Cancelling Amex Gold after 1 year

[Anonymous]

I'm coming up on the 1 year anniversary of my first gold card annual fee. I have already used all of my 50k sub points. 

Since this pandemic hit things have changed a lot, I don't have any more travel plans for a while, and I don't foresee myself making use of the restaurant benefits any time soon, or the grub hub credit or travel benefits, there's just nothing to justify that high annual fee. I still have a blue cash preferred which I plan to keep for the 6% grocery cb. 

Should I wait for the annual fee to hit my card before I call to cancel? Should I just get it over with now so I don't have to ask them to reverse the charge? Does it matter? Is there any chance of their trying to claw back my sub? Will they be more understanding due to the pandemic?

[Anonymous]

The consensus around here is to let the AF post then call and cancel. Anecdotal evidence suggests possible clawbacks if done prior to that. 

And since you've already spent the points, I'm not sure how that would pan out.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The consensus around here is to let the AF post then call and cancel. Anecdotal evidence suggests possible clawbacks if done prior to that. 

And since you've already spent the points, I'm not sure how that would pan out.

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You could be billed for the points.

[K-in-Boston]

You should wait until the AF posts, after which you have a month to cancel.  While a clawback is unlikely at this point, you would definitely be safe once your card reaches a full year.  The downside is that closing or downgrading the card this soon may impact your eligibility for future American Express Welcome Offers on other cards.  If those are in your future plans, you may want to weigh the cost of keeping it another year against the hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of rewards you might receive in the future.

[Trikoret]

Try getting a retention offer. They might give you one since it's your first renewal. Otherwise wait until annual fee posts then call to cancel if you still want. 

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[ChargedUp]

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@Trikoret wrote:

Try getting a retention offer. They might give you one since it's your first renewal. Otherwise wait until annual fee posts then call to cancel if you still want. 

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I'll second this. Amex knows that travel plans have been deeply affected and this makes for a good case in getting value from the card. Even if they don't waive the AF,, you might get an offer for bonus MR's for a certain amount of spend or something similar. From that point, it'd be up to you if you want to keep it.

But as said above, Amex doesn't take well to those who appear to bonus chase. Not saying that was your intention, but Amex looks at things the way Amex does.

[kdm31091]

If you want to cancel you should wait until the fee posts. You have 30 days from that time to cancel and you will be refunded for the fee (without having to ask), so no worries there.

Amex's abuse algorithim, unfortunately, probably does not care about the pandemic. It only looks for percieved "abusers" and downgrading or cancelling a card not too long after getting it can make you appear like one, whether it's intended or not. You could be locked out of future signup bonus offers with Amex. But, there's no guarantee you will or you won't. If you do not make a habit out of doing this type of thing with Amex, you could be fine. Or it could be that doing it once is enough that they will lock you out for awhile. Who knows?

If you aren't going to travel much anytime soon, you may not be signing up for a new Amex anyway since the majority of their cards are most beneficial for travel; if that's the case you may not care about the algorithim and should just cancel and save yourself the $250.

[Anonymous]

Have you thought about downgrading to the Green card?  It might give you a ton of benefit.  You would get the last 6 months of the wireless credit so that would drop the fee from $150 to $90.  It keeps them from clawing back the bonus.  If you think you might want to get the Gold card again in a year you can upgrade back to it.  That way you don't have to reapply and it keeps your credit report cleaner with 1 continuous account instead of an account open for a year, closed for a year, then reopened.  Plus it's possible you may get an upgrade offer, which you would be eligible for.  If you reapply later you would not be eligible for any SUB.

[Anonymous]

Or, hear me out on this one, upgrade to the Platinum.  You can downgrade in a year if you think you want the Gold again.  It keeps you from getting the bonus clawed back.  And, it's almost revenue nuetral.  $550 AF minus $200 in Uber credits minus $100 in Saks credits minus $240 in wireless and streaming credits gives a total cost of $10.  If you use any of the airline incidental next year at all it's a positive.  That is assuming you can fully monetize all of those credits.  Some people can't.  I don't have any problem doing it.

This is actually the route I am planning on taking for my CSP when the annual fee hits in 2 weeks.  With all of the credits the CSR has it actually has a lower total cost than my CSP over the next year.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all,

The green card doesn't make sense for me and the platinum makes even less sense. In fact I've decided after the gold card experience and having to figure out how to recoup my annual fee and how to spend the mr points, I'm just not that interested in travel rewards cards. Maybe if I had to travel for work I'd reconsider. I'd rather just have a few cash back cards to cover different types of spending, and I have chase fu, discover, Amex bcp, and citi dc, so I'm set. Too many credit cards.

I would hope American Express doesn't put me on some rewards blacklist, but at this time I'll take my chances and save hundreds of dollars in annual fees. I just want to be sure they're not going to claw back my sign up bonus also.