I am usually not a defender of Amex but if you are using any card that earns points whether its an EDP, gold card, CSR, Plat or prestige card. You should know what you are going to use your points on before even applying for the card. You sure as heck should not be using those types of cards for 1 cpp value.
While I do realize points earning cards aren't for everybody , but once you decide what you are going to use your points for , you can determine if its worth for the AF you are paying. For the Gold you should do the math and see how much you spend per month on groceries and restuarants and multiply by 12 to see how many points that would get you. For me with conservative estimate not using Gold for anything but dining and groceries. It would get me around 45k MR a year, that makes up for the AF i haven't included airline credit and dining credit. I know i am probably going to use MR at 4-5 cpp redemption so in my case I know it will trump almost any cashback card out there.
Amex MR anything is worth it right now since their Ebates and Rocketmiles additions along with 5x and 4x earning rates.
It’s pretty easy to accumulate MR points now.
AFs are easy for some to net, so for $80 net AF for gold and plat the individuals that can net those fees may get high reward earnings and some great travel perks. I’m glad I’m one of them.
Personal Cards: Amex Plat | Amex Delta Res | CSR | Citi AA Exec Business Cards: Ink+ | Amex BGR
It's not just grocery, 20k business and personal dining is 17k more points than CSR/Freedom then add 5k in grocery that 20k mr points that same 5k spend for ur points can only get a max of 12,750 UR points (Freedom / Unlimited Freedom) so that's 7,250 more MR points for a total on 24,250 more points than UR's. In additional, you can get 40% partner bonus offers resulting in 33,950 miles at a low redemption value of 1.4 is about $475 more value over UR points.
Also, most can net the to $80 AF plat/gold AF vs. $150 w/ CSR
Flights 5x vs 3x just adds to the spread of MR points vs UR points on spending 10k - 15k annually on business flights.
I don't like to have points/rewards all over the place. The eco-system of MR points works very well for some and amex has made it much easier to accumulate these points with the many changes to their cards and adding partners i.e. Ebates.
@Anonymous wrote:If your single and don't have kids your never going to get enough value from the grocery category to justify the gold card. Especially if you shop at wholesale warehouses like Sam's Club or BJ's. The dining category to me is about useless as well since I don't eat out a lot and you have to eat out a lot to get enough spend to justify the gold card. The food credits are completely worthless to me since I rarely eat out and when I do get something to eat it's usually from sheetz and that codes as gas not as restaurant.
Being honest the gold card is completely outshined for a lot of people like myself by the Everyday Preferred. The EDP is just a lot more useful than the gold card since most people have to drive to work (gas spend), most people make small purchases when out and about (30+ purchases gives 50% bonus), and the grocery base bonus of 3x is just 1x less than the gold card and if you get the bonus it's higher than the 4x of the gold card with EDP giving 4.5x groceries. Overall a lot of people getting the gold card are really getting it for the "bling". A lot of gold card holders are just wasting money on the annual fee not getting the value needed out of the card to justify it.
When i did comparison whether to stay with EDP or go Gold it came down to restaurants and how much I ate. The 3x gas with EDP wasn't really a consideration due to ability to get gas cards at staples at 5x with my ink cards. Both are very good cards for MR earning, I will re-evaluate when the time comes for AF , but I think its probably going to be a keeper for me.
@kdm31091 wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:I am usually not a defender of Amex but if you are using any card that earns points whether its an EDP, gold card, CSR, Plat or prestige card. You should know what you are going to use your points on before even applying for the card. You sure as heck should not be using those types of cards for 1 cpp value.
Well I agree with you, but then I see people redeeming their MR points for gift cards with the Gold and seemingly using that as reason to justify it. With so many options out there right now I don't think it's worth paying $250 for 4% value dining/grocery. Even if you utilize the credits, there's many options out there with no AF to start with and no forced spend to use the credits.
I think it's good for the right person but I think too many people tried to force it into their lifestyle which is why you see many threads on here, Reddit, etc about the Gold not being worth it. I don't say that to bash anyone, just that it's important to realize despite the dining/grocery rewards, the rewards are best used for travel purposes and not much else.
The overall point i was trying to make with any points earning card is you have to know what to do with the points and not just get the card because its the FOM.