. As usual, there are some hardcore Plat users who find no problem getting value well above the AF each and every year, so the 150K MR SUB is just great. Others with much less travel find the SUB enticing but not so sure of the value prop. If you really plan two years of AF, make sure it makes sense. 150KMR can be really valuable, 2 years of AF is real money!

I've seen 60k-75k Gold offers out there, IMO that's a lot of points to pass up for a SUB given that "normal" Platinum bonuses are 100k these days. I think you can easily justify getting Gold AND Platinum in 2022 and then deciding in 2024 if you should keep both.

Re: 150K amex offer

jcooks — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 17:02:20 GMT

@disdreamin wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Right, so then the question is whether the SUB (+ benefits!) is worth two years AF, and potentially downgrading to the Gold and thus missing out on the SUB for that. As usual, there are some hardcore Plat users who find no problem getting value well above the AF each and every year, so the 150K MR SUB is just great. Others with much less travel find the SUB enticing but not so sure of the value prop. If you really plan two years of AF, make sure it makes sense. 150KMR can be really valuable, 2 years of AF is real money!
It isn't that I can't utilize the benefits, it's that I am not sure I'd be using them to offset normal spending so I have a difficult time saying they help justify the annual fee. I guess at this point I'll just hope the UR I'm able to accrue will cover at least a couple of the flights I need for the two trips (ideally, 2x business class from eastern US to Tokyo and Scandanavia) and forget trying to accrue MR.

IMHO, the Plat itself will not yield a lot of MR points for everyday spend (unless your normal spend is flights). You're going to need to see all of Amex's cards and see which cards works best for your spending. Having the Amex trifecta would be a way to rack up points, but having just 1 card especially the Plat, might not help you other than a juicy bonus. If you're only wanting 1 card and can do without the travel benefits (priority pass/lounge access, clear credit, etc), then the Gold right off the bat may be a better value. There are elevated offers, not as much as the Plat, but everyday spend can get you tons of MR points.

Re: 150K amex offer

jcooks — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 17:25:22 GMT

Also, one of the best redemptions for MR points to fly to Japan would be via ANA. From the east coast it can be just shy of 100k MR points for a business class round trip. I'm not sure about Scandanavia though. Looks like a few cards and everyday spend for a little while may be the best option to get enough MR points for those business class trips.

Re: 150K amex offer

disdreamin — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:39:49 GMT

@notmyrealname23 wrote:
I've seen 60k-75k Gold offers out there, IMO that's a lot of points to pass up for a SUB given that "normal" Platinum bonuses are 100k these days. I think you can easily justify getting Gold AND Platinum in 2022 and then deciding in 2024 if you should keep both.

My Gold offer is currently 90k, maybe I'll just do that since I can easily justify it long-term. Frankly I hadn't checked the website for pre-approvals, and was pleasantly surprised by that SUB.

Regarding the rewards travel that someone else mentioned, I've done my homework on options and could definitely use the MR if I was able to accumulate a chunk of them. They certainly won't go to waste.

Re: 150K amex offer

W261w261 — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 02:28:53 GMT

There's also the retention bonus that you can probably get after the first year of any Amex charge card. My Everyday Preferred was 15k for 3k spend. I'm not sure what the Gold will be, will see in a couple of months.

The prevailing wisdom is if you don't travel a lot, the Plat is harder to justify, SUB or not. I'd definitely go for the Gold, and get it in Rose. Lots of good MR multiples on the Gold.

Re: 150K amex offer

NRB525 — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 04:48:35 GMT

Maybe I missed it. Is this an AMEX Platinum offer for 150,00 MR, or a Hilton card for 150,000 Hilton points?