Improvements To The Gold Amex – Are They Any Good?

The Amex Gold is seen by many as the best/easiest way into the world of points collecting. (what are points?) It’s not hard to see why when the card is FREE for the first year and offers a 20,000 Membership Reward points bonus, two airport lounge passes & £120 Deliveroo credit. But after the first year is up the ongoing value is harder for people to see, particularly if they don’t hit the annual spend target bonus of 10,000 Membership Reward points at £15,000. It seems Amex is aware of this and has recently announced a refresh of their Gold Card… let’s take a look at the changes and whether they are any good or not!

The Gold Amex has a representative APR of 61.0% variable (increasing to 68.3% from 12 October) and a purchase rate of 25.3% variable with an assumed credit limit of £1,200

What changes are there to the Gold Amex?

There are four upcoming changes to the Gold Amex card…

1. The annual fee is increasing from £140 to £160 (that’s the bad news out the way!)
   
2. Cardholders will receive an extra two Priority Pass airport lounge passes, so now FOUR passes per year. If you can use the passes you can easily justify the £20 increase in the annual fee as access tends to be £20+ per person. The drawback, particularly since COVID & the closure of many lounges, is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get access with many lounges ‘full’ in UK Airports (or at least not willing to take a priority pass when they can have a customer who pays cash.)
   
   If you are flying from Gatwick, Heathrow Terminal 3 or Birmingham No1 Lounges offer a way around this by giving the chance to reserve a space a space in advance. It costs £6 and also gives you access to priority security if flying from Gatwick.
   
3. You will receive Avis Preferred Plus status. This isn’t worth much in our opinion (unless you rent cars a lot!) It offers complimentary upgrades and a dedicated customer service/reservations phone number.
   
4. The annual bonus is changing. Currently, cardholders receive a 10,000 Membership reward points bonus when they spend £15,000 in a card membership year. (you don’t receive the bonus until 30 days after your renewal date.) The latest updates change this to a tiered system where different amounts of spend trigger different bonus points (and the bonuses are posted as soon as you hit each tier threshold.) The new tiers are…
   
   £5,000 annual spend
   2,500 points
   
   £10,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (5,000 points cumulative)
   
   £15,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (7,500 points cumulative)
   
   £20,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (10,000 points cumulative)
   
   £25,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (£12,500 points cumulative)
   
   This is a GOOD change in our opinion as you no longer need to wait until after renewal to get your bonus points. If you spend over £15,000 but under £20,000 you will be slighly worse off only recieving 7,500 bonus points rather than 10,000 previously. In this circumstance you’d be best putting more spend on to hit the higher targets or to switch some spending away.

When do the changes to the Gold Amex come into effect?

The changes come into effect from the 12th of October.

How will existing cardholders be affected?

If you are an existing Amex Gold Amex holder and your card renews on or after the 12th of October you will be charged the new annual fee of £160. Around this date, existing cardholders will also receive a bonus based on their spend to date in the current membership year (based on the earlier bonus tiers.)

Are the changes any good?

I think for the most part cardholders & potential cardholders will do a lot better with these latest changes. The first year is still FREE so new cardholders get all the extra benefits for no extra cost so it’s a win-win. for newbies.

Regardless if you are a new/existing/renewing customer the extra spending milestones (once you hit each one) in effect turn the earning rate of the card to 1.5 membership reward points on spend up to £25,000. This is equal to the 1.5 Avios that the BA Premium Plus Earns with a lower annual fee and more flexibility (but no 2-4-1 voucher at 10k spend!) The fact that these bonuses are paid once you hit each target rather than waiting until renewal is another big win for both current cardholders & potential cardholders.

The two extra Airport passes are the icing on the cake and would allow a family of four to visit a lounge or a couple two visits (if you can get in!)

Conclusion

What do you think of the latest updates to the Gold Amex? Are the benefits enough to keep you a cardholder past year one?

To get a referral (you will receive extra bonus points for meeting your spend target) go here – https://pointsuncovered.com/amex-referral-link-uk/

If you don’t want to be referred or just want to read more about the Gold card go here – https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/gold-credit-card/ – remember until the 19th July the sign-up bonus has been boosted to 30,000 membership reward points.