I opened my Gold card in October of last year, but AMEX denied to give me a SUB (more on that down) so the card has not seen much use given the availability of other cards.
I have had a change of heart towards my CSP which I started to use more. After shuffling my CLs with Chase, it now sits at $6k (initial limit before Chase CLD it back in early 2021); It has a lower APR (now at 17.24%) vs AMEX (not that it matters since the Gold is charge card) and the rewards are easier to accumulate. I also have the Savor which gives me 4% straight cash back on dinning.
My issue wit the Gold is that without the SUB it is hard for me to evaluate the card rewards since accumulating MR points from scratch takes very heavy use. Also, the dinning credit is very limited in that I get MONTHLY credit as opposed to me getting it all at once and be done with it. What if I want to go the Cheesecake factory and spend all $120? Out of luck with AMEX .. only get $10 credit.
Back to the SUB .. I'm on some blacklist for SUBs with AMEX. Every one of the four accounts I opened with AMEX did not qualify for a SUB with the same standard message "The number of accounts you have opened and closed ...". But what AMEX refuses to understand is that never have I actually gotten a SUB .. the reason I kept closing the accounts is because their limits were so low that I couldn't spend on them to hit a SUB spending limit. Another gripe I have with AMEX.
Do you suggest I close the card or downgrade it to the Green? The annual fee is coming up so I got a decision to make.
@FinStar I really have no business with the Green card .. just thinking I don't want AMEX back eye if I close the Gold now. I have read that sometime people get retention offers .. so I guess that's another avenue.
@jcooks wrote:
@CreditPacMan wrote:@FinStar I really have no business with the Green card .. just thinking I don't want AMEX back eye if I close the Gold now. I have read that sometime people get retention offers .. so I guess that's another avenue.
I wouldn't recommend closing a card before the first year, then you'd be in worse shape with Amex. Any reason why you've accepted when they popped up that you weren't elegible for the SUBs? Once you've accepted the card, you lost elegibility for the SUB on that card in the future whether you received the SUB or not.
@jcooks Unlike my recent approval where the popup actually appeared, it didn't appear in my Gold, Bonvoy and Delta Reserve applications. So I was approved thinking I would get the SUB.
I don't know why I'm in jail. I never chased SUBs then closed accounts like some people do, but I did close a bunch of AMEX cards between 2015-2020 (6+ accounts) ..just because their limits were very low (all at $1k).
@jcooks wrote:
@CreditPacMan wrote:@FinStar I really have no business with the Green card .. just thinking I don't want AMEX back eye if I close the Gold now. I have read that sometime people get retention offers .. so I guess that's another avenue.
I wouldn't recommend closing a card before the first year, then you'd be in worse shape with Amex. Any reason why you've accepted when they popped up that you weren't elegible for the SUBs? Once you've accepted the card, you lost elegibility for the SUB on that card in the future whether you received the SUB or not.
Agreed, also Amex bans you from getting SUBs for constantly opening/closing accounts with them, regardless of whether you achieved the SUB or not each time.
