Six reasons to keep your Amex Gold card after the free first year

A while ago I did a piece for the Daily Mail’s This Is Money section about the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold credit card, to help a reader who was unsure whether he should retain the card after the free first year.

You can read the This Is Money article here but I turned the key points into a HfP article at the time and thought it was worth updating today given the recent improvements to the card benefits.

What are the benefits of signing up for Amex Gold?

The package you get for the first year of holding this card is excellent.  You can’t deny that.  Among the benefits are:

• You don’t pay a fee for your first year

• You receive 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points after you spend £3,000 in your first three months.  These convert into 20,000 Avios, 20,000 Virgin / Emirates / Etihad / Flying Blue etc miles, 40,000 Hilton Honors points, 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 90,000 Radisson Rewards points …. or many other things

• You get four free passes to get into selected airport lounges – the directory is here 

• You get £120 per year of Deliveroo credit (2 x £5 credits can be used each month)

Full details of the card, and the application form, are on the American Express website here.

In order to qualify for the sign up bonus, you cannot have held any personal American Express cards in the past 24 months.

The representative APR is 88.8% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 31.0% variable.

What happens after Year 1?

After the first year, you need to make a decision about whether to keep the card or not.

Many people baulk at the idea of paying the £19t fee, especially if they are not used to paying fees for credit or charge cards.  Whilst the easy answer to those readers who contact me would be ‘cancel’, it is worth looking objectively at the ongoing package – especially if you are not the sort of person who likes to churn his or her card portfolio regularly.

Good reasons to keep Amex Gold beyond Year 1

Reason 1:  the annual bonus of up to 12,500 Membership Rewards points

You can earn up to 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points each year based on your spending.

You receive 2,500 points for hitting £5,000 on spend and a further 2,500 points for every additional £5,000. The maximum bonus you can earn is 12,500 points.

This means, assuming you spent an exact multiple of £5,000, your earning rate on the card 1.5 Membership Rewards points per £1. This is made up of the 1 point per £1 you get for your spending plus an average of 0.5 points per £1 as a bonus.

This is an impressive earning rate – in fact, it is equal to the best earning rate of ANY travel rewards credit card.

Reason 2:  four more free Priority Pass airport lounge passes

You receive another four airport lounge passes when you renew.  These are worth at least £100.

Reason 3: if you are making good use of the Deliveroo credits

When American Express added the £120 of annual Deliveroo credits as a card benefit in 2021, it hugely changed the economics of the card for many people.

Not everyone lives in a Deliveroo area, or uses it if they do. If it is available where you live and you use it, the £120 of annual credit basically covers the annual fee in one go. Remember that Deliveroo isn’t just food delivery these days – you can also order groceries via the app. You don’t even need to do delivery – many outlets now allow ‘pick up’ orders which save the delivery fee.

Reason 4:  you don’t need to empty your Membership Rewards points account

You keep your Membership Rewards points alive.  If you cancel your Amex Gold, you will need to transfer your Membership Rewards points out.  This gets rid of the main benefit of Membership Rewards points – flexibility.

Keeping your Gold card means you can keep your Membership Rewards points account open and so keep all of your options for the points open.  (One option to get around this is to open a FREE Amex Rewards Credit Card instead – I explain how to save your Membership Rewards points in this article.)

Reason 5:  you retain access to the Amex Gold hotel programme

You retain access to the other, often forgotten, Amex Gold benefits.  The most interesting is ‘The Hotel Collection’ programme – details here.

‘The Hotel Collection’ gives you an upgrade and up to $100 equivalent credit when booking a 2+ night stay at participating upscale hotels.  Chains taking part include Radisson Blu, Omni, Kimpton, Hilton, Sofitel and many more.  There is also a 10% Amex Gold Hertz discount, although I admit this can probably be matched by other deals you can access.

Reason 6:  if you have no other Amex, you retain access to Amex’s valuable cashback deals

If Preferred Rewards Gold is your only American Express card, you retain access to the wide range of Amex cashback deals which are permanently available.  Even if you do have other Amex cards, you can double up on deals which interest you if you have multiple cards available.

There are other smaller benefits too:

• You retain access to the refer-a-friend programme which earns you up to 90,000 Membership Rewards points each year for referring friends and family.  You will receive the referral bonus even if the person you refer does not qualify for a sign-up bonus.

• If you spend a lot on flights, the ‘double points on all airline spend’ benefit will add up.  You don’t need to book via Amex Travel to get this, it is automatic for spending on all airlines. Whilst I charge all of my British Airways flights to my British Airways Premium Plus American Express to earn 3 Avios per £1, all of our other family flights go on my wife’s Amex Gold.

• You receive double points on all foreign spend. This is not a great deal on personal spending due to the 3% fee on FX spend which is added by Amex. You can avoid this fee by getting a card which doesn’t charge FX fees. If your FX spend is repaid by your employer, however, this benefit is attractive.

There are other ways of accessing some of the benefits above, of course.  The Amex Rewards Credit Card ……

American Express Rewards

Bonus: 10,000 points

Read our full review

Sign-up bonus and earn rate:

• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and other airline and hotel schemes

Other information:

• Your best choice if you want a ‘free for life’ card which earns Membership Rewards points
• A good choice if you want to close a Gold or Platinum card but keep your points intact
• Annual fee: Free

Representative 31.0% APR variable

Apply here

See if you qualify for the 10,000 points sign-up bonus +

You will receive 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Rewards card if you spend £2,000 within 90 days of signing up.

Membership Rewards points are hugely flexible. You can transfer them into Avios, Virgin Flying Club or other airlines (at 1:1) or into various hotels schemes, into Club Eurostar or use them for shopping vouchers.

To qualify for the bonus, you must NOT, currently or in the previous 24 months, have held any other personal American Express card.

You are OK if you had a supplementary card on someone else’s American Express account.

You are OK if, currently or in the previous 24 months, you have held a Business American Express card.

For clarity, you can still apply for the American Express Rewards card even if you do not qualify for the bonus.  You may want to do this if you are thinking of swapping your Preferred Rewards Gold or Platinum card for a free alternative, and would prefer to keep your existing Membership Rewards points balance alive.

Learn more about the card benefits +

American Express Rewards is the only ‘free for life’ American Express card which lets you collect Membership Rewards points.

We do NOT recommend this card if you would also qualify for the sign-up bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  The Gold card is free for the first year, comes with four free airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit and has a higher sign-up bonus of 20,000 points.

The best reason to get American Express Rewards is if you are coming to the end of your free first year with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, or no longer want to pay the fee on The Platinum Card, but want to keep your Membership Rewards points intact.

You need a minimum personal income of £20,000 to apply for the card.

…….. will keep your Membership Rewards points alive. 

I accept that, if are not triggering a decent chunk of the 12,500 annual bonus Membership Rewards points, the maths on keeping Amex Gold isn’t great. Unless you can use the full £120 of Deliveroo credit each year, you’d be relying on getting £195 of value from ‘The Hotel Collection’ programme, the airport lounge passes and getting double points on your flight spending.

If you earning between 2,500 and 12,500 bonus Membership Rewards points from your spending, however, the fee begins to look like it is worth paying.

You can apply for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.