Why the £120 Deliveroo credit makes the Amex Gold your best first card

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American Express has launched a great new benefit for holders of the American Express^® Preferred Rewards Gold Credit and Charge Card.

Cardmembers get access to £120 per annum of Deliveroo credit. This is an ongoing Card benefit, not a one-off promotion.

We will show you how the Deliveroo benefit will work, as well as summarise the other good reasons to get Preferred Rewards Gold. We looked at the full list of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold benefits in this article.

The representative APR is 88.8% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 31.0% variable.

How does the new Deliveroo benefit work?

Preferred Rewards Gold Cardmembers will receive 2 x £5 Deliveroo statement credits per calendar month, starting as soon as you enrol into the benefit.

Only one credit can be used per Deliveroo transaction. You cannot receive £10 back on one order.

The £5 credits will be automatically applied to your Amex account by American Express. You obviously need to make payment with your Preferred Rewards Gold Card.

You need to register for this benefit, but only once. After your initial registration, you will receive the 2 x £5 monthly Deliveroo credits without any further registration required.

You can opt in to this new benefit via the ‘Offers’ tab of your Online Amex statement page or in the American Express^® App.

What is this benefit worth?

If you are a regular Deliveroo user, you should have no trouble getting the full £120 of value from this offer.

As Preferred Rewards Gold has no annual fee for your first year, and £140 per year thereafter, I think this makes a real difference to the maths of whether you keep the Card beyond the free first year.

For occasional users, it clearly has less value. That said, two £5 credits may tempt you to use Deliveroo more often.

Remember that you can also order groceries via Deliveroo in many areas, from stores from Aldi to Waitrose. The credits would be valid against this.

What are the other benefits of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold?

We always recommend the Gold Card as our ‘best first’ miles and points credit card for someone dipping their toe into this world. This is due to a combination of:

• no annual fee in Year 1

• a huge sign-up bonus of 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards® points, convertible into Avios but also into many non-travel rewards if you change your focus later

• two complimentary Priority Pass airport lounge passes, which gives you an early first experience of how miles and points can help you travel better, and

• you still qualify for the sign-up bonus on the British Airways American Express^® Premium Plus Card at a later date when you become confident that you can justify the annual fee

Let’s look at the benefits in more detail:

1. The Amex Gold has no annual fee for the first year

The Preferred Rewards Gold has an annual fee of £140. This is waived in your first year, so you can have some time to see if it suits you or not. You can cancel at any point.

If you continue after the first year, you can still cancel at any time and get a pro-rata refund on your fee. American Express is the only UK Credit Card company to repay your fee, pro-rata, if you cancel.

2. The Amex Gold Card sign-up bonus is VERY generous

You get 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points (which convert to 20,000 Avios) when you sign up and spend £3,000 within three months.

Who qualifies for the sign-up bonus?

Here is the official wording from the Amex website:

“I understand I will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if I hold or have held any personal American Express Card in the past 24 months.“

This means:

• you WILL receive the 20,000 bonus points if you have not held a personal American Express Card in the previous 24 months.  Amex Cards issued by MBNA or Lloyds Bank do not count.

• you WILL receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express Card via your job, even if you receive Membership Rewards points from it

• you will WILL receive the bonus if you are only a supplementary Cardmember on someone else’s American Express Card. As far as Amex is concerned, that Card belongs to the primarily Cardmember and does not make you an ‘existing Cardmember’.

If you do not qualify for the bonus, you can still apply.  You still receive the other Card benefits, including the two free airport lounge passes, the £120 of Deliveroo credit and ‘no fee in the first year’.

20,000 points is a very good deal because ….

3. The Amex Gold Card rewards scheme is a valuable convertible currency

You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into MANY different things. Take a look at their website.

We tend to focus on airline schemes (1:1 into Avios, Virgin Flying Club, Flying Blue, Delta SkyMiles, Etihad Guest, Emirates Skywards etc) or hotel schemes (1:2 into Hilton Honors, 1:3 into Radisson Rewards, 2:3 into Marrriott Bonvoy).

In reality there are lots of other options, including High Street gift cards.  I wrote this article on how to get the best value from Membership Rewards points. It is possible, if you are smart, to get over £200 of value from your 20,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus.

‘Convertible currencies’ are worth more to you.  It is better to have 50,000 Membership Rewards points than 50,000 Avios. Why? Because your 50,000 Membership Rewards points would get you 50,000 Avios if you needed them – but they could also get you a heck of a lot more besides.

4. You get two free airport lounge visits per year

As an Amex Gold Cardmember you receive free membership of Priority Pass, a global network of over 1,300 airport lounges. Each year you get two free airport lounge visits – either two visits for yourself or one visit for yourself and a guest.

The Priority Pass website shows you which lounges you can use including many at Heathrow and Gatwick.  Additional visits after your two free ones are charged at £20 per person per visit.

You receive two additional free passes each year if you renew your Amex Gold membership. Together with the £120 Deliveroo benefit, they arguably cover the annual Card fee from Year 2 between them.

5. A good earning rate on your day-to-day spending

You will earn American Express Membership Rewards points on every £1 you spend on the card.

The standard rate is one point per £1 spent.

There are additional bonuses on top:

• double points for foreign spending

• double points on airline transactions – this can be very lucrative if you buy a lot of flights

• triple points when you book pre-paid travel via American Express Travel

6. Get 10,000 bonus points for spending £15,000 per year

If you can spend £15,000 per year on your Amex Gold, the maths gets even better. You would receive 10,000 bonus points at the end of your Card year. If you spent exactly £15,000, this means you would have earned 25,000 points over the year – a rate of 1.6 points per £1. This is very good going.

You also receive bonuses for additional FX and airline spend, further increasing the earning rate.

Other benefits

There are five other benefits worth mentioning:

• 10% discount and free additional driver on Hertz bookings

• $100 in-hotel credit and an upgrade (based on availability at check-in) when booking 350 4-5 star hotels worldwide

• Bonus point opportunities from adding Supplementary Cards or referring friends for American Express Cards

• Access to advance tickets for events, concerts and films with American Express^® Experiences

• Valuable statement credit and bonus point offers at selected retailers, available for opt-in via the Amex app or website

Conclusion

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card has always been a low cost and high reward way to begin a relationship with Amex.

The new Deliveroo benefit, worth up to £120 per year of statement credits, is a valuable addition. If you regularly order food for delivery then you shouldn’t struggle to get the full use from it, whilst other people may value the ability to get £5 discounts on top-up grocery shopping.

Added to the 20,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus (if you qualify) and the two airport lounge passes, and you have an impressive package if you can make the most of it.

You can apply for the Card if:

• you are aged 18 or over
• you have a current UK bank or building society account
• you have a permanent UK home address
• you have no history of bad debt

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold application page is here.