American Express gold card af pays for itself plus

[Anonymous]

I am sorry that you did not receive the offers that I did on this card. I didn't want to come right out and say it but with all the spend I will have through this card I will definitely come out a few hundred dollars ahead of the annual fee. This is the only annual fee card I have in the only one that I will get. Sorry you did not get the cell phone credit either. Maybe you don't have a participating cell phone provider. Or maybe it's something else. All I know is I was making a post about my situation and how I was afraid of the annual fee, now after I did my math which I guarantee you is correct I realized it would be lucrative. I made this post for other people who were on the fence about getting this card not to argue over offers I did or did not receive. But I did receive them. I love this card already.

[Anonymous]

@ SouthJamacain
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

Didn't say break even. Said more.


plus when it comes to next year I plan on being in a situation where I take two vacations a year so my membership rewards points will be very valuable since you can get much more than 1 or 1.5 per point when traveling

[Anonymous]

its a good card, its not a god card. lol

Amex offers can be hit or miss, but generally, getting 10-50 bucks out of it per year seems reasonable.

Now all cards have offers, chase offers, wells fargo earn more mall, etc. Its not that exclusive anymore.

[Anonymous]

I love my PRG but can definitely understand why it wouldn't work for most people and I definitely don't try to overinflate the offers that come up because the majority of them are useless. I would have loved to have been able to use the cell phone credit but seems how it's capped at $10 per month for so few of months it just makes more financial sense to keep the 5% that my Cash+ card gives me on my $300+ bill. The monthly Grubhub credit is nice but Grubhub is so ridiculously expensive for what it is that using it more than once a month is just another fiscally ignorant decision imho. I'm sure it helps people that are vehicle-limited though.

The gold is my second most used card but probably only sees ~$15k a year spend because I don't use it for much more than restaurants. I don't bother trying to oversell it to people because I don't think it works in most peoples lives, I just happen to spend half of my year traveling so it somewhat does. 

[Anonymous]

I guess we are extra fiscally ignorant. We spend $500 a month on DoorDash. That's my only problem with the GrubHub credit - their selection is extremely limited in our area. I wish they would expand it to DoorDash and UberEats.

[digitek]

Found a slight hack with this, you can order Pickup through GrubHub and that way you completely avoid the delivery fee + tip.

It's strange, though, in that not all the places that are available to deliver are available to order Pickup, in my area it is less than half. I wasn't expecting that.

[kdm31091]

Amex offers are very hit and miss. I find that the vast majority of them are for expensive and/or niche merchants that I don't go to anyway. I would say there's a "good", basic, usable offer for my everyday life maybe once every few months if that. So I wouldn't count on them to reduce an AF.

The Gold card is good for a specific user, but to me the credits are restrictive and seem like a hassle to use unless you already are using the merchants listed. For me, it would just be forced spend to use the credits, which would make no sense as I still wouldn't be coming out ahead. There's the added disadvantage (for me) that MR points are not good for much beyond travel redemption. Like any other product it depends on your lifestyle. Certainly not the best card for everyone.

I think that no matter what, even if you're able to negate the fee somewhat between offers, the credits, and such, you still have an AF to deal with because it's unlikely to be a net zero. Because of that, you should compare the Gold to other options out there that don't have fees and/or have lower fees.

[Revelate]

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@digitek wrote:
Found a slight hack with this, you can order Pickup through GrubHub and that way you completely avoid the delivery fee + tip.

It's strange, though, in that not all the places that are available to deliver are available to order Pickup, in my area it is less than half. I wasn't expecting that.

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Yeah, I only recently started playing with Grubhub and actually have noticed it's service reach declining in recent months... and like you stumbled across a pizza joint that would happily deliver via Grubhub but wouldn't let me order pickup: couldn't for the life think of what sense that made but could be a cost to the restaurant issue.

[Anonymous]

It was actually quite comical convo when I called up Amex for a retention offer on my Gold Card. They went on and on with all the great perks that make this card so useful, but were speechless when I told them that I cannot use said offers as they do not exist here. Not one of the Dining establisments are anywhere near me, so no credit there. The place that I shop most doesn't earn 4X MR points, and Amex offers are more miss than hit. And seem to be the same thing every time. Of course I couldn't tell him that I can't get the statement credit anymore for AA gift cards. They did offer me 10K points for $1,500 spend in 90 days, so I'll keep it another year until the AF goes up to $250. 

[Andypanda]

The way i think of AF, is if the rewards i get with the card minus the rewards I would have gotten with out it. If that amount is greater than the af, than the card would be worth it. The problem is there are no af cards out the worth me paying tge af. The closest is Amex bcp, but since i do such a high percentage at costco and target, the 6% cash back on groceries is not worth it. The new categories are worthless to me. After my gardening period, i will get citi dc, the amex bce.