American Express Membership Rewards - with all of your help i upgraded from amex student to gold rewards plus in 2 months..

THANK YOU GUYS!!!! i just paid my bill on time for 3 months having this card. my monthly ballances were not high at all, 250, 400 and 600,and they still honored my request with no questions. when i called customer service they even offerd to upgrade to plat..? i thought you had to be with amex for at least a year and have a 100,000 income for that card??? its kind of sad cause any one can the plat card if amex dismisses these guidelines so easly. any way i will prob have my gold card for another month and upgrade to plat next billing cycle if its this easy to get.. maby i just got lucky and had a customer service rep. that did not care about the requierments of the card??? anyway just wanted to let you all know how simple the upgade process was even for a 19 year old with 3 months of amex history.... best regards KEVIN

[Amex dilution rant]

$100k income for Gold :D Amex barely need to register a pulse for that! Even Plat Chargecard is pretty straightforward to get! I got my first pre-approval after spending $7k in 3 weeks on one of the BA credit cards, this was as a Uni student with a $30k income on file!

Don't get into any mindsets about Amex cards being exclusive at whichever level. As RichardMannion reminds us he got Centurion at 20yrs old.

[/Amex dilution rant]

Might want to keep in mind that the Plat card's annual fee is $395 for those in the US. Unless you travel a bit, it really isn't worth to go from Gold to Plat, unless you really, really want the flash value.

And, I am not sure if it had the flash value it once had.

yeah its sad how easy it is to upgrage so fast... these cards have been market as top of the line, elite exclusive cards but the truth is there really not... i was refering in my first post to the 100,000 income to qualify for the plat. charge not the gold, but regardless amex dosn't seem to care. i was gonna just spend the 400 for the card for the shock value of it but working in retail i see the card frequently and there seems to be little shock vale now a days. it seems the only card the lives uo to what amext markets as elite is the centurion.. the rep said there are lots of way besides the 250,000 spending min. and the anual income to get the card so i might try to work on that..... i'm guessing me ment customer service issue or something of that nature for the card to be offerd...any tips! thanks KEVIN

i did get my platinum offer 2 months after beiing gold and spend about 5k each month to me its worth because no limited on miles to earn anually i been with amex for 7 months and i already got 260k miles with regular and bonus not bad at all i already 3 first class skysaver for next year on july to hawaii for 30 dlls service charge

my monthly ballances were not high at all, 250, 400 and 600,and they still honored my request with no questions.
If you are only spending that much per month there isn't too much of a point to having a charge card and the small # of rewards pts you earn won't end up paying your annual fee. You should average $1,250 a month to cover the $150 fee.

i was gonna just spend the 400 for the card for the shock value of it but working in retail i see the card frequently and there seems to be little shock vale now a days.
Same with above. If you want it for shock value, fine, but you should at least try and make it pay for itself. You may not be maximizing your MR earning opportunities if you are spending so little. Use your AMEX to pay for everything (all transactions, no need to use cash) and only use your backup MC/VI if AMEX isn't accepted. Pay all of your bills with it instead of by check. This also will maximize the time value of your money, assuming you have some type of interest earning bank acct.

If you don't spend a lot or travel often and don't end up getting the platinum, I would downgrade your Rewards Plus Gold to a Rewards Gold since you won't be earning a lot of pts anyway and you can achieve the same shock value, if any at all, for a far cheaper annual fee.

yeah i deff dont travel much i just wanted the card for status... the reason why i like gold plus is the fact you can get 5 free cards, i will be giving them to my parrents and sister so that pays for its self... that is the one huge draw to the gold plus. thank for all your tips i will let you know what ends up happning.... KEVIN

Wow,

Plat in two month. I remember back in 1998 or 1999, Amex would only give Plat to only their top tier spender only.

the reason why i like gold plus is the fact you can get 5 free cards, i will be giving them to my parrents and sister so that pays for its self... that is the one huge draw to the gold plus.
In that case I urge you to keep the Rewards Plus Gold, I did the same thing. Just make sure that you understand that YOU are responsible for the other cardholders' spending. So, if each parent spends $10K in a month and doesn't pay you, YOU are on the hook for the $$$. You get 1 statement with all of the cards on it, not individual ones sent to the cardholders.