Frequent Miler on the Air - Rumored Amex Gold Card Changes: Good or Bad? | Coffee Break Ep19 | 7-23-24

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

The Amex Gold Card is about to change. In this episode we'll review the current details for this card, the changes we predict to see, and whether those changes are good or bad. (01:05) - Current card details Learn more about the Amex Gold Card here (02:13) - What's (allegedly) changing? (04:50) - What might be good about these changes? (07:51) - Is it still worth recommending? (15:20) - Which card do we recommend instead for good rewards on grocery and dining? Read more about the Capital One Savor One card here and the Citi Strata Premier here (18:09) - But don't necessarily go out and cancel the card after you hear this... Visit frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Here we go. This is not your typical Frequent Miler on the Air episode. This is a standalone segment we're calling Coffee Break. Each Coffee Break segment will cover a single topic related to miles and points. And each Coffee Break is limited to 20 minutes or your money back. Enjoy. Today's coffee break, rumored Amex gold card changes, good or bad. And don't forget wherever you're watching or listening to this before we get into it, please give us a like, give us a thumbs up or subscribe and enable

notifications wherever you're listening to the show. Don't forget to go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to join our email list. All right. So the Amex Gold Card is about to change. So we need to go over what the current details are and what might be changing, what we think might be changing. So Greg, can you run down what are the current details of the Amex Gold Card as we record this on late July of 2024? Yeah. So currently the Amex gold card has an annual fee of $250 and earns four membership rewards points per dollar at US supermarkets on up to $25,000 spend and earns four points per dollar also, but at restaurants worldwide, not limited to the US. Also earns 3x on flights

purchased directly with airlines or through Amex Travel. So it is pretty good category bonuses. And then it has some credits where you could get some of that $250 you spent back. So you get $10 per month in Uber or Uber Eats credits and $10 per month, what they call a dining credit. And the current list of merchants where if you spend with your gold card, you'd get up to $10 back are GoldBelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, Shake Shack, Seamless, Brubhub, and Cheesecake Factory. So that's the current lineup, but there are very concrete rumors about how it's changing. You want to go into that, Nick? Yeah.

So Dr. Accredit published some screenshots that had gotten published on the internet probably too soon. So these are rumors, and we don't yet know that they're true. There's still time for them to change, but they look like pretty decently reliable rumors. So I'm going to think that these are likely, they're more likely than not likely anyway. So what's changing? The annual fee is expected to increase

from the $250 to now $325. So that's an increase of $75 in the annual fee. So you might say, oh, man, another $75. So what does that get me? Well, the first thing it gets you might not be positive. The Forex on restaurants is going to be limited to just $50,000 per year in purchases. Now, that might not be a big limitation for most people. I imagine most people probably aren't spending more than $50,000 a year at restaurants.

But for the few people who are, that's obviously a potential negative change. And we'll talk more about whether these are good or bad in a few minutes. The Uber credit is going to be unchanged. The $10 a month dining credit that Greg just described is going to have some changes to the merchants. So gone from the list of merchants are going to be Milk Bar and Shake Shack replaced by Five Guys. So if you're into Five Guys, that'll be a net positive. If you were into Milk Bar and Shake Shack, that will be a net negative, I'm sure. They're also adding some new credits, a $7 monthly Dunkin' Donuts credit, or I think it's just called Dunkin' these days, isn't it?

I always refer to it as Dunkin' Donuts, but then I think they rebranded it as Dunkin'. So the $7 monthly Dunkin' credit, yes, that's up to $84 a year in Dunkin' purchases, and a $50 semi-annual Rezzy credit. So you can get up to $100 a year dining at Rezzy restaurants. And Greg will go probably more into how that works in a few minutes. So, all right, I have one question for you out of everything that I mentioned so far. Before we debate good or bad,

this is something that I didn't think about when I initially saw the rum rumor changes. Is the grocery category expected to stay? Are we expected to keep U.S. supermarkets? Oh, great point. Yeah, I believe so. Since it's not listed, that would be a huge loss, obviously, if it went away. So let's make the assumption that it's staying as is. Very good. Okay. So assuming that stays as is, what you're picking up in this is, well, sort of picking up, you're getting a different merchant for the $10 monthly dining credit, and you're getting new credits at Dunkin'. $7 a month at Dunkin', and new credits at Rezzy, $50 every six months. So twice a year, once between January and June, presumably, and once between July and December, you get $50. So is that worth another 75 bucks, Greg?

