American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card: 25,000 Points Sign-Up Bonus + Double Points on Gas & Groceries

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American Express is promoting a new charge card called the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express®, which is different from their other Gold/Gold Rewards/Platinum/Precious Metal cards.

Since this is the new card being pushed, it has the best sign-up incentives for new cardholders:

  • Earn 25,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $2,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership. MR points are very versatile, and can be converted to 25,000 frequent flier miles in a number of programs (or 10 Southwest credits), or you can simply get $250 in gift cards at several stores like Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, or Macy’s. I think you can also get cash equivalents at a reduced ratio.
  • Offers 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gasoline at U.S. stand-alone gas stations and at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets, and 1X points on other purchases. The traditional versions only offer 1 point per $ spent, so the double points on gas and groceries are an extra perk, although the annual fee is much higher at $175.
  • No annual fee for your first year. Another important feature, you can get the sign-up bonus and also try out this card for free for a year.
  • Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $30,000 within one calendar year. This means that if you spend $30,000 in a year ($2,500 per month) that you’ll get at least 15,000 for sign-up + 30,000 on spending + 25,000 bonus = 70,000 points total, plus any extra for gas/groceries/airfare. That’s enough for 60,000 frequent flier miles or 2.5 free flights on Southwest (40 credits). Terms and Restrictions Apply.
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Comments

  1. This card makes no sense to keep after the bonus unless you are planning to spend 30,000 per year, which for the average person is more than they even earn after taxes in a year. Even then I’d imagine there are better deals around.

    I did this offer. 2 things worth considering.
    A. American express isn’t accepted everywhere. I was planning for instance to pay my car insurance bill to satisfy a big chunk of this, but State Farm did not accept it.
    B. Your 3 month window begins before you physically get the card…at least according to the representative when I called. For me I had less than 2.5 months to spend the $1000.

  2. Watch out for the bait and switch on this one – when applying, it asks if you would like to provide your existing log in to fill out most of the info for you (if you have another amex card). If you do go that route, after providing your log in info, another application form is presented – for 10,000 points after your first purchase instead of 15,000 after $1,000 in purchases (everything else still the same)…

  3. I will stick with my Costco AMEX card with no Annual Fee.

  4. General ideas to nock out those spending limits as soon as possible:

    For the initial spending requirement, you can also prepay your cell phone, cable TV, and any other utilities like telephone that take credit cards. Any overpayment just gets applied to future bills. You can also buy grocery gift cards at a grocery you shop at (ex. Safeway cards at Safeway) and prepay that way.

  5. Watch out, you might get charged the first year fee if you already have a AMEX charge card. From the terms:

    Pay no annual fee for the first year – then $175(1)

    (1) Offer not available to existing consumer American Express Charge Cardmembers. Annual fee for the Premier Rewards Gold Card is $175.

  6. SavingEverything says

    Some management leasing companies allow their renters to pay the monthly rents using credit cards. This can help you reach the spend limit. Also, you may be able to put the daycare, the SAT course, tuition (for those schools that still accept without a fee), and even your property taxes and income taxes (though there is a fee– around 2.5%). These help to reach the spending limits to get the yearly bonus points.
    One thing that amex hasnt updated on their terms and conditions for the Membership Rewards program, is whether the rewards program is free or not. preferred rewards gold is on it; but not this premier rewards.

  7. What type of Credit Score are they looking for to qualify for the Gold Charge card?

  8. I’ll stick with the Amex Truearnings card via Costco. I don’t see why you should a $175 annual fee for a Amex charge card when you can get a Amex credit card for free.

  9. don’t see why you should a $175 annual fee for a Amex charge card when you can get a Amex credit card for free.

    Me neither. Well, expect I have washed, rinsed, and repeated these kinds of Membership Rewards deals many times over the years. AMEX really must make serious $ from these, because they continue to pay out good to both the new card member and they pay well in referral fees. On that note, Jonathan can’t say this, but I can, if you sign-up for this deal, please do it through his link so that you can give back a little to him and this site.

  10. Don’t forget the ultimate in membership rewards boosting: Buying $1 coins from the Franklin Mint. You can order $500 worth of coins at a time I think (with free shipping) and then just take them to the bank for deposit.

    Note: I don’t condone just taking them to the bank… The point of the “order coins” program is to get $1 coins back into regular circulation. Use them to pay for stuff that needs cash (tolls, tips, etc).

  11. We recently selected the Schwab 2% Visa for our new cashback card. It pays 2% on all purchases, no AF, no cap.

    By my calculations it will give us more cash back (on about 25k annual CC spending) than any of the cards with more creative structures (eg Discover More with it’s 5/0.25/1 structure.

