Is American Express gold worth keeping after you spend all the bonus points?

double points on gas? get 5% with penfed.

Amex Gold is crap. If you are going to keep Amex, either upgrade to the Premium Rewards Gold card or downgrade to the Zinc. With the PRG, you get much better point earnings, and with the Zinc, you can still take advantage of many of the Amex deals (like Small Business Saturday) for only a $25 annual fee. Which you choose is up to you. You also might want to consider upgrading to the Platinum, but the hefty annual fee makes it ONLY worth it if you travel -a lot-. And I mean a lot.

Honestly, while Amex does have nice perks, it is no longer my primary card. We use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Same great customer service and benefits, plus the point earnings and redemption ability is much better than Amex.

Quote from phonic : Amex Gold is crap. If you are going to keep Amex, either upgrade to the Premium Rewards Gold card or downgrade to the Zinc. With the PRG, you get much better point earnings, and with the Zinc, you can still take advantage of many of the Amex deals (like Small Business Saturday) for only a $25 annual fee. Which you choose is up to you. You also might want to consider upgrading to the Platinum, but the hefty annual fee makes it ONLY worth it if you travel -a lot-. And I mean a lot. Honestly, while Amex does have nice perks, it is no longer my primary card. We use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Same great customer service and benefits, plus the point earnings and redemption ability is much better than Amex.

To downgrade to Zinc will they have to cancel my card and make me do another credit app or will they just downgrade me?

Quote from Mr.Ritz : To downgrade to Zinc will they have to cancel my card and make me do another credit app or will they just downgrade me?

Zinc is a charge card, so no.

You can upgrade/downgrade between Zinc, Green, Gold, PRG, Platinum, and technically Centurion without issue, since they are all the same category of card. In fact, your card number would stay the same as well in most (possibly all) cases.

However, you cannot convert a charge account to a credit account, or vice-versa. So if you wanted to change your Gold to a Blue Cash credit card (or whatever it's called), you would need to submit another application, which would likely result in another hard pull on your CR. Changing the class of charge wouldn't usually result in a hard pull, since they can do a soft pull. Outside of the Centurion, all the other classes are pretty much the same in regards to requirements.

My wife and I were both downgraded from Premier Gold cards to Blue cash cards previously.

Then we both got gold cards again. About time to convert or cancel again.

Quote from phonic : In fact, your card number would stay the same as well in most (possibly all) cases.

Very true. My Amex PRG is actually still valid for use (just for looks though) even though I already product changed it to a Zync...

Quote from vaultaddict : My wife and I were both downgraded from Premier Gold cards to Blue cash cards previously. Then we both got gold cards again. About time to convert or cancel again.

As I said earlier, you can not "downgrade" or "convert" a charge card to a credit card. Period. So the only way that you could have gone from PRG to Blue Cash was to close out the PRG account and open up a new Blue Cash account. That isn't really downgrading, that's simply opening/closing accounts.

Quote from phonic : As I said earlier, you can not "downgrade" or "convert" a charge card to a credit card. Period. So the only way that you could have gone from PRG to Blue Cash was to close out the PRG account and open up a new Blue Cash account. That isn't really downgrading, that's simply opening/closing accounts.

Sorry, but that's simply incorrect and, in fact, exactly what I did.

Quote from vaultaddict : Sorry, but that's simply incorrect and, in fact, exactly what I did.

I'm afraid you are either incorrect or were mislead. It's a known fact that trying to change charge<->credit is not possible. They are two different types of accounts. The only way to go from Gold (or any charge) to Blue (or any credit) is to open up a new account with them. Your card number will change. Period. If you simply change the "class" of card (ie: Green, Gold, etc.) then your account number (and account in general) will stay the same.

Whether or not they did a hard pull in your case, I can not say. In most cases, they will. But if the soft pulls they do every so often were recent enough and you had a good account history with them, or you had a very nice CSR, they might have omitted this step.

Even if you go online and look at the information there, it confirms this. I have a PRG, and I am eligible to "upgrade" to a Platinum. But if I wanted any credit-type card, I would need to apply for it. There is no way around this, as it's a clearly defined Amex policy.

PRG/gold is worth keeping if you have the spend in bonus categories, or spend enough to meet the bonus "thresholds" whose value far exceed the annual fee. Additionally, the best redemption for AMEX MR wise is for points to travel partners, particularly airlines for premium cabin international travel. Doing so gets 5-10 cents/point redemption value. The gold card is typically required for membership rewards transfer to travel partners.

If you spend is low or travel redemption is not important, change to the Zync, or perhaps even better, the simply cash back card is an even better value.

I'll leave it to others to debate/argue the semantics of what it does to your account number and pulls, but to be honest, it doesn't matter much either way in the whole grand scheme of things.

Quote from phonic : I'm afraid you are either incorrect or were mislead. It's a known fact that trying to change charge<->credit is not possible. They are two different types of accounts. The only way to go from Gold (or any charge) to Blue (or any credit) is to open up a new account with them. Your card number will change. Period. If you simply change the "class" of card (ie: Green, Gold, etc.) then your account number (and account in general) will stay the same. Whether or not they did a hard pull in your case, I can not say. In most cases, they will. But if the soft pulls they do every so often were recent enough and you had a good account history with them, or you had a very nice CSR, they might have omitted this step. Even if you go online and look at the information there, it confirms this. I have a PRG, and I am eligible to "upgrade" to a Platinum. But if I wanted any credit-type card, I would need to apply for it. There is no way around this, as it's a clearly defined Amex policy.

Okey dokey.

Same account nos.

But oh well, no big deal.

Reports on FT of some others getting the same downgrade. [flyertalk.com]

but enough of my thread jacking.

I just called and they wont downgrade me from gold premier rewards to zync.. they said it was a different card line or something :/

Quote from pc5000 : PRG/gold is worth keeping if you have the spend in bonus categories, or spend enough to meet the bonus "thresholds" whose value far exceed the annual fee. Additionally, the best redemption for AMEX MR wise is for points to travel partners, particularly airlines for premium cabin international travel. Doing so gets 5-10 cents/point redemption value. The gold card is typically required for membership rewards transfer to travel partners. If you spend is low or travel redemption is not important, change to the Zync, or perhaps even better, the simply cash back card is an even better value. I'll leave it to others to debate/argue the semantics of what it does to your account number and pulls, but to be honest, it doesn't matter much either way in the whole grand scheme of things.

IMHO, the Amex Reward program is woefully inadequate compared to competitors. Don't get me wrong, I think Amex excels in many areas. They have great customer service, excellent benefits, and have many special "deals" throughout the year (like Small Business Saturday and the $X off of $Y promotions at various retailers) that can more than make up for the annual fee.

However, as far as a normal-use card for maximum points, I have to disagree. Chase Sapphire Preferred offers all the same top-tier benefits as Amex, and has a much, much better point earnings/usage program. And you can transfer to airlines/hotels/etc. And if you book travel with them, at better rates than Amex, you get a point boost.

Quote from Mr.Ritz : I just called and they wont downgrade me from gold premier rewards to zync.. they said it was a different card line or something :/

Wow, I think you got a very stupid CSR. I would highly recommend calling back in and trying it with another one. If they give you a hard time, demand to speak to a supervisor. Worst case scenario, you might get them to waive next years annual fee. While they do NOT do this for Platinum, they have done it for other cards on occasion. But I am 100% positive that you can upgrade/downgrade Amex Charge cards whenever you want. When I got the PRG, we downgraded my wife's Gold to Zinc since we would have canceled it otherwise. Same account number and everything.