[UK] My first Gold card year is almost over. Options? [Consolidated]
 

Hi

I think this was mentioned before, but I cannot find the thread.

If I cancel my AMEX Gold (UK) before the 12 months are up , does this mean I will not to have to pay the £150 annual card fee?

Or, will I have to pay for the months I have used the card. If the latter, then I may as well keep the card, because I've had it for over 11 months...

Thank you

First year is free so as long as you cancel before the end of 12 months then you pat nothing.

Great, thank you. I will cancel, wait 6 months (I believe that's the minimum), and then re-apply to get a new sing-up bonus. I will use my free BA AMEX in-between, seems to make more financial sense to me. Particularly since double points end after 12 months for supermarket shopping, etc.

Note that you will need to transfer all your MR points or lose them.

Yes, I've already transferred, there are few odd ones left.

For the odd ones you can transfer to nectar....minimum transfer of 1 MR point.

Really? Thanks, I did not know about this.

Even if you did get charged, the refund is pro-rata when you cancel so you'd get £135 back if you cancelled one month in.

If you'd spent £15,000 then the smart thing to do is to pay the fee, wait for the 7500 bonus points for £15k spend to hit and then cancel for a £135 refund.

Thanks Raffles. All useful information!

Thanks Raffles. All useful information!I am £3k short, not sure if I can spend that much during the next 3 weeks... Although I'd love to go to Hawaii in December, the question is, can I afford to book it now? :confused: Well, at least I have 3 weeks to think about it

Well if you aren't sure, perhaps you might consider booking a fully refundable flight. Make sure that it doesn't put you over the £15k threshold. Then do other spending so that it DOES put you over the threshold.

Should you then decide to cancel the flights, as that purchase wasn't the one that triggered the bonus, the bonus won't be taken away. (Automatic threshold bonuses are tied to the transaction that caused the threshold to be reached).

Transfer the MRs to wherever you want them, cancel the flight booking if you decide not to use them, and then cancel the Amex card.

You could consider bringing forwrad some expenditure for example by buying gift vouchers for your usual supermarket.

AMEX Gold Card UK (next steps?)
 

I currently have an AMEX Preferred Rewards Gold card which I signed up for last year. It was my first year as member so the annual fee was waived.

I also took out a BA PP card last year which I have just cancelled as I am now not travelling as much on BA (will re-apply in 6 months if I start travelling again). Had a nice trip in F to HKG thanks to the 2-4-1 :)

In addition to the Gold Card I have a linked Gold Credit Card and also have my firms AMEX Corporate card linked to the my MR account.

So my options as I see it are:

1. Cancel both Gold Charge Card and Credit Card ensuring that the corporate card stays linked to my MR account and I don't lose the points.
2. Keep the Gold Card and pay the £150 and aim for the £15k spend and 7.5k bonus next year
3. Upgrade to a platinum account using this link (http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/up...b8fd7944f1c728) and cancel after 2/3 months / downgrade back to a Gold Card.

I guess that option 1 will give me the most flexibility, especially as I could sign up for a Platinum Card in 6 months and get the sign up bonus. But option 3 seems quite attractive because it also includes a signup bonus and is only a few clicks away.

Any advice would be appreciated, especially if there is something obvious I am missing here are if any of my ideas above a bonkers. :)

Looking at the options you listed
2) costs you £125 for 7,500 points ( assuming you do the 15k spend) plus ongoing double points for foreign spend. That target can be useful to aim for if you are close and are coming towards the end of the card year, but I don't personally think its a good incentive starting at zero and a new year.

3) costs you £450 for 15k points, plus the known benefits of the plat card.

Leaving it for 6 months and that £450 will get you 35k points (if referred) on a new plat application.

You might want to look further afield for other cards that might be useful to you.

For example, If you have any AA Miles, the mbna AA card is free, has a signup bonus of 15k AA miles, and ongoing 1.5 miles per £ spent on the Amex card.

These are not mutually exclusive. You could do 3) and then downgrade in a couple of months (banking the partial fee refund) and then carry on with 2).

However, paying a fee just to earn 1 per £1 on Gold on most spend is not hugely attractive if you are 99% certain to convert to Avios. Even the Lloyds Avios cards are better than that.

If you value the MR flexibility to convert to various options then it is a different story.