Why American Express Gold is back in the No1 spot for sign-up bonuses

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• kevin cottrell says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:33

  If you have MBNA or Lloyds Amex do you still get the deal?

  • Polly says:

    6 Apr6 April 07:40

    Yes,,no,problem

  • Worzel says:

    6 Apr6 April 07:48

    Look at- April Credit Cards Update(above), Gold Card, Full review.

• Michalis says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:45

  Hey raffles,

  Do you think it makes sense to keep the gold card long term (instead of e.g your recommendation of BA Amex) given that the majority of my spending i put through is on supermarket, restaurants and travel?

  Given the fact that if you put £15000 spending per year on the gold you basically earn 1.5 MR (plus the bonus categories) which can easily tip it to 2 MR. Plus you gain the flexibility of being able to transfer to a program that fits your travel plans. Also it’s cheaper than the BA Amex.

  Also how do you feel about letting the card renew get the 7,500 points and ten cancelling bagging in those extra MR

  • Britbronco22 says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:25

    Michelle, you only get the supermarket bonus in the first year, however the card can be justified long term if you spend a lot on travel and foreign spend (if you can claim it back on expenses, otherwise the 3% charge is not good). Also by keeping the card you have the possibility of referring people for the card earning 9000 points a pop. Once you run up a decent MR balance, if you keep the card open a transfer bonus may come along, this can also justify the fee for another year, e.g close now and transfer 40k to 40k Avios, or pay the fee and in 6 months time you may be able to transfer 40k to 60k Avios, no guarantee of that though. Finally you sometimes get money off offers on the card to help offset the fee, like the recent £5 cash back at Tesco and £20 off at World Duty Free.

    Ultimately though it is tough to beat the BA voucher, but if the voucher isn’t of use to you, or you don’t want to be constrained by its restrictions, or if you don’t have a UK BAEC address, than the Gold Card can be a solid option.

  • Dev says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:52

    I have the same dilemma, my avios balance is severely depleted after a recent splurge on flights and I do not think the BA voucher is worth it until I replenish the stock so I have been focusing on the Amex gold. You cannot knock the 2x supermarket spend, 3 x fuel spend and 2x foreign spend. the question is whether the multipliers still apply in the second year and onwards?

    • Jason says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:23

      My wife has just downgraded to gold and we’ll keep that card until the year is almost up and then she can recommend me. The bonus on supermarket spend etc is too good to miss. However we will also keep both BA Amex’s for the voucher, as we use both vouchers each year to travel as a family.

    • BlackberryAddict says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:52

      I’ve kept my gold card for a couple of years now. Supermarket spend has gone down to normal (so use BA Amex for that), petrol, travel and foreign still at two times. Sometimes the travel and foreign combine. Also got an additional challenge for an extra 2.5k MR points for 2.5k spend, as I hit the normal spending requirement quite quickly this year.
      So 10k bonus MR, plus only spending on petrol, travel and foreign gives me around 3 points per pound.

• Nick says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:06

  Hello,

  Thanks for the update!

  I have a Lloyds AMEX and my wife cancelled her gold card 2 months ago (same address but it was in her maiden name) – will we be eligible for the bonus?

  Also, does being self employed have any impact on the min income requirements?

• Peter says:

  6 Apr6 April 09:48

  Good morning – Am I “allowed” to have an Amex Preferred Rewards Gold (PRG) card if I am already a (many years) holder of the Amex Platinum charge card? Furthermore, will my Amex PRG application be compromised by my having cancelled last month my new SPG Amex card following receipt of the limited-time only bonus of 20,000 SPG points? Finally, given all of the above, if I am approved, for the Amex PRG card, will I be “entitled” to receive the 20,000 Amex Membership Rewards sign-up bonus points? Thank you for considering my request – and, of course, Raffles I will use you through the “refer a friend” process for all your hard work dedicated to HfP.

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:57

    No, unfortunately not. If you have Amex Plat then in theory you cannot get the bonus.

    (You would be approved for the card – and, to be honest, Amex’s IT is a bit ropey and you MAY get the bonus anyway – but the bonus should in theory fail to turn up!)

    The safest thing to do is to apply in the name of your partner.

    Of course, as the card is free anyway, you may want to risk applying anyway since you will still get the ‘2 points per £1’ earnings rate. Having recently had the SPG card is not a problem.

• Philip Hart says:

  6 Apr6 April 10:13

  Any inside track on what AmEx are going to do to replace the Cathay Gold card?

  Once that expires, my wife will no longer to get herself – and more importantly, me – into the BA biz lounge at T5. And even though she has the Priority Pass to fall back on, there are no third party lounges at T5.

  Since this “universal lounge access” was one of the main reasons she signed up for the Platinum AmEx card, there now seems little reason to continue paying £450pa for the privilege.

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 12:09

    My gut feeling is nothing. I have had Platinum since 1999 and there was no equivalent to Cathay before they started offering it in 2012. Even if they did offer something (say, Etihad or Lufthansa status) it would be of minimal use to most people.

    The problem with Platinum is actually all the other benefits that have gone – Hilton Gold, the ability to transfer to IHG, the ability to transfer to Marriott etc. Accor, Carlson, Etihad and Emirates cards / transfer options are not of the same calibre.

• Stewie says:

  6 Apr6 April 10:33

  Slightly tangential – how long after cancelling an MR-earning card do you have to clear out the MR account? I’m coming to the end of a year of plat and can’t see the value going forward, but not sure right now where to direct the points….

  • Jason says:

    6 Apr6 April 10:41

    I asked Raffles the same question recently and he suggested clearing the account before cancelling, otherwise you lose the points.

    • Rob says:

      6 Apr6 April 12:07

      Correct. If you have another Amex-issued Amex (BA etc) they give you a short grace period but it is best to empty it out. Remember that Nectar accepts transfers from 1 point so if you have a few hundred left over after moving most to Avios in chunks of 1,000, the remainder can go to Nectar!

• Off Topic says:

  6 Apr6 April 12:22

  Hello – Off topic a bit

  My Tesco Credit Card arrived two weeks ago and the chip was so badly damaged on arrival it couldn’t be used, I therefore for 2 weeks had to use my normal clubcard and lost out especially on a couple of hundred pounds of fuel additional points – what do you think my chances of complaining to customer services about my loss of additional points? do you think they would compensate me with additional points?

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 13:42

    It does no harm to ask!

• Simon says:

  6 Apr6 April 12:33

  Love the gold, it’s my perfect card. In my 2nd year now and I will be keeping it

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