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Effective June 1st American Express is making some nice changes to the Premier Rewards Gold Card, though the annual fee (after the first free year) will be going up from $175 to $195.
-The card will qualify for a $100 airline fee credit per calendar year. That means in your first cardmember year you can get $200 back with $100 in 2015 and $100 in 2016. Officially these are intended to be used for bag fees, seat upgrades, and lounge passes/memberships. However they also work for items like $100 American Airlines gift cards or $100 United gift registry contributions.
-The card will no longer charge a foreign transaction fee.
-The card will now give double points at restaurants in addition to double points on gas and groceries in the US and triple points on airfare.
Officially this card stopped offering a 15K point bonus for spending $30K in a calendar year, but DDF member hvaces42 reports that he already spent $30K on the card in 2015 and he still got the 15K bonus. That’s pretty sweet as it bumps the effective earn rates of the double point categories to 3x and the triple point category to 4.5x. Of course you can’t count on that, but for now it appears to still be working.
The card also offers 5 additional cardholders without any additional annual fee, each of which qualify for promotions like Small Business Saturday. Last year SBS gave a $30 per card credit, so someone who had a Premier Gold card with 5 additional users was able to get $180 in free spending. With that (and other AMEX promotions that run throughout the year) combined with the $100 per calendar year refund, carrying this card just became a no-brainer.
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47 Comments On "American Express Significantly Improves The Premier Rewards Gold Card; Reports Of The 15K Spend Threshold Bonus Posting In 2015"
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Do the changes also apply to exicting customers?
@levi:
Yes, effective 06/01/15.
Dan for gods sake how do I make that every time I’m predding on your text link I should be transfered to the mobile site automaticly ?
@David:
Why click on the Twitter link?
When you get a text just open up m.dansdeals.com from a bookmark favorite.
Is Amex intentionally killing off the Platinum card?
Is it personal or busniess ?
@Od Yinuvun:
Premier Gold is a card for spending.
Platinum is a card for the benefits ($200 fee refund, lounges, global entry, pre-check, SPG Gold, wifi passes, etc)
@David:
Personal.
Dan, this applies to the consumer card.
Do any of these benefit changes also apply to the gold business card?
@What about the business card:
No.
My $175 annual fee just came due. I was going to downgrade it so I don’t lose my MR points.
Will I still get 2 x $100 airline credits if I keep it?
@Al:
Sure, you can get a $100 credit in June and another $100 credit in January.
Does this apply to the Canadian AMEX Gold too?
Big issue with amex personal cards in no more sign up bonus points after you got them already. You always have mentioned it is hard to justify applying for a card with no bonus points???
Any sign-up bonus?
@Dan:
Yes, but with the benefits pulling a little closer together the advantages of the Platinum are being minimized. The $450 fee is looking worse with each benefit they give the gold, and each benefit Platinum loses.
@Dan: I also wanna downgrade, to which card should i?
If I close one card will I lose all the MR points from that card? If i have another Amex card with MR points
@Dan:
I used to open the link in the past an I got over to the mobile link it’s much easier that way
Open a no fee amex cc everyday card. U can keep points
I just cxld my Amex Plat. I never had the PRG Gold card; will I still be able to get the bonus?
I have a business gold card, if I already have a everyday preferred, is there any reason to keep the business gold?
@Chraina: yes
I spent 27k since the beginning of 2015 I’m looking forward to the bonus
The $100 airline will additional users also get this?
Will this possibly be applied to the business card as well?
I am a bit confused. Is this applying only for the charge card, or also the credit card? Is there any visual difference between the cards?
Isn’t the charge card free, with no annual fee?
Dan, I just spoke to a rep about this card, asked her if you get trip cancelation protection, she said that it does not (and same is on all AMEX cards) for unknown amount of time. That applies for all new enrollments. Just got the card, but will not use it to book travel. 😛
An I disqualified from getting the bonus if I have/had a plat card
Does this apply to card issued in canada?
@anonymous still qualified
@Achshell: charge cards have no preset spending limits, while credit cards have limits with apr’s. most of amex cards carry annual fees. Charge card example: platinum, gold, gree. Credit card example: delta, starwood, costco
@Robert c: no. Its for the account as a whole. If your additional user used the credit for his travel baggage fee, you as the primary can not get more credit for that calender year.
@anonymous: most of the time perspnal and business benefits mirror each other. Same like annual fees. Example business and personal platinum both carry $450 fee. Also thir $200 credit. It goes by product not product type
@Anonymous: if u look back u will see that dan wrote that tlits only for the personal.
Dan, why do you call it a charge card and not a credit card?
Af due would like to close n open another card
Iirc when downgrade no Sb
Which amex card has nicest Sb and af waived
Or reasonable?
@Anonymous: with the gold business card as an exception, risky different set of benefits and perks, but minus these which would be the big ones
Can i still get the PRG card bonus if I already had same one 2 yrs ago and canceled it ? Thanks
Is this the best card AmEx to accrue airline miles?
Will the additional free cards have their own (different) numbers? If not, they can’t get registered for SBS. That happened in 2014 with a different Amex.
@Diane: as always, amex generages diff cc numbers for each user to be able to identify ehich card charged what. My mither has an amex card for the past 32 years, always been that way
When would be the best date to apply for this card?
can you answer if it applies to cdn amex cards please.
@answer canada: it does not apply. On to us
Dan how does the airline credit work, do I have to use it the year I receive it or it can be “rolled over” to the next year and be added until I use it?
Amex prg as of 11/15/15 will raise purchase protection to $10k per ocurrence and will add lost protection!
I just called amex about the 15k Bonus to ask if they would offer it even though they officially said they wouldn’t. The guy on the phone transferred me to a supervisor – who within 2 minutes not only added 23000 points but told me i should call back next year and they’d be happy to throw in some bonus points again for me!
I seriously love the PRG – with uncapped 3x points on travel plus the 15k+ it’s my first and still favorite card for travel spend.