AMEX Gold still worth it?

[Anonymous]

I am not a fan of the Gold card in its current incarnation.

The card physically looks nice but you need to do the math to make certain rewards justify the annual fee vs your next best card.

Annual fee is $250.

No annual fee cards TEND to stay no annual fee but fees on annual fee cards tend to rise.

[Anonymous]

you can still get 50K points w/o using a referral link.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/gold-card/

(open in incognito mode)

[Felony_Phil]

50k Points in incognito. They're also opening up the Rose Gold card but it is by referral only.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am not a fan of the Gold card in its current incarnation.

The card physically looks nice but you need to do the math to make certain rewards justify the annual fee vs your next best card.

Annual fee is $250.

No annual fee cards TEND to stay no annual fee but fees on annual fee cards tend to rise.

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I have to agree. Originally when I got the gold card last year, I thought it would be a keeper. However, after analyzing my spend, I determined that I don’t spend nearly enough on dining and groceries. For my spend, the grandfathered Savor is a much better fit long Ted.my.

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am not a fan of the Gold card in its current incarnation.

The card physically looks nice but you need to do the math to make certain rewards justify the annual fee vs your next best card.

Annual fee is $250.

No annual fee cards TEND to stay no annual fee but fees on annual fee cards tend to rise.

---

I have to agree. Originally when I got the gold card last year, I thought it would be a keeper. However, after analyzing my spend, I determined that I don’t spend nearly enough on dining and groceries. For my spend, the grandfathered Savor is a much better fit long Ted.my.

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To me there's just too many no AF dining and/or grocery cards out there to be able to justify $250 a year for the Gold, and dealing with points that have redemption limitations. Especially if you're only getting like 1cpp, it seems crazy to have to pay $250 a year for 4% categories. If you're getting outsized value I see the appeal, but if you're redeeming at average to low value (gift cards, shop w points etc) it doesn't seem worthwhile.

Yes, I know the credits offset the fee somewhat if you can/do use them, but for me I'd just rather go with a product that I don't have to worry about offsetting the fee with.

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am not a fan of the Gold card in its current incarnation.

The card physically looks nice but you need to do the math to make certain rewards justify the annual fee vs your next best card.

Annual fee is $250.

No annual fee cards TEND to stay no annual fee but fees on annual fee cards tend to rise.

---

I have to agree. Originally when I got the gold card last year, I thought it would be a keeper. However, after analyzing my spend, I determined that I don’t spend nearly enough on dining and groceries. For my spend, the grandfathered Savor is a much better fit long Ted.my.

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To me there's just too many no AF dining and/or grocery cards out there to be able to justify $250 a year for the Gold, and dealing with points that have redemption limitations. Especially if you're only getting like 1cpp, it seems crazy to have to pay $250 a year for 4% categories. If you're getting outsized value I see the appeal, but if you're redeeming at average to low value (gift cards, shop w points etc) it doesn't seem worthwhile.

Yes, I know the credits offset the fee somewhat if you can/do use them, but for me I'd just rather go with a product that I don't have to worry about offsetting the fee with.

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+1

I agree with you 100%. I have accumulated around 77k MRs and I don’t really know how I am going to use them. So far, my best redemption was for Hilton where I was able to get around 5c a point. I was able to get that for a room Super Bowl weekend that was going for a whopping 1500 a night or 60k Hilton points. As far as airlines go, I haven’t tried but I normally fly economy so I doubt I would get that great of value.

My Gold AF isn’t due until October but I’ve already stop using it as my main dining card. I only use it for the 10$ dining credit now. I just use Altitude Reserve + Savor which covers all of my spend. My local grocery store accepts Apple Pay so the AR covers that spend as well. This isn’t even considering that the AR covers majority of my non category spend at 4.5% which imo more than makes up for the net 75$ fee.

[CBartowski]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am not a fan of the Gold card in its current incarnation.

The card physically looks nice but you need to do the math to make certain rewards justify the annual fee vs your next best card.

Annual fee is $250.

No annual fee cards TEND to stay no annual fee but fees on annual fee cards tend to rise.

---

I have to agree. Originally when I got the gold card last year, I thought it would be a keeper. However, after analyzing my spend, I determined that I don’t spend nearly enough on dining and groceries. For my spend, the grandfathered Savor is a much better fit long Ted.my.

