Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.
Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express cardholders will no longer get bonus points for spending $30,000 in a calendar year. This change takes effect in 2015.
So you WILL get the American Express Membership Rewards bonus points this year, but you’ll no longer have the same incentive next year.
So is this card worth keeping or should you look for an alternative?
Reasons to Keep (or Get) the Premier Rewards Gold Card From American Express
Link: Premier Rewards Gold Card From American Express
You still get:
- Sign-up bonus of 25,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $2,000 within 3 months
- 3X points for flights booked directly with airlines
- 2X points at US restaurants, US gas stations, and US supermarkets
- $100 airline incidental fee credit each year with an airline you choose
- You can transfer points to participating frequent traveler programs
- No foreign transaction fees
- Terms Apply
The $195 annual fee is waived for the 1st year.
But is the Premier Rewards Gold Card From American Express worth keeping when the $195 is due?
Reasons to Close the Premier Rewards Gold Card From American Express
Link: AMEX EveryDay Preferred Credit Card
Link: AMEX EveryDay Credit Card
There are other AMEX Membership Rewards credit cards with similar benefits but with a lower annual fee. For instance:
The AMEX EveryDay Preferred Credit Card earns
- 3X American Express Membership Rewards points at US supermarkets, up to $6,000 per year in purchases
- 2X points at US gas stations
- 1X points on other purchases
- The annual fee is $95
- Terms & conditions apply
And the AMEX EveryDay Credit Card earns
- 2X American Express Membership Rewards points at US supermarkets, up to $6,000 per year in purchases
- 1X points on other purchases
- No annual fee
- As always, terms & conditions apply.
Folks who want to cancel their AMEX Premier Rewards Gold card but keep their American Express Membership Rewards points, might consider the AMEX EveryDay and AMEX EveryDay Preferred cards.
That’s because those 2 cards earn American Express Membership Rewards points. So you can keep the points you’ve earned with the AMEX Premier Rewards Gold.
And with the AMEX EveryDay Preferred, when you use your card 30+ times on purchases in a billing period you’ll get 50% more points on those purchases (less returns & credits).
I really like earning at least 1.5X American Express Membership Rewards points on all my purchases! (That’s because you get 1 point per dollar spent on all purchases + 50% bonus points as explained above.)
And 4.5X American Express Membership Rewards points at US supermarkets is a terrific deal! (You get 3 American Express Membership Rewards points per $1 spent + 50% bonus when using your card 30+ times in a billing period.)
The no annual fee AMEX EveryDay has a similar deal. When you use your card 20+ times, you get 20% more points on those purchases.
Bottom Line
You’ll no longer get bonus American Express Membership Rewards points for spending $30,000 with your Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express in a calendar year, beginning in 2015.
You might consider other cards with similar benefits that also earn American Express Membership Rewards points such as the AMEX EveryDay Preferred and AMEX EveryDay.
Will this change to the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express influence your decision whether to keep it?
Daraius, I hope you read this. For this card, it offers 3x membership rewards when you buy directly from the airline. Wouldn’t this card be the best for Travel Agencies as they book directly with the airline. To my understanding, as long as it codes as travel, you get 3x points per dollar correct? Please correct me if I wrong, but I am anxious to apply. If you can please email me at lperez2442@gmail.com
Thank you.
Thank you for your awesome article. I opened an EveryDay card and cancelled my Premier Rewards Gold Card right after reading this! What’s perfect is that I also learned somewhere about the 60-day window for refunding the annual membership fee, and it has just been ~30 days since I got charged so I’m getting it back.
I’d say I found your article at the perfect time.
I got an offer for Amex Premier Rewards Gold Card with 50,000 rewards point after spending just $1,000 within first 3 months of membership and one year free annual fee with $175 afterwards.
I have done quite a research on this card and this is what I found.
I decided to let it go because it’s not really worth it, considering the steep annual fee and a paltry points value. What? 1 point for 0.5 cent? Not even 1 cent we’re talking about. You spend $1 ($1=100cents), and you’ll sure get 1 point with all other available credit card out there, Chase to name a few. That 1 point equals to 1 cent ($0.01).
Well, Amex PRG offers 3x points if you travel a lot. But then if you think about, you’re getting 3 points for 3 cent, it’s totally worth it. But you’ll never get 3 points for 3 cents from Amex.
Bottom line is Amex card becomes “Snob” card. Yes, you’ll do get some nod from your restaurant when you flash your card. I know that because I have some other Amex card. But let’s be realistic. In this 21st century, we’re buying air tickets online, keying in our digits and nobody really give a sheep about what care you’re using to buy the card unless, of course you’re really getting the maximum amount of benefits you can get from the card, which is basically you’re trying to mingle through those paltry points and calculating how much cents they are worth after converting from airline partners to partners.
That’s really a $175 worth of mental calculation.
@patty. I believe amex offered 75k at one point on the business gold.. if you want a good business card from them, look on flyertalk for how to get the 100,000 business platinum for 10k spend in 3 months by calling – current online offer is 40k. I think its better. (but only if you can handle that spend). Plus it has 450 AF, dunno if its waived for the first year or not. You might want to look at the card and its perks to see if its worth it to you.
Amex just offered me the Amex Business Gold with a 50,000 mile sign up bonus if I spend $5000 in 3 months. I get 3x points on air, 2x on gas. Fee ($175) is waived for the first year. Should I bite or do you suggest something else?