Got Amex Gold? Get 3,000 free Membership Rewards points by adding the Gold credit card

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• Mark says:

  12 Nov12 November 07:50

  I’ve had one of these for a while and it was offered to me when I closed my Gold Charge Card!

  • John says:

    12 Nov12 November 07:57

    Are you saying you could have closed the Gold Charge and opened this?

    • Rob says:

      12 Nov12 November 08:18

      Are you sure they didn’t offer you a version of Gold Charge with fewer benefits? With the Platinum credit card, Amex has been VERY insistent that you cannot have it without keeping Platinum charge. Because, frankly, it gives you an easy way to keep your MR points alive – waiting for a transfer bonus – without paying Amex any card fees.

      • Mark says:

        12 Nov12 November 08:24

        100%. I have no Gold charge card or the Blue one. The only cards I have at the moment are the Gold Credit Card and a Virgin Atlantic White.

        They offered me the credit card back when I cancelled my Gold one in July and it has indeed kept my points balance active!

        • BP says:

          12 Nov12 November 09:08

          I also have the Gold as a standalone which they offered me when i cancelled the charge card, as a deal they “only offered over the phone”. It doesn’t mirror the charge card in benefits exactly – main obvious loss is the airport lounge access , he mentioned i wouldn’t have access to the travel booking service, and tripflex payment option (athough i can seem to access them but haven’t tried redeeming anything – not that tripflex is great VFM). I am fairly sure i am receiving less bonus offers than my other half and don’t have a mechanism for referral bonus points for signing up other people so opportunities for building miles quickly are pretty limited, and as far as i can see it is only a MR generating/maintaining card. The downside looking over the longer term is that the longer you keep this card open, the longer you extend the period before you can apply for a new Gold chargecard (“no bonus if you’ve held any MR card in the last 6 months” or similar)

        • John says:

          12 Nov12 November 10:21

          By “travel booking service” do you mean the extra 1MR/£ that you get by booking via Amex Travel?

        • Ian says:

          13 Nov13 November 19:35

          If the Gold Credit Card is your only amex card earning membership rewards, are you charged an annual fee?
          The Gold card is free when you are paying the fee for the Gold charge card, but I understand that if it is a stand alone, you’ll have to pay for the membership reward. I think it is £36. If not, a great deal!

        • Rob says:

          13 Nov13 November 20:40

          Good point. MR is chargeable at £36 UNLESS your specific card gives it for nothing. Would be slightly surprised if a standalone Gold credit gave this.

      • Ian says:

        12 Nov12 November 08:50

        I was offered an Gold “companion card” (agent’s phrase, not mine) when I rang up to cancel my Gold Charge card – and the agent mentioned a 3000 point bonus. I said no pretty quickly so I’m not sure if this was what he was talking about.

        • Mark says:

          12 Nov12 November 08:54

          Yeah same here… Still don’t have the 3000 yet tho.

        • Tim says:

          12 Nov12 November 18:09

          I was also offered the “companion card” – I was hoping to switch between the two so it’s a shame!

      • Calchas says:

        12 Nov12 November 09:31

        But if you keep your MR account alive with an MR points-earning card, doesn’t that make you ineligible for the next sign up bonus?

        • Rob says:

          12 Nov12 November 09:43

          Yes

          It would be a trade off … keep your MR account alive in the hope of a transfer bonus but put off the day you can get another sign up bonus.

          But Amex is NOT meant to be offering this card as a stand alone product, even if some phone agents seem to be doing so.

        • James67 says:

          13 Nov13 November 05:15

          Perhaps they are offering it to people who cancel but have no other amex issued cards in an effort to retain their custom. Do any of you who received this offer have other amex issued cards at the tine?

• John says:

  12 Nov12 November 08:02

  Is this guaranteed? Does anyone know how Amex does its credit scoring, once you have some history with them is it all internal? For example, Lloyds appears to be all internal and does not credit search you when you apply for the Avios card, as long as you have another product with them (unless you want something stupid like to increase your credit limit within 4 months of opening a new card)

  Would I get the BA free, SPG and this at the same time, if I had £3500 to spend? My household income is quite high but I’ve only had good credit cards for just over 1.5 years.