---

To me there's just too many no AF dining and/or grocery cards out there to be able to justify $250 a year for the Gold, and dealing with points that have redemption limitations. Especially if you're only getting like 1cpp, it seems crazy to have to pay $250 a year for 4% categories. If you're getting outsized value I see the appeal, but if you're redeeming at average to low value (gift cards, shop w points etc) it doesn't seem worthwhile.

Yes, I know the credits offset the fee somewhat if you can/do use them, but for me I'd just rather go with a product that I don't have to worry about offsetting the fee with.

---

+1

I agree with you 100%. I have accumulated around 77k MRs and I don’t really know how I am going to use them. So far, my best redemption was for Hilton where I was able to get around 5c a point. I was able to get that for a room Super Bowl weekend that was going for a whopping 1500 a night or 60k Hilton points. As far as airlines go, I haven’t tried but I normally fly economy so I doubt I would get that great of value.

My Gold AF isn’t due until October but I’ve already stop using it as my main dining card. I only use it for the 10$ dining credit now. I just use Altitude Reserve + Savor which covers all of my spend. My local grocery store accepts Apple Pay so the AR covers that spend as well. This isn’t even considering that the AR covers majority of my non category spend at 4.5% which imo more than makes up for the net 75$ fee.

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Curious: How does the AR get you 4.5% on non cat spending? Thru mobile payments?

[Anonymous]

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@CBartowski wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I am not a fan of the Gold card in its current incarnation.

The card physically looks nice but you need to do the math to make certain rewards justify the annual fee vs your next best card.

Annual fee is $250.

No annual fee cards TEND to stay no annual fee but fees on annual fee cards tend to rise.

---

I have to agree. Originally when I got the gold card last year, I thought it would be a keeper. However, after analyzing my spend, I determined that I don’t spend nearly enough on dining and groceries. For my spend, the grandfathered Savor is a much better fit long Ted.my.

---

To me there's just too many no AF dining and/or grocery cards out there to be able to justify $250 a year for the Gold, and dealing with points that have redemption limitations. Especially if you're only getting like 1cpp, it seems crazy to have to pay $250 a year for 4% categories. If you're getting outsized value I see the appeal, but if you're redeeming at average to low value (gift cards, shop w points etc) it doesn't seem worthwhile.

Yes, I know the credits offset the fee somewhat if you can/do use them, but for me I'd just rather go with a product that I don't have to worry about offsetting the fee with.

---

+1

I agree with you 100%. I have accumulated around 77k MRs and I don’t really know how I am going to use them. So far, my best redemption was for Hilton where I was able to get around 5c a point. I was able to get that for a room Super Bowl weekend that was going for a whopping 1500 a night or 60k Hilton points. As far as airlines go, I haven’t tried but I normally fly economy so I doubt I would get that great of value.

My Gold AF isn’t due until October but I’ve already stop using it as my main dining card. I only use it for the 10$ dining credit now. I just use Altitude Reserve + Savor which covers all of my spend. My local grocery store accepts Apple Pay so the AR covers that spend as well. This isn’t even considering that the AR covers majority of my non category spend at 4.5% which imo more than makes up for the net 75$ fee.

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Curious: How does the AR get you 4.5% on non cat spending? Thru mobile payments?

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Yes through mobile payments. For most of my non cat spend, I can use Apple Pay which gets me 3 points per dollar or 4.5% back when used towards travel.

I even use it for non cat spend that only gets 1 point or 1.5% back as well. I just use my 2% Paypal card on bills that don’t get 5% back on my Cash+.

[Anonymous]

Depends. Seems nearly purpose build to complement the Amex platinum. If that’s somebody’s use for it, I think they’d find good benefit and keep all their rewards points in one spot. 

Otherwise, I can see it justifying the AF, but you could get better value elsewhere. It’s definitely easier to earn points with my sapphire reserve and they don’t care if I draw my point balance all the way to zero. 

I like having one “good” Amex, so I’ll probbaly keep it around for a while. 

[longtimelurker]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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Yes, I know the credits offset the fee somewhat if you can/do use them, but for me I'd just rather go with a product that I don't have to worry about offsetting the fee with.

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I think it really depends (there's a surprise!)   Some big things can prevent you using your card as you had planned (e.g. ending up in hospital for many months, losing your job so you have to reduce all spending) but in such cases the waste of AF is a small fraction of your problems.   Other smaller things can also impact it, such as the most convenient supermarket stops taking your type of credit card, work prevents your planned travel etc and in such cases the AF (assuming no pro-rating) will also be wasted.

But if the expected value of a card is many multiples of the AF, and the risks above are fairly small, IMO still worth while!