Yeah. Let's talk about, first of all, some of the good points on this before we talk about the bad. The good point, if you are a Dunkin' Donuts, if you often go to Dunkin', I didn't know I'd rebranded it to just Dunkin'. America runs on Dunkin'. I learned a little bit today. Then obviously that's a win. I mean, it's not a huge win, but I believe you could load up your Dunkin' credit in their app. So if you remember to do that for $7 each month, then it's a pretty easy $84 a year win so there you go that's that's more than the $75 difference right there and $84 a year win if if you feel like free Duncan is a win

which right right so very last time I've purchased anything from Duncan was probably not this century personally um and so you know for me that that that credit is meaningless. Then as far as like the specific dining credits that come and go, that's so dependent on your purchasing behavior as well, right? So some people are going to love adding five guys. Others are going to say, well, I don't have five guys anywhere near me. Apparently, they're not common on the West coast. So, you know, uh, that could be a big negative for, for people. Um, so, you know, for me, I, I've been mostly using it for a gold belly, which I believe is going to stay around and, or for grub hub, which is going to stay around. So for me, that doesn't change. Um, but oh, back to the positives. For Steven Pepper, he gets another win on the 2024 predictions. He said that these little dining credits were going to change. And we kind of made fun of that when we talked about the predictions in our past show. That's kind of funny.

So good job, Steven. Hats off. Yeah. I think the big win for a lot of people, not big win, the nice addition for a lot of people is the Resi credits because you may not have ever used the Resi app at all to reserve a restaurant, but the way Resi credits work, at least with the Delta credit cards, is you just have to spend with your card reserve a restaurant, but the way Resi credits work, at least with the Delta credit cards, is you just have to spend with your card at a restaurant that's on Resi. You don't have to make a reservation through Resi. You don't have to even touch Resi other than to use it to find out if the restaurant you're going to is on there. And so it's pretty easy if it works that way. And so twice a year, you could get $50 back. So I like that.

So overall, I think that for people who play the game and don't mind dealing with all these piddly credits here and there, it's probably a slight, not big win but a slight win for most uh gold card users however however i had been recommending this amex gold card to a lot of people who are brand new to points and miles because it it seemed like an easy win to get a lot of points for grocery spend and dining spend all in one card with the 32525 annual fee. I just don't see myself doing that anymore. No, I don't either. That was, I think, the thing that stood out to me. It was like, I just thought of tons of people I know who, if they asked me about getting a card, this is a card that would have been at the forefront of my recommendations. And I'm just

not going to recommend a $325 card to somebody who's new to this stuff. That would be a turnoff immediately to me at the beginning of my credit card trade. I've been like, $325 for the credit card? No thanks. I'll just stick with my no rewards, whatever. So yeah, I think that's a mistake because this seems like such a workhorse, such an every person sort of a card. And I say that in the sense that I feel like lots of people could earn a meaningful ish number of points with this card or find it useful. But 250 was already, I think, pushing it. It was, you know, not so much that nobody can afford it, but enough that

it did seem like a barrier probably for some folks. But OK, the two easy enough to use credits in most cities kind of balance that out. Now you're adding too many extra hoops for somebody who's new. So this is only, I think, going to appeal to, like you said, the maximizers among us, which OK, but I mean, why? Why Amex? Why do you want to limit the card that way? I don't understand that.

