While I can agree the Gold card is not for everybody. When I was looking at EDP and Gold card, I did the math on how much I spend with their categories to see if its worth it for me to have the Gold. For my personal spending it would net me around 45-50k per year just on the bonus categories. So that alone made it worthwhile for me, I haven't even calculated in food credits and airline credits you get.
In general though if you aren't going to use any MR or UR card with an AF and not use it for travel then you are probably doing it wrong. You can't really compare cash back cards to MR/UR/TYP cards imo.
@Anonymous wrote:
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
This is a limited time offer and doesn't roll around very often. Maybe once a year from what I've seen. It varies too depending on IF/HOW you are targeted. My last cell phone offer was capped at 2 statements.
Amex offers can be extremely lucrative if you get targeted for the good offers alot, my charge cards always get better offers then the other AF amex's I have. Gold has better offers then Platinum for me.
But it's all targeted so if you arent selected you can have some dry streaks for a while, so dont count on amex offers being a 24/7 gravy train.
While we are on the subject of Amex cards paying for themselves.....
If you travel internationally alot in F/J you can get some serious savings through Amex Platinum IAP. I just saved $955 on two J Qatar tickets. The card just paid for itself for two years. Now the credits/perks/benefits are the icing on the cake.
@Anonymous wrote:
Anybody who is interested in possibly obtaining the gold card, but decided not to due to af.
You receive- 10$ per month for paying cell phone bill.(120 annually)
I don't get any such thing
10$ back also per month when use card for GrubHub, seem less etc.
100$ in travel
Only on airline incidentals
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.
Mine was only 25,000 MR's. But so what, it's only a 1-time thing. Irrelevant to figuring out whether the annual fee is worth it.
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.
Why break even, when you can get no-AF cards with produce rewards? If you love MR's, as you seem to, you can get them with the Amex Everyday card.
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.
I personally haven't found MR"s to be so valuable. So far the best thing I can do with them makes them worth about 1.25 cents.
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
@redpat wrote:
@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.
Do you travel a lot?
Not that much -- maybe once or twice a year twice max, at least by airline? However, I also do commute every work day back and forth using my local subway system, for which I will usually charge the ongoing fare for to my travel cards in order to earn travel rewards and redemptions, etc.
@Shadowfactor wrote:While we are on the subject of Amex cards paying for themselves.....
If you travel internationally alot in F/J you can get some serious savings through Amex Platinum IAP. I just saved $955 on two J Qatar tickets. The card just paid for itself for two years. Now the credits/perks/benefits are the icing on the cake.
This is a strange program that I've never heard of, seems like an amazing perk if you fly premium economy or better internationally. Thanks for the heads up =D
