American Express Gold cards - where next?

Hi All

Like a lot of V-FLYERS I was tempted to take out a Gold AMEX card (although I'd already got a cent card) because firstly I could get most of the membership cost back from a 'buy through' scheme, and I've had double points for the year on petrol & groceries

Like many other V-Flyers my year is about to expire. There's no point in keeping the card, as I'll only get the miles I would get through the cent card, and It's another £95

Who's worked out what we should all do next? -

Peter

[Nottingham Nick]

I have - I ditched the card at the end of the double miles promo.

I have kept my plat card on, and all the gold miles have been retained, as the two cards were linked to the same MR account.

Nick

Well the SPG Amex looks tempting to me currently.

£45 cash back, through cash back website
First year free
15,000 SPG points for £1000 spend in first 3 months (I believe these can be turned into FC miles)

It's tempting me, but indent want to have too many cards at once, might cancel my VS Amex.


Edit: It appears that I can't find the £45 cash back on any "public" cash back sites, I saw it through my work benefit/reward website, and they are normally the same as normal sites. Not bad for free though.

Looks like the SPG Card is a win-win
- £0 fee
- 15,000 miles

From Amex SPG Card page

https://www212.americanexpress.com/dsmlive/dsm/int/gb/en/personal/ourcards/allcards/starwoodpreferredguestcreditcard/allthekeydetails_cm.do?vgnextoid=61240f03fcad6210VgnVCM200000d0faad94RCRD

1. The annual fee is £75. If approved for the Card, in the first year you will be charged £0. In the following year and onwards, you will be charged the normal fee of £75. You will receive 15,000 bonus Starpoints® when you spend £1,000 within the first three months of Cardmembership. Please note that it can take up to two months for bonus Starpoints to be awarded to your account.

Or have I missed something? Seems a bit too good to be true

I ditched my gold card as not worth it for my circumstances and have gone back to usiing my MBNA white amex

Remember to transfer your miles out of Amex before you close the account though or you will loose them.

15,000 SPG points for £1000 spend in first 3 months (I believe these can be turned into FC miles)

Yes they can and the xfer was very quick (my points were earned from actual stays and bonus re the sales). I recall a kk bonus if I transferred 20k points from SPG to VS and the transfer was very quick too (days and not the weeks listed in the T&C)

[Scrooge]

That is why the SPG Amex is voted the best charge card year after year.

Looks great. I have just opened the gold card for the bonus points to transfer- can I open this at the same time? Ie are the membership rewards program and star points program different? I know if you open a gold and platinum card for example you don't get two sets of bonuses.

JB

I've recently taken out the SPG Amex and phoned up to cancel the Gold charge card. After quite a long call with "customer satisfaction", I still have the gold card too! It seemed churlish to decline when they finally offered me a continuation of the double points for a year, £50 off the annual fee AND a £100 Tesco voucher.

Win!

Regards
R3dV

After quite a long call with "customer satisfaction", I still have the gold card too! It seemed churlish to decline when they finally offered me a continuation of the double points for a year, £50 off the annual fee AND a £100 Tesco voucher.

Win!

Regards
R3dV

They weren't interested in giving me any incentive to stay whatsoever (and I did ask) before closing the account.Oh well, no doubt I'll be re- applying for it when they do the next 20,000 MR points promotion in a couple of years (like I did this time ).
DL

I think I will be cancelling my Platinum card when it comes to the end of the year in July, unless the offer my freebies like R3dV.

They weren't interested in giving me any incentive to stay whatsoever (and I did ask) before closing the account.Oh well, no doubt I'll be re- applying for it when they do the next 20,000 MR points promotion in a couple of years (like I did this time ).
DL

ditto for me too and I had to phone to ask where my last bill was as they closed down my on-line account too early so I couldn't pay online - I also lost about 1k miles because of this too. Obviously I wasn't in their top league of customers but even so there was no effort to retain my business.

And what is more galling is that since I closed the account I have had 4 mailings from them including some 'offeres' to use in conjunction with the card and identity protection for (yes wait for it) my now defunct card !

I have recently too already taken out the spg card with no fee and 15k points, I did have one question though and thats that you dont seem to get bonus points for actually booking spg hotels on the card is that right?
I think i will have to cancel a card just not sure which one, I guess it will be my ba premium plus although I think this is free if you have a plat card?

cheers

alex

I think i will have to cancel a card just not sure which one, I guess it will be my ba premium plus although I think this is free if you have a plat card?
alex

Not for everybody. There are some legacy holders who get the BA card either free or for a reduced fee of around £30. But that perk disappeared quite some time ago for new plat cardholders.

Regards
R3dV

Thanks RV
That pretty much spells the end for my ba plus card.
When they have another offer like the 18k miles for opening the account then its gotta be worth the £150 for it.

cheers

alex

My bribe, sorry, vouchers turned up this morning. Not Tesco but still, I don't think I'll have a problem spending £100 in M&S

Regards
R3dV