topic Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card in Credit Cards

AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:56:03 GMT

OK. I currently have amex green, blue, and clear. They all report as if opened back in 1987, which is when I opened the green. My annual fee has been permanently waived on the green card. None of my cards have an AF.

Today, in the mail I receive another pre-approval for the Amex Rewards Plus Gold card. It does not refer to upgrading the green. The $150 AF will be waived for the first year, and if I charge $1000 by July 31st, I will get 25,000 MR bonus points. I am torn - I love MR, and my blue will be upgraded to regular MR program.

I still can't stomach the $150 annual fee... Husband thinks I am being cheap. In my defense, he works for an airline and we fly standby. Still, I could use the points for other things. I know I can easily put $1000 on the card by the end of July.

Also, I think that this would actually be a new Amex card. So, I would have another TL with an open year of 1987.

Any ideas??? Someone please help me justify the annual fee...

I do have CC with other major banks: BoA, Chase, Discover. So, all of my eggs are not in the Amex basket...

Message Edited by Scout1965 on 04-21-2008 06:56 PM

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:01:23 GMT

Will you keep the green card with the waived fee?

I got a pre-approval for a green card, but I swapped to the Gold Rewards Plus. No fee for the first year, but no points either, because it was an upgrade by my request.

The rewards are better than the green, and if you were to put your scoffing DH on the card, it would be free. That right there would make it almost a break-even deal once you had to pay. (I have DH and DD#2 on mine.)

I'm planning on keeping mine for a year and then swapping to a Blue, because I'm too cheap to pay any fee whatsoever. If you keep your Green, and it stays no-fee, you could just milk the Gold for all it's worth for a year, and then blow it off, unless you find that the rewards would cover the fee.

You're in a pretty unique position, where if you chose, you could fall back to a no-fee green, giving you a good alternative to keeping the Gold, if the rewards don't overwhelm you after a year.

BTW, I can't see any reason at all for the existence of the plain Gold. Either the green or Gold Rewards Plus, but I don't get the plain Gold at all.

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:15:07 GMT

No, I would ax the no fee green. It would still stay on my reports for the next ten years. I have three Amex cards now, and four would be very cumbersome. You can only charge so much...

I just don't think that I could convince Amex to waive the AF for the new Gold card. I think that I would have to push an obscene amount of money on this card and I don't see that taking place right now. We have already taken our vacation this year... (major $)

I am still on the fence. Will have to mull it over for the next few days.

Thanks for your input, HTSU.

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:16:04 GMT

I'd be interested in knowing how you received a green card with no annual fee. Membership fees are non-negotiable. There is nothing you can put in the system to waive the fees. They will continue to bill to the account annually. Are you sure a representative didn't credit a membership fee for you as an exception once? Even that is rarely done. Even cardmembers since 1958 still have membership fees. They have a lower amount to pay, of course.

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:20:43 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
BTW, I can't see any reason at all for the existence of the plain Gold. Either the green or Gold Rewards Plus, but I don't get the plain Gold at all.

Not to hijack the thread, but since we're on the subject.... what exactly is the difference between the regular Gold and Rewards Plus? I'm pre-approved for one, and I'm considering getting a Gold to go with my Blue so it won't affect my util. But I swear I can't find any difference worth spitting at on the Amex site except the $25 fee difference and the 5 free AUs (which is not an issue for me... I'm not sharing my credit with ANYBODY).

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:27:36 GMT

Hi Scout, your statement is very interesting to me.

" I currently have amex green, blue, and clear. They all report as if opened back in 1987, which is when I opened the green."

* You opened Amex Green in 1987, and opened Blue and Clear after 1987.

* Amex report all three CCs opened in 1987.

How this happen like this?

" Also, I think that this would actually be a new Amex card. So, I would have another TL with an open year of 1987."

* How could this new card opened in 2008 report as opened in 1987? What's the TRICk?