So I think that for me, these changes are actually pretty good because I wasn't going through the effort to use the $10 a month dining credit at like Goldbelly, like Greg and lots of other readers do. I have a hard enough time remembering to use lots of the other little things I do every month. And that's one that like for 10 bucks at a time, I just wasn't worth the mental bandwidth to remember to use it. So I wasn't using it at all. And now with five guys on there, I'm probably going to use it almost every month because that's a place that we end up going a lot. I don't really like fast food in general. It's one of the few fast food restaurants that I do like well enough. And we're also my kids like the food. So that just happens to be a place we go a lot when we stop for a quick bite. So enough that I'll use it almost

monthly, I'm sure. And so that that's actually that increases the value of something that really has very little to do with things for most people. And like that's actually, that increases the value of something that really has very little to do with things for most people. And like you said, if you live in the Pacific Northwest or something, that's not helpful at all for you. Although I question whether Shake Shack was useful for you either at that point. I'm not sure. I don't know how broadly represented those are on the West Coast. The Dunkin' credit, I don't like, I hate Dunkin' Donuts coffee. I don't like it at all. But there are plenty of times when I'm on the road and that's just what there is when I need a cup of coffee. So I end up getting a Dunkin' Cup a number of times a year anyway.

I'll just commit myself to suffering through a cup of Dunkin' Coffee once a month. It's not something I like. If you like it, great. My dad puts like 16 sugars in a large Dunkin' Coffee and loves it and whatever. If that's your jam, then go right ahead and enjoy it. But it's not something I like, but it's something I will use. And like Greg said, I'm sure you'll be able to use it in the app. And so that'll make it really easy. So that'll just be like a reserve for coffee someday. Rezzy, I thought I would not use at all. I was pretty convinced because of the times I'd looked at Rezzy before, the options had been so limited. And I thought I would not use at all. I was pretty convinced because the times I'd looked

at Resi before the options had been so limited. And I thought, what are the chances I'm going to be traveling to New York and the place that we decide to eat happens to be on Resi or something. So I figured that that wasn't going to be useful to me at all. But then I got poking around and I found Resi has quite a few different restaurants and places where I didn't expect, like Albany, New York, for instance, small, small town. You don't normally, not small town, but small enough city that you don't ordinarily get very many options for these types of things. And I was surprised there were four or five or six places on there, a couple of which I know are pretty good. So I was like, you know, actually, maybe I would use that once every six months if I, you know, now that I'll have the incentive to do it, so to speak. The other thing, and I have a question for you about this, Greg, is I got looking around and

I saw Resi has restaurants overseas. A bunch of places I'm traveling have restaurants on Resi in the UK and different places in Europe. Do those work for the Delta credits, Greg? You know what? Does it have to be US dollar? No, I think they work, but I haven't tried it and I haven't read the fine print on that. So I don't know. That's a great question. So, you know, I'm conflicted personally about this because the, yeah, I could pretty easily use those resi credits at home. I don't have to wait till I'm international to try it out. But I don't want, I don't want another card. You were talking about having to remember to use these credits every month. So even though this every six months isn't that bad, it's just another thing to add to my perpetual to-do list

with all these cards that have all these credits on them and so um yeah so even though it's like slightly financial beneficial for me these changes i i still think it would make me it'll make me more likely to cancel the card when the next annual fee comes due so i'm still i i've i was already very much on the fence with this card because I have other ways of earning good dining and grocery points. But this pushes me more away from the card. I definitely don't like the increase in annual fee. That's a headache. And like you said, the further couponification here of the Amex cards where you've got a million things to think about, that really is annoying.

So I can't disagree with you there. And here I was saying I wasn't going to take the time every month for the $10 Gold Belly credit, but I would for the $7 Dunkin' credit. I mean, the difference to me is that I've ordered from Gold Belly twice in my life. I'm sure I could find something, but it's not something I'm going to stumble on. Whereas Dunkin', I'm going to pass by a Dunkin Duncan and want a cup of coffee a few times a year. So that's easier to me or to justify the mental bandwidth for, I guess. But yeah, it's definitely more effort and I don't like that. I think Amex is getting out of hand with the annual fees in general. I think that that's kind of out of touch with the economics of things right now.