  • Rob says:

    12 Nov12 November 08:17

    No. Just getting BA and SPG in a short period is pushing it. I don’t see any reason to push it further now by applying for this. Diarise it to apply in 2-3 months.

  • Free2Rhyme says:

    12 Nov12 November 08:45

    I thought Amex won’t let you have 3 credit cards simultaneously anyways…

    • Simon says:

      12 Nov12 November 09:02

      They will do, I’ve got the BA, SPG & Nectar credit cards at the moment (plus a Gold charge card)

    • Rob says:

      12 Nov12 November 09:46

      Some people get away with it, but policy is 2 charge and 2 credit.

  • James67 says:

    13 Nov13 November 05:20

    Amex refused me a card for over 2 years Kept claiming it was internal scoring and not my experian file which is flawless so I think it was an erroron their part.

• Nathan says:

  12 Nov12 November 12:14

  Assuming this card can be stand alone, so was planning on cancelling my gold card for 6 months then getting the plat card to get the bonus!
  Will this card prevent that as it’s still a membership rewards card?

  • Nathan says:

    12 Nov12 November 12:15

    Just seen this answered above. Sorry

  • Rob says:

    12 Nov12 November 13:56

    Yes

• pazza2000 says:

  12 Nov12 November 12:14

  How big is the ‘ding’ on the credit card? I would be interested in taking this our for the bonus 3k MR and potentially to keep my MR account fee free (if I get lucky). However I already hold the SPG and BA cards the latter only being applied for 3 months ago.

  • Rob says:

    12 Nov12 November 13:56

    There might not even be a ding – it depends if Amex bothers, given you’re an existing customer. ‘Ding’ is the same ding as if you switch electricity company or mobile phone provider, so not a big issue.

  • pazza2000 says:

    12 Nov12 November 20:05

    Currently holding so many cards (inc. 2 Amex issued credit cards), I am concerned of the effect this would have on my credit card. However if it’s simply an extension of my charge card, with little to no harm in ‘applying’ then it’s worth it solely for the 3k, isn’t it?

• Mark says:

  12 Nov12 November 12:19

  Does the Gold Credit Card offer the bonus points on travel & overseas spend (or even the supermarket & fuel 1st year bonuses) or is it a straight 1 point/£ for all spend?

  I did apply for one when they invited my wife on launching it last year but I was declined as they were only offering it to customers who didn’t already hold a credit card at the time. For 3K points on a £500 spend I will probably give it another go.

  • Rob says:

    12 Nov12 November 13:55

    Seems to be a flat 1 per £1

• John says:

  12 Nov12 November 13:20

  I suppose the credit card will give you 4 weeks to pay your bill after the statement, rather than the 1.5 weeks of the charge card. 2 weeks interest on £1000 is not a lot, but still…

  • Stewie says:

    12 Nov12 November 14:56

    Just the opposite – with the charge cards you actually have until the next statement date to make your payment, whatever the ‘due date’ that they put on your statement. Woe betide you if you pay later than that, of course!

    • John says:

      12 Nov12 November 20:30

      Huh? Why would they put a due date if they don’t mean it?

      • Mark says:

        12 Nov12 November 22:55

        Because they want you to pay sooner, it being a charge card rather than a credit card. If you pay by DD they collect it about a week after the statement date.

        Stewie is right though, they don’t actually apply a penalty so long as you have paid it by the next statement.

• Ant says:

  12 Nov12 November 13:31

  Are you eligible for this if you have the Gold Corporate card? I can’t see any mention on the website although this is probably since this is supposed to be targeted at specific customers anyway.

  Thanks

  • Rob says:

    12 Nov12 November 13:56

    Gut feeling is No

• Andrew says:

  12 Nov12 November 16:42

  Thanks for this. Just applied and accepted. Will be used to purchase Christmas presents and the extra 3000 points will become useful!

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