Gold American Express Card

[anonymous-user]

Whilst on the underground yesterday there were a group of young men (the sort that would wear chinos and gillets) who all used their phones to tap on and I could see they all had a Gold American Express card showing as their payment type.

Looking at this card it would appear that it has an interest rate of 87.8% APR and you have to pay £195 a year to have one.

I must be missing something here as it seems like a terrible card, unless they are purely getting one because they hope people will see "American Express" and be impressed?

[SP_]

It is free for the first year. You get 4 free lounge passes, and an introductory offer of around 30,000 membership points which can be transferred to Avios, Virgin Atlantic miles, Emirates Skyward miles, Amazon vouchers, etc etc.
They likely pay it off, in full, every month.

[Consigliere]

it will alsmost certainly be paid off in full every month, they will be using it everywhere that accepts Amex to accumulate points. Also 4 lounge paases per annum and the first year free, theyll prob cancel within the first year and jump onto some other card with benefits.

p.s. 30,000 amex points is around £165ish in Amazon vouchers so a nice little bonus there too.

[wyson]

The interest rate isn’t that high in reality. Its a quirk of having to put the annual fee into the calculation. I think it was high 20’s last time I looked.

They would get bonus points for referrals as well. One of my friends did this, cancelled in the first year after the fee free period, tried to get all her friends to get one so they could all maximise the free airmiles points.

[Gary Woodland]

You get points and far better customer service than most other ccs. I put everything on it. Pay it each month and then use the points to get flights/Apple stuff for free. If you ever have any issues with a purchase Amex are far and away the best place I’ve ever worked with at sorting it too. Plus lounge access.

[InitialDave]

wyson said:

The interest rate isn’t that high in reality. Its a quirk of having to put the annual fee into the calculation. I think it was high 20’s last time I looked.

Yes, in order to standardise how costs appear to the consumer, the example is required to be the representative interest rate on a nominal amount (I think £1200?), with any fees included as if they were equivalent to interest being paid.

Makes any cards with higher fees look absolutely horrific.

[geeks]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Whilst on the underground yesterday there were a group of young men (the sort that would wear chinos and gillets) who all used their phones to tap on and I could see they all had a Gold American Express card showing as their payment type.

Looking at this card it would appear that it has an interest rate of 87.8% APR and you have to pay £195 a year to have one.

I must be missing something here as it seems like a terrible card, unless they are purely getting one because they hope people will see "American Express" and be impressed?

https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/05/25/review-american-express-preferred-rewards-gold-amex-gold-credit-card-3/

Shows why they might have one as the others have already pointed out.

[Crook]

Points on credit cards are pretty much the only genuinely free thing you get, earn enough and with Avios / BA you can get return flights to Iceland for example for £1.
As someone posted - Head for points is a great resource.

[InitialDave]

Crook said:

Points on credit cards are pretty much the only genuinely free thing you get, earn enough and with Avios / BA you can get return flights to Iceland for example for £1.
As someone posted - Head for points is a great resource.

If you value an Avios point at 1p, the top level redemption with the lowest cash component isn't usually the best value.

Here's an example for a recent trip I booked to Italy:

[Zigster]

wyson said:

The interest rate isn’t that high in reality. Its a quirk of having to put the annual fee into the calculation. I think it was high 20’s last time I looked.

They would get bonus points for referrals as well. One of my friends did this, cancelled in the first year after the fee free period, tried to get all her friends to get one so they could all maximise the free airmiles points.

That’s it. The way APR is calculated is a bit of a nonsense when annual fees are involved. In this case, even more so given that the Amex Gold is a charge card not a credit card, which means you pay it off every month so don’t tend to rack up interest.

The annual fee gives you access to various “rewards” which may or may not be worth the fee depending on your perspective.

[anonymous-user]

Just coming to the end of the first year with mine. Used all the free lounge passes and bought a couple more at the discounted rate. The lounge membership is about £50 on its own from memory and then free passes would have cost £24 each, so that's £150 saved against next years £195 fee, without taking into account the 20,000 bonus points.

Been great for me, but I'm doing less solo and couple travelling this year so will have the whole family or a large friend group in tow, so I might just drop down to the Blue card as I won't be using the lounges, but will still get earn the points to convert into 'airmiles'.

[Austin Prefect]

Zigster said:

That’s it. The way APR is calculated is a bit of a nonsense when annual fees are involved. In this case, even more so given that the Amex Gold is a charge card not a credit card, which means you pay it off every month so don’t tend to rack up interest.

The annual fee gives you access to various “rewards” which may or may not be worth the fee depending on your perspective.

It's a credit card though I suspect most holders pay it off every month and have a lower interest card for any running balance.

[Abc321]

Is it the usual spend a £ get 1 point situation? And how much is a point then worth, the 20,000 sign up bonus points plus you need to spend another £8m which equates to a bag of nuts in the lounge?

[Austin Prefect]

Abc321 said:

Is it the usual spend a £ get 1 point situation? And how much is a point then worth, the 20,000 sign up bonus points plus you need to spend another £8m which equates to a bag of nuts in the lounge?

An Avios point is generally regarded as worth 1p if you're careful how you use it. Upgrading a long haul flight maybe a bit more depending on the deal, getting a discount on a flight usually a bit less. You can convert Amex reward points to Avios at 1:1 but not vice versa so that makes Amex points worth slightly more than 1p.

[durbster]

Abc321 said:

Is it the usual spend a £ get 1 point situation? And how much is a point then worth, the 20,000 sign up bonus points plus you need to spend another £8m which equates to a bag of nuts in the lounge?

1,000 points is worth £4.50.

[SP_]

MrBig said:

Just coming to the end of the first year with mine. Used all the free lounge passes and bought a couple more at the discounted rate. The lounge membership is about £50 on its own from memory and then free passes would have cost £24 each, so that's £150 saved against next years £195 fee, without taking into account the 20,000 bonus points.

Been great for me, but I'm doing less solo and couple travelling this year so will have the whole family or a large friend group in tow, so I might just drop down to the Blue card as I won't be using the lounges, but will still get earn the points to convert into 'airmiles'.

For just lounge access, the gold card is poor value. For £180 a year, you can get the Santander World Elite, which gives 4 cardholders unlimited lounge access

[craigjm]

Possibility they were work colleagues and using the corporate cards. My current card and the one for my previous company are gold and not the traditional green

[anonymous-user]

SP_ said:

For just lounge access, the gold card is poor value. For £180 a year, you can get the Santander World Elite, which gives 4 cardholders unlimited lounge access

It's not just about the lounge access though. It's ONE of the benefits of having the Amex Gold. If you want to move bank accounts and are eligible for Santander Select, then great. I'm not switching bank accounts and losing my travel insurance, breakdown cover, phone insurance etc just to get a few more lounge visits.

Also, I suspect not many folks have £5k a month nett to pay into a current account. No such requirements for an Amex Gold

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 19th February 11:42

[TwigtheWonderkid]

SP_ said:

You get 4 free lounge passes,

Whoopi do!

I've got a Lloyds World Elite card. £15 / month and you get Priority Pass for unlimited lounge visits with access to circa 1700 lounges. I used it 5 times in January and so far 3 times this month. But I'm not flying again until early March.

Have to say, the Eventyr lounge at Copenhagen yesterday was superb. A cup of tea and a bun will set you back £20 at Copenhagen Airport, so based on that, I must've had 300 quids worth.

The Dusseldorf lounge has a huge jar of Haribo. Not the healthiest breakfast I've ever had!

Edited by TwigtheWonderkid on Wednesday 19th February 21:52

[Bear-n]

Pfft. Gold plebs.



/s