Amex still offering the ‘secret’ Gold Rewards Plus to cancelling Platinum cardholders

A reader emailed me last week to say that American Express tried to offer him the Gold Rewards Plus card when he called to cancel his Platinum charge card.  This is the first time in two years that I have heard of this happening – to be honest, I thought Gold Rewards Plus had bitten the dust.

As it is clearly still around, it is worth reminding you what it is and why I am not enthused by it.

Gold Rewards Plus appears to be a hybrid of the Platinum and Preferred Rewards Gold cards.  You CANNOT apply for this card directly – it is only offered to Platinum cardholders who try to cancel.

• I understand that it comes with the same travel insurance package as the Platinum card
• I understand that it comes with permanent double Membership Rewards points on travel and overseas purchases (as per Preferred Rewards Gold)
• I understand that it comes with 1 year of double points on supermarket and petrol spend (as per Preferred Rewards Gold)
• I understand that it offers 7,500 MR points each year when you renew, subject to spending £15,000 (as per Preferred Rewards Gold)
• I understand that it offers four ‘one use’ airport lounge passes via Lounge Club (Preferred Rewards Gold offers two)

As there is no publicly available documentation of the card, do not treat what I have written above as gospel.  The annual fee for this card is £285.

This is a bad deal in my view.

Basically, it is the Preferred Rewards Gold card plus travel insurance, but without a sign-up bonus or fee-free first year.

However, if you cancelled your Platinum card and waited for six months, you could apply for Preferred Rewards Gold instead.  This comes with a 20,000 point sign-up bonus (good for 20,000 Avios among other things), no fee for Year 1 and £125 thereafter.

Gold Rewards Plus has NO sign-up bonus and is £285 per year from Day 1.

If you want to know what the card looks like, it is identical to a standard Gold card.  I think you basically just get a different covering letter and some travel insurance and two extra Lounge Club passes thrown in.

You could make the case that the travel insurance is worth the extra £160 (or £130 if you value the two extra lounge passes at £30) – it depends how many supplementary cards you can issue and whether everyone is covered.  In some circumstances it might work out.

Given that Amex travel insurance now comes with extra terms and conditions (such as having to pay for flights and hotels with an Amex card to be fully covered) you may find it better value arranging your insurance elsewhere.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

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You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

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