Link is for reference only, referral links are not allowed.
Amex is offering an all time high 90,000 MR points + $200 statement credit bonus on it's Gold card (similarly, Amex Plat has 150K MR points + 200 statement credit).
If you know someone with Amex Gold card, it's worth checking but please do so off forum. Card has a $250 annual fee. You can check other benefits from the link below.
https://card.americanexpress.com/d/gold-card/
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If by "researching" you mean "reading the benefits listed when you sign up" then you should be doing that anyway. For any card.
Why wouldn't you see what's right on the offer page to maximize your gain from opening the card?
In case of this card for example that "research" of....reading the card benefits on the signup page... consists of knowing you get:
$10 a month dining credits at a short list of restaurants- and also grubhub
$10 a month uber cash (good for uber or ubereats)
A $100 The Hotel Collection credit.
You get 4x points on spend at restaurants and supermarkets.
That's all the "research" necessary.
Prior to the revamp BTW the card was only $55/yr lower annual fee, but came with just a single $100 airline incidental credit and only 2x on gas/groceries.
The $55 more/yr one is objectively better in almost any situation.... and honestly easier than the platinum card to justify the annual fee on- since if you normally do any monthly food delivery you're effectively getting $240/yr in credits vs a $250 annual fee.... $10/yr for a card that does 4x MR for gas and groceries is pretty solid. And if you actually use the hotel benefit you're $90 ahead (though that's by far the less easy to use for most credit of the 3 offered)
(there used to also be an even crappier version for $125/yr with NO credits of any kind and just 2x on restaurants- that card was always garbage except as an extra thing to earn a SUB on then dump after a year- that one's long gone though--- not sure where you get the fee was ever $99 though unless you're talking decades ago)
Amex annual fee
$250
Uber credit $120
Grub hub $120
For me it's $10 card
X4 dining x4 grocery
X3 any airline.
Not a bad card.
$250
Uber credit $120
Grub hub $120
For me it's $10 card
X4 dining x4 grocery
X3 any airline.
Not a bad card.
use it or lose it credit.
I use it for uber eats or grub hub pick up.
If you don't use it organically... it's should not count.
amex gold also have $100 hotel credit, but I don't use that so I don't count that.
but with or without gold card, I would eat take out twice a month.. so I count.
uber: link your amex gold as payment in gold
grubhub: when you buy something, amex will pay back $10
use it or lose it credit.
I use it for uber eats or grub hub pick up.
If you don't use it organically... it's should not count.
amex gold also have $100 hotel credit, but I don't use that so I don't count that.
but with or without gold card, I would eat take out twice a month.. so I count.
uber: link your amex gold as payment in gold
grubhub: when you buy something, amex will pay back $10
This is way I got the Gold card as my first AMEX. Have had it for a few months... Been a pretty good card so far. I didn't even know about the hotel credit.😅
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LOL.
Sure you will find better cards.. TONS of them.
If you don't understand how spending 90 seconds reading the terms of a card offer, to earn hundreds of free dollars (potentially thousands of free dollars if you do premium travel) is better than "a free $25 once a quarter" I'm not sure any amount of explaining will help though....but here's one example anyway....
I recently booked a round trip business class ticket to Japan on ANA.... cash price was ~$7000. Instead I paid 85,000 miles (less than the amount you get with this signup offer) plus $743 in taxes. So 85,000 miles was worth $6257 to me here. Knock off the annual fee if I'd used pts from this specific offer to do it and I'm still ahead by just over $6000.
It'll take you 60 years with your "best" BOA card to break even with what one would have gotten from this one signup offer--- even if you did NOT count the two $120/yr food credits it also offers or the $100 hotel credit (which admittedly is less useful than the other two)....and I'd STILL have 5k pts left over after those 60 years that you did not!
And outside the context of signup bonuses there's also going to be tons of cards that will earn you net >$25 a quarter for just any normal day to day spending you've going to have to do anyway... (groceries, restaurants, vehicle fuel, etc)
credit card signup bonuses requiring any minimum spend are not income, they are rebates- so there's nothing to issue 1099s for. Referral bonuses ARE income.
In fairness it only works at a narrow group of expensive (though certainly nice) hotels so it's pretty niche- like the other poster I personally consider it as worth $0 when doing the "is the AF worth it" math, but if circumstances just happen to make using it make sense, nice bonus on top.
use it or lose it credit.
I use it for uber eats or grub hub pick up.
If you don't use it organically... it's should not count.
amex gold also have $100 hotel credit, but I don't use that so I don't count that.
but with or without gold card, I would eat take out twice a month.. so I count.
uber: link your amex gold as payment in gold
grubhub: when you buy something, amex will pay back $10
What I like isthe 6 months to spend $4K so it gives time
If you don't travel significantly other cards ought be able to get you 5-6% in those categories...
Just a few examples-
Citi custom cash (no annual fee) gets you 5% in your top category and both grocery and restaurant are on the category list.
BoA if you have plat honors status gets you 5.25% at restaurants no annual fee
So if you combined just those two you'd be getting 5% grocery and 5.25% restaurants with 0 AF at all vs the 4% with annual fee you get with gold.
Plus Chase freedom typically has 5x on restaurants and groceries each 1 quarter a year, no AF.
If willing to pay a fee the Amex BCP gets you 6% at grocery stores for $95/yr...if we assume you value the monthly food credits on Gold at 100% then to beat the 4% you're using the Gold for you'd need to spend $4300 a year- or $358.33 a month- on groceries- which most folks certainly spend more than that so it'd put the BCP even further ahead... (and if you value the $240/yr in food credits on gold at less than 100% it gets even worse for the gold card here)
Now, for folks who DO travel, the 4x MR points on the Gold are significantly more valuable than 4% cash so the math looks very different for those folks.
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On the other hand I have spent about 9k on gold and most earned 4x points.