American Express gold card af pays for itself plus

[Anonymous]

Anybody who is interested in possibly obtaining the gold card, but decided not to due to af.
You receive- 10$ per month for paying cell phone bill.(120 annually)
10$ back also per month when use card for GrubHub, seem less etc.
100$ in travel
Nevermind the fact the welcome offers more than pay for the af. Even 50,000 mrps redeemed at.5 cents as statement credit covers the fee. Plus can maximize it with travel/many gift cards worth 100$ with 10,000 mrp's of the 35,000 or 50,000 mrps received after spending 1000 in 3 months.
I understand everyone won't receive the same offer as me 50,000 mrps after 1000 spend in 3 months, but like I said 35000 mrps isn't bad.
As for annual fee in the following years-
I would say it would be difficult not to earn more than 250$ total with everything the card offers.
I'm writing this because I was one of those people who was afraid of the af...
After I did the research and math I realized I Could not only break even but most likely gain a few hundred dollars a year.
As for travel seems like points double when used correctly. Personally I haven't had a real vacation in few years, and might use my points to fly my fiance and 10 month old somewhere beautiful I just have to do more research.
Hope this helps somebody who had same thoughts as me about af.
Mods please move if posted in wrong place

[Andypanda]

For me it is still not worth it.

i get 5% back on cell phone with us bank cash+

i do not use grub hub

I do not travel that often, when i do, I use my Costco visa, and get 3% back.

so annual fee not worth it for me.

Evreybody’s spending is diffrent, so at least it is worth it for you.

[FlaDude]

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@Anonymous wrote:
You receive- 10$ per month for paying cell phone bill.(120 annually)

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I was under the impression that the cell phone bill rebate was an occasional offering you could only use once, if it is actually $10 per month that would make a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the information I had to do more research.Yes it is a targeted offer. It states 10% back up to $15 per statement. It seems as if it could be an offer for a few months. And said sign up for offer and receive 10% statement to credit card per bill. Hopefully this offer is not just a couple of months and is year-round. I may have to call American Express and ask

[Anonymous]

Of course it's not right for everybody I'm glad you have a good plan set for yourself.
I myself do not travel very much besides driving for work LOL. But even so membership rewards points can be redeemed as gift cards that are well over $250. And you could take advantage of the 4 membership rewards points at supermarkets and restaurants with buying gift cards. But not everybody wants to go that route. I still have about $750 to spend on my discover it by the 19th on gas because that's my anniversary. I will be researching best place or best way to buy gift cards at gas stations with credit card. That I will most likely just use for gas in the upcoming months

[Anonymous]

I like this card but only because I combine it with my CS platinum to get the 1.25 x MR.  It makes it an awesome restaurant/grocery card as I'm getting 5% back on both.  The other perks are nice, but that's its main use for me.  WIthout the multiplier, I'd probably just use the BCP and the Uber card for those categories.  Basically I have a total Amex wallet now -- plat/gold/BBP/AMZ to cover just about any use.  I love that I cash MR pts at 1.25 directly into an investment account that doesn't get touched.  I don't think the cell phone perk you mention exists, I just checked on that.  The grub hub thing is meh, it basically is enough to cover your delivery fee and maybe the tip.  Everything else is good though.

[Anonymous]

AMEX did not create a product to lose money. Although they can't hope to make money on every card holder, to assume that one is outsmarting a (almost) 100 billion veteran financial company on one of their (which they dictate all rules) financial offerings is quite risky a proposition for the vast majority.

My personal usage numbers of the gold card and calculations made of the numbers agree with the above, thus I will be closing it once the 2nd AF hits.

Some more specifics:

1. It is not too hard to come out ahead if you pocket the 50K SUB and close it after 1 year, although there's no guarantee on this (think about: opportunity cost of the HP and new line of credit; types of transferable points one already have and needs/wants to have more).

2. AMEX's 'credits' in general, esp. the monthly 'use it or let us pocket it' ones, are the worst (without 'one of') in the industry. The yearly 'choose only 1 carrier for only the incidentals' ones are likely the 2nd worst in the industry.

3. AMEX's 'offers' has in recent years gone downhill from "some savings" to "another advertising venue" and is no longer useful at offseting AFs.

[galahad15]

Not interested in any cards that have an AF, no matter how generous the benefits are -- I have several Amex cards that are on the Amex network but not Amex-company owned, all AF-free.  My FNBO Amex Travelite card for example offers an annual $100 airfare travel incidetals credit, a $100 credit on TSA-Pre or Global Entry, 3% cashback on travel purchases,  and 1.5% cashback on all other purchases.  IMO, I would rather have a card with slightly less benefits but no AF, over a card with more generous benefits but a corresponding AF.  Just my own personal preference though, YMMV.

[redpat]

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@galahad15 wrote:

Not interested in any cards that have an AF, no matter how generous the benefits are -- I have several Amex cards that are on the Amex network but not Amex-company owned, all AF-free.  My FNBO Amex Travelite card for example offers an annual $100 airfare travel incidetals credit, a $100 credit on TSA-Pre or Global Entry, 3% cashback on travel purchases,  and 1.5% cashback on all other purchases.  IMO, I would rather have a card with slightly less benefits but no AF, over a card with more generous benefits but a corresponding AF.  Just my own personal preference though, YMMV.

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Do you travel a lot?

[ChargedUp]

Just like everything else, "Your results may vary..."

My wife uses the Amex Gold for every grocery trip  $250-300~ /week (I'm feeding 5 teenagers + whatever strays they drag over for dinner.) X 4 MR's X52... Even if I just redeemed the MR's a 1:1, it's still over $500 in value just on that spend alone. Monthly Cheesecake Factory dining adds another $120.

Just like my CSP. My wife uses rental cars a lot for when she's traveling for her home business, so the primary rental coverage and 2X URs make this card a no-brainer even with the AF.

If you don't have the spend in the right categories, it's not for you.. but some of us make out pretty well