Comments on: American Express Gold Card: 25,000 Point / $250 Sign-Up Bonus

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:51:24 +0000

Did anyone get their points yet? I’m still waiting

By: DataIsGold

DataIsGold — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:48:18 +0000

I received an offer in the mail for the regular Gold Card. I applied for this one instead and was approved.
Time to go to CostCo. $1000 in three months won’t be a problem.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:09:44 +0000

Jonathan (and others) if you cancel after a year will it be difficult to get another AmEx card in the two or three years after? Do credit card companies flag you if you take advantage of these offers and then ditch ‘em when its time to pay up?

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:59:02 +0000

@Tizzle – Well, a couple of things. They specifically state Charge cardmembers, and not all consumer cards. Charge cards are specific subsection of their card offerings. Click on “Compare cards by benefits” and Charge cards are in their own separate category.

http://www201.americanexpress......arge-cards

How do you know the 25k offer was not included? It’s just not mentioned on the final application. I pick these bonuses up regularly. They also say “existing”, so I make sure to cancel my previous Charge card. With how many lawyers they have on staff, I don’t think they choose these words without a lot of forethought.

By: Tizzle

Tizzle — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:10:34 +0000

@Jonathan- I doubt that Amex will adhere to your logic (I wish they did though!). Have you contacted Amex to confirm this?

I just applied online for this gold card and once they knew I had a Blue Card, the 25k point offer was not included.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:22:06 +0000

@John – Good catch on the frequent flier conversion fees, I had forgot about that. Also, I want to point out @Chip that it is only for *charge* card holders, which are the Golds, Green, Platinums that make you pay off in full each month and always charge an annual fee (sometimes waived for 1st year). If you have an AmEx blue or Costco or Starwood or similar, you are still okay.

“Offer not available to existing consumer American Express Charge Cardmembers.”

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:04:50 +0000

PS. Do note though that the bonus is not available for existing AmEx personal card holders.

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:59:53 +0000

@Jonathan – thank you for the tip. I also was seeing only the $10K offer, and clearing my cache did not help. But running in private browsing mode fixed it. Thanks!

By: nyarrow

nyarrow — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:43:10 +0000

I can only see the 10,000 points offer regardless of what I do – looks dead.

By: John

John — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:56:02 +0000

A couple fine-print items to note:
- “Offer not available to existing consumer American Express Charge Cardmembers”. That rules me out.
- “For each conversion of points into the Frequent Flyer Program of a U.S. airline, a fee of $0.0006 per point, with a maximum fee of $99,will be charged to your Card account”. That’s $42 on 70,000 points — not bad but worth noting.
- Regarding the 15,000 point bonus of spending $30,000, it is purchase “from January 1 to December 31st”. Note it is calendar year. To get it this year, you have to average $3750 per month.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:16:57 +0000

@Daniel – If you see the 10k offer, either clear your web browser cookies or use the “Private Browsing”/”Incognito” mode of your browser and you’ll see the 25,000 point offer. This usually means you’ve clicked on the old offer previously.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:16:20 +0000

I did this deal and used my $250 Home Depot gift card to fund a good portion of my new Dyson vacuum cleaner. Sweet!

Canceling this card (to avoid the annual fee) was difficult though. They “accidentally” hung up on me once, and then kept passing me from department to department to try and retain my business. All in all it took about 15 minutes, but well worth the aggrevation for the Dyson!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:59:33 +0000

When I click through to the offer, it only shows 10,000 point bonus.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:42:30 +0000

@Eric

What are your monthly expenses? My are $500 (rent) + $500 (life)?

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:00:38 +0000

If only I could charge $30,000 a year…

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:08:37 +0000

I did this deal and I was constantly calling Amer Ex. to get my points. After being blown off in the first 2 calls (spread out over weeks) they finally told me that some sort of error occured, they looked into it, and then they credited me the points. I had similar problems with another card through them. So just jot down all the dates and keep screen shots since I wouldn’t necessarily trust them on this.