I just, I feel like the types of increases are doing the annual fees. I guess, although I have to think that they've been doing this with all their cards, that it's been, I have to think that it's been working. It's been working. It's true. Yeah. I think the average, well, maybe you're not an average person, but I think people see like, you know, headlines saying you're going to get up to, I'm going to make up a number, $500 back each year with all these wonderful credits. And it costs $325. And so they'll say, oh, well, that's okay because I'm going to get back more than I am spending.

Whereas the reality is you're probably not going to get back more because you're probably not going to some people will but not everybody's going to you know uh spend get the ten dollar monthly credits get all these uh dunkin credits get all the resi credits you know um and and that's even more so when i'm recommending a card to someone new to this game like i find like uh in the past when there was just like one thing like hey don't forget to use this feature of the card most of my friends who aren't really into the game never did use that feature of the card let alone saying oh don't forget to do these eight things every month or every six months whatever so i'm glad you said that because that begs the question that i was waiting to ask you and that is okay so

whereas this was a card that you used to recommend to people, what would you recommend in its place now? If this is going to be a hard one to recommend because of the coupons and the price, what would you recommend to people who are looking for good rewards on grocery and dining? Yeah, I mean, short answer I think is for most would probably be the Capital One Saver one. And another that I would consider depending on situation is the City Strata Premier. So both cards, by the way, get 3X for both dining and grocery, as well as some other categories. So those are both, I think, really good options. It depends on the person, which is better. But I think we should do a whole coffee break on that question.

So watch for that. That's a good one. That's a good one. Yeah, I mean, the Strata Premier adds gas too, I guess, in the 3X. And of course, there's an annual fee, whereas the Sabre 1 doesn't. But so yeah, that is a good debate for a future episode.

But I will agree with Greg's take on that. Although there will be folks that love to play the game that will say, I'll get a few custom cash cards so you can earn 5x up to $500 on each one of them. And you're marked those for grocery. That's all a little complicated because you have to kind of know what you're doing. So that wouldn't be, I don't think, a beginner strategy really either. But at any rate, so I think both of us think these are probably net negative changes for the average person. I think they are going to these are probably net negative changes for the average person. I think they are going to work out to probably have me keep the card, but I think I'm probably in the minority in that department.

I think for most people, this is no longer a great card to consider unless you're committed to maximizing the benefits. Yeah. And again, remember, we were just debating the rumor changes. So we can hope that this isn't real and it'll be better than we're expecting. got the card currently, don't panic. We often see people say, oh, I'm going to cancel it now. Right away, I'm going to call Amex and cancel. Don't do that because if these changes happen, which we think they probably will sometime soon, we don't know what that means. But if they happen, usually what Amex does is they announce a date and say, okay, here's the day. And if you've your next renewal after that day, you'll pay the increased annual fee. But usually what they do is say, but you get the benefits right away. So I expect they're going to pick a day that's sometime in the future from when we've

recorded this and say, hey, starting from that day, your next renewal, you're going to pay the 325, but you're going to get the resi credit right away and the Duncan credit right away. So you may as well maximize those credits up until your next annual fee gets charged. So even if this change does happen and you are a current cardholder, don't rush out and cancel yet because you can probably take advantage of the benefits before it changes. That was such a great caution and so smart to mention because I should have mentioned that when I was talking about canceling myself. There's a good chance my next renewal will be at the current $250 renewal fee and I'll have these new credits. And so I would keep it, you know, so I might end up keeping the card another

14 months or 15 months, however long it is, because it's under the $250 rate and getting the new credit. So that would be a nice bonus there. Also with Amex cards in general, don't cancel them mid-year if they have an annual fee because you're not going to get any of the annual fee returned to you. So wait until the next annual fee comes due before you cancel in general. Or downgrade because they will prorate your fee if you downgrade. So you could downgrade to the green card and they'll prorate and give you some refund back for the annual fee, though it's not going to be a ton because the annual fee on the green card is $150. So you're not going to get a lot back. But anyway, so, yeah, consider your options carefully.

That brings us to the end of today's episode. If you've enjoyed this, go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to join our email list. And don't forget to check out our full length Frequent Miler on the air episodes dropping every Friday.

Thank you. Bye, everybody.