" I still can't stomach the $150 annual fee... Husband thinks I am being cheap. Any ideas??? Someone please help me justify the annual fee..."

I personally, I do not like to pay any extra fee like AF. I don't think you are cheap, I think you just want to spend the money wisely, and doesn't want to waist the money. Especially right now ... with high gas price of $4/gal !!

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:30:44 GMT

TheCynicalOne wrote:
I'd be interested in knowing how you received a green card with no annual fee. Membership fees are non-negotiable. There is nothing you can put in the system to waive the fees. They will continue to bill to the account annually. Are you sure a representative didn't credit a membership fee for you as an exception once? Even that is rarely done. Even cardmembers since 1958 still have membership fees. They have a lower amount to pay, of course.

CynicalOne,

I opened the green card back in 1987 and dutifully paid the AF until this year. I called up customer service and very nicely explained that I have had the card for 20+ years and that I wanted them to waive the AF. She put me on hold (this rarely happens with Amex), came back and said YES - AF permanently waived.

I think it is rare for them to waive the AFs. There was a thread on this earlier this year, but I can't find it...

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:34:17 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Will you keep the green card with the waived fee?

I got a pre-approval for a green card, but I swapped to the Gold Rewards Plus. No fee for the first year, but no points either, because it was an upgrade by my request.

The rewards are better than the green, and if you were to put your scoffing DH on the card, it would be free. That right there would make it almost a break-even deal once you had to pay. (I have DH and DD#2 on mine.)

I'm planning on keeping mine for a year and then swapping to a Blue, because I'm too cheap to pay any fee whatsoever. If you keep your Green, and it stays no-fee, you could just milk the Gold for all it's worth for a year, and then blow it off, unless you find that the rewards would cover the fee.

You're in a pretty unique position, where if you chose, you could fall back to a no-fee green, giving you a good alternative to keeping the Gold, if the rewards don't overwhelm you after a year.

BTW, I can't see any reason at all for the existence of the plain Gold. Either the green or Gold Rewards Plus, but I don't get the plain Gold at all.

I was thinking about switching to the normal Gold since I don't plan on having any AUs for a while, so I would think it to be a better fit for me. However, I don't see much of a difference over the Green I have now.

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:36:49 GMT

bunnyrabbit,

When you open your first Amex account, they report the actual opening month and year. For any subsequent accounts, they report the new card with the actual opening month and the year the first card was opened.

So, say I opened the green in June of 1987 - reports as opened 06/1987. Then, in 2000 I opened the Blue in August. The Blue would report an open date of 08/1987.

Hope that makes sense.

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:15:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
BTW, I can't see any reason at all for the existence of the plain Gold. Either the green or Gold Rewards Plus, but I don't get the plain Gold at all.

I was thinking about switching to the normal Gold since I don't plan on having any AUs for a while, so I would think it to be a better fit for me. However, I don't see much of a difference over the Green I have now.

There actually is a significant difference. For the first year with the plus, you get 2 points at AMEX airline and hotel partners, and after that you get 1.5 points (instead of the standard 1). So, if you travel a lot, but don't want to pay the price for Plat or Black, the Gold Plus the card to have.

Message Edited by thevariable on 04-21-2008 09:15 PM

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:26:34 GMT

I travel a lot for business and we downgraded from the Gold to the Green because there wasn't enough extra perks to justify the increase in AF. IMHO, go either cheap and Green or go for the mega-perks with Platinum. The Gold is sort of a misfit.

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:15:18 GMT

I am considering switching to the GOLD as I have 2 AU's-

AMEX has not charged me for the 2nd AU-

95 + 30 + 30= 155

Should be a no-brainer-

Re: AMEX Rewards Plus Gold Card

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:43:28 GMT

Thanks Scout! Ok, I opened Amex Blue in December 2005 which report as opened 12/2005. And if I do open second account with them in May 2008, it will report an open date as 05/2005 ... COOL!

Message Edited by bunnyrabbit on 04-22-2008 07:43 PM