    YMMV but do consider it. And if you really want an amex network card (for whatever reason) go for the Fidelity Amex, identical to the schwab visa. (Both are FIA/BofA cards)

  12. What rewards do you get with the Costco amex card?

  13. I saw the add in the WSJ for the new no-fee-for-first year gold card. While still an AMEX cardholder, I was prompted to use it when I signed up. Sure enough, as already mentioned, a fee for $175 showed up on my bill. After several phone calls, I believe I will have to cancel all AMEX cards and only then will AMEX waive the first year fee when signing up for the new gold card. This is such a bait and switch strategy, and only angers current card holders. We have owned an AMEX card since 1974 and found it valuable over the years when traveling (stolen purse, emergency travel, car damage).

  14. Well this is our first AMEX card and we wanted our rewards to be as flexible as possible (don’t have one good plan for using the rewards yet) so this card seems like a good deal. We plan on doing allot of spending with this card, so we will see how good the rewards are after a year of so.

  15. Actually if you are a charge cardmember then you’re right, you don’t get the free year. Your annual fee will be applied to the Premier fee. If you are a credit card member though you will get the free year.

    That isn’t bait and switch, that is trying to get new customers. Card members that already use membership rewards know the value of the program so don’t need the free year to try it out.

  16. Good point Ryan. Thanks for pointing out the distinction. AMEX, I still love you.

  17. I just signed up but the offer was for 50,000 points and first year free. I could not pass that up.

  18. Hey Brian, please share how it was that you got that offer. The link on this site results in 10,000 point offer. 50,000 points, no one should ignore that!

  19. Brian #2 says

    I’m not the same Brian that posted above, but I also received the same offer. I got it in the mail about two weeks ago and finally signed up today. It says very explicitly in very big letters on the page “50,000 points when you spend $500 by April 30, 2010.” There is a caveat of course, but it only says “You must charge $500 of eligible purchases between 2/1/10 and 4/30/10 to earn 50,000 bonus points […] points will be credited 6-8 weeks after.”

    I must be crazy, but doesn’t this mean that so long as I spent $500 in the next two months(which I obviously would have done regardless, with whatever credit card I have), that I get $500 free? If they try to rescind this offer, I’ll raise some hell!

  20. What is with all the hate with amex? I have been an amex member for 10 years. I started out with the basic green card, then went to gold, then the new premier rewards card. I love amex, they have the best rewards program in the business and their customer service is excellent. For the $175 fee you also get (not mentioned in the article) roadside assistance (worldwide), car rental protection (worldwide), baggage insurance and extended warranty on certain electronics. Also not mentioned is amex has a bonus points website where you can get 3x-10x bonus points by shopping online at popular retailers. You also earn 2x points on hotel stays, cruises and vacation packages through their travel website, which my wife and I use a lot. Oh, also not mentioned is on their membership rewards site you can link your other rewards programs, so transferring points over is as simple as the click of a mouse. But hey, there is nothing wrong with visa, mc or discover. It is just a personal preference, and I prefer steak over ground round. 🙂

  21. Wow.. I got a pleasant surprise from this offer. Instead of getting 15,000, I received 30,000 just for the signup bonus. I THINK they even gave me the 30,000 before I spent 1000.00. I just went to shop and redeem, and in the “specials” section of the MR website, they had bundles of 150.00 in gift cards for 11,500 instead of the full price of 15,000. Not much selection but it fit in with what I was looking for. I am getting TWO HUNDRED and SEVENTY dollars in gift cards for the 30,000 points:
    2X Bundle of 50.00 GAP, 50.00 Olive Garden, 50.00 Nike – 23,000 points
    50.00 Home depot – 5,000 points
    2X 10.00 GAP – 2,000 points

    SWEEEEEEEEET! I’m Rich Biotch! 🙂

  22. I meant Three Hundred and Seventy, not 270.

  23. Nate & Brian,

    How did you get the 50K offer? Do you have to get an offer in the mail to be eligible for it? Is there a promotion code you can share with the rest of us? Thanks

  24. They can’t provide any valid promotion codes now, since AMEX doesn’t seem to be offering many bonus programs/fee waivers any more. A few days ago, most of them disappeared. The same is true of Citibank. Perhaps this is in response to the new Federal credit card regulations(?)

  25. I signed up for this offer back in April, and I didn’t sign in using my existing AMEX account so they still gave me the full offer of 25k, but now, when I called them they said that my AMEX premier shares my membership reward # with my AMEX blue. Will I get the MR anyway? Why did they tie the 2 of them together? Customer Service said I’d need to confirm it with the MR department.

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