Get 20,000 Avios or Virgin Atlantic miles for free as Amex relaxes the Gold bonus rules

You need to be on your toes to keep up with the rules governing the very generous referral bonuses offered by American Express on the Gold and Platinum charge cards.

It was less than four weeks ago that I posted about new restrictions on those cards, which pretty much blocked most active miles and points collectors from qualifying.  

However, Amex has now made it a lot easier to get the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card.  Click here to see the full list of card features.

This card is so attractive because of the trade off between the fee and the bonus.  The card fee for the first year is currently £0!  This compares to the usual fee of £125 (which will be charged from Year 2 if you don’t cancel) and the £93 discounted fee for Year 1 which is the usual offer.

20,000 Membership Rewards points is a lot.  It can be transferred into 20,000 Avios points or 20,000 miles with Virgin Flying Club, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Etihad and others.  You could also turn them into 10,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points, 60,000 Club Carlson points or 40,000 Hilton HHonors points.

Now, this is what has changed overnight.  To qualify for the 20,000 point bonus, the old rules said that you must not hold any existing American Express cards issued by Amex.  This disqualified anyone with a BA Amex, SPG Amex, Nectar Amex or a Platinum, Gold or Green charge card.

The new rule is much more lenient:

The 20,000 Membership Rewards bonus points will be awarded onto your account once you have been approved and you have spent and charged £2,000 within the first 3 months of Cardmembership. All introductory offers are subject to change, can be withdrawn at any time and are not available if you currently hold or have held any other Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Cards in the past 6 months.

Under the new wording, anyone who only has a BA Amex, Nectar Amex or an SPG Amex can now apply for the Preferred Rewards Gold card.  Only someone who has held a Platinum, Gold or Green charge card in the last 6 months cannot receive the bonus.

The card requires a household income (not personal income) of £20,000.

For general spending, the card offers good value when used for travel, overseas, supermarket or petrol spending, where you receive 2 points (ie 2 Avios) per £1.  On all other spending you only earn 1 point per £1, so you might want to put that spending on a different card once you have hit the £2,000 spend target for triggering the bonus.

Whether you keep the card after the first year is debatable.  The £125 fee is steep compared to the benefits, although you will receive 7,500 bonus points when you renew if you have spent over £15,000 in the previous year.  Personally, I wouldn’t bother – I would look to cancel before my year was up and move on to another card with another juicy sign-up bonus.

You can apply for Amex Gold and see the official list of benefits here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2025 update

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

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review