I'm going back and forth between getting the AmEx Gold. I have a CFU and a CSP as my two right now, but am wondering if an AmEx Gold would be the last card to maximize points. My main expenses are around 400-450/month on groceries, 150-250 on eating out, and then 1250 in rent (usually don't pay that on a card besides trying to hit the spend goal for a welcome offer, unless I should be paying it on a card if someone corrects me?) Saving for travel is my biggest thing, so i am wondering if AmEx Gold will aid that even more, or if it will make the CSP sort of obsolete. I like how CSP works with United easily, but is AmEx Gold also a valuable card to help my travel goals? Or is it just a waste of money? Thanks for any help!
Is AmEx gold good for my situation?
byu/Salt-Confidence-1873 inCreditCards
Posted by Salt-Confidence-1873
10 Comments
The spending can’t really justify the annual fee.
Unless you can organically use enough of the benefit credits, it’s generally hard to justify the annual fees.
Amex is great for earning points. Between the high multipliers (4x groceries and restaurants, 3x on flights), Amex offers and rakuten, you can rack up Amex points much faster than chase points.
That said, make sure the transfer partners make sense for you. If you are loyal to the soil to united or southwest, it may make more sense to stick with chase’s ecosystem.
Get the Blue Cash Everyday or Blue Cash Preferred from Amex. Great return on groceries unless you’re specifically looking to earn points instead of cash. At your spend you’d only earn around 21,600 points for groceries. In dollars that’s around $216. Not enough to justify the AF. Add to that another $120 for dining, you’re barely breaking even on dining and groceries.
Unless you’re using the credits, no. My rule for annual fee cards, is I expect to break even or come out greater with credits alone. If I can’t do that I don’t get them no matter how high or low the cash back might be. Some might give me some bluff for it, but that’s my personal rule. If there’s no credits offered that break the fee even I’ll just sign up for a no annual fee card. Period.
With a good SUB it’s worth it for the first year as long as you can organically meet the spending requirements. After that, you just need to do the math.
Keep in mind that the statement credits encourage you to spend money you wouldn’t normally spend, so that’s something to consider when you’re doing the math.
If the math doesn’t work out, wait for the second year’s AF to post and then close the card, they’ll refund the AF.
How much do you value the credits for the Gold? If you value them fully or close to it, then it’s a good card. If not, probably not, unless you have a lot of spending and really value MR points.
4x dining and 4x grocery: 450+250=700 700×4=2,800 2,800×12=33,600 points
If the flight costs 150,000 points it’ll take 150,000÷33,600=4.464 years.
That’s 5 annual fees. Say you use some of the credits, so will estimate a $150 annual fee. $150×5=$750.00
Now compare this to spending the same $700 on a free 3% card
700×12=8,400 8,400x.03=252 $252×5=$1,260.00
That’s $1,260 towards any flight, any airline, zero restriction.
Chances are high cash back will be better in my opinion.
Does Delta or another Amex transfer partner have a strong presence at your local airport?
Do the credits/coupons that come with the Amex gold fit into your natural spending habits well enough to make up for the annual fee?
IMO there are other low/no AF cards that would better fit your spending profile. They Paypal debit card is 5% cashback on groceries with no AF, no credit checks, etc. and the Savor card is 3% on groceries and dining with no AF.
AMEX doesn’t make a lot of sense just from a redemption value standpoint unless you’re flying internationally.
IMO, sounds like you’d be best off with a cash back card that has a $95 fee (that you hopefully can recoup in other ways that you already spend) or no fee. Capital One Savor or AMEX Blue Cash Preferred.