Amex Preffered Gold or British Airway Card?

zee212

Dear all, please advise me, i already have a mastercard with natwest, i have considered the world your points card but was not too sure. Im looking to apply for the amex gold or BA miles but im confused, could anyone please help, is the 125 annual fee worth it. id mainly be using the card as i travel aboad for hotels, car hire and some spend in the uk but only occasionnaly but i wanted somthig with rewards linked to the card,
Also with regards to being accepted for the cards which would be easier the gold charge card or the BA credot card or the natwest your points one?
Does amex generally issue charge cards to first time customers or would it help if you had another card with amex for some time before applying for the charge card?
Any other comments would help sorry for the long question.
Thanks

MoneyMagic01273

zee212 wrote: »

Dear all, please advise me, i already have a mastercard with natwest, i have considered the world your points card but was not too sure. Im looking to apply for the amex gold or BA miles but im confused, could anyone please help, is the 125 annual fee worth it. id mainly be using the card as i travel aboad for hotels, car hire and some spend in the uk but only occasionnaly but i wanted somthig with rewards linked to the card,
Also with regards to being accepted for the cards which would be easier the gold charge card or the BA credot card or the natwest your points one?
Does amex generally issue charge cards to first time customers or would it help if you had another card with amex for some time before applying for the charge card?
Any other comments would help sorry for the long question.
Thanks

Personally I think as both Cards have an annual fee you first need to decide which one is more suitable for you.

Ask yourself a few questions - a charge card and a credit card are very different for obvious reasons. I assume however that as you are even considering a charge card that you plan to pay off the balance in full every month...

Then lets look at the rewards. The Amex membership rewards program is a great program if you like the flexibility of earning points that can be coverted into a number of different frequent flier programs. If however you only ever plan to travel on BA or other one-world alliance carriers it may be that Avios points from the BA card are better for you. Membership Rewards are flexible and the Preferred Rewards Gold card does come with some decent double points bonuses for travel, petrol and supermaket spend (petrol/supermarket are in the first year only I believe) so if you do a lot of travel spending and spend in supermarkets and petrol then you will earn 2 MR points per £1 spend which can be transferred to airline programs like BA and Virgin on a 1:1 conversion rate (other programs' exchange rates vary).

The BA Avios Premium Plus card is £150pa and comes with a great companion ticket benefit when you spend £10k in a year (redeem avios for a ticket - even a first class ticket and get a second ticket in the same cabin free) which is valid for 2 years. Plus 1.5 Avios per £1 (3 Avios per £1 for BA spend). So again if your travel spend is mostly BA - the BA card is better for earning points. If your travel spending is on a variety of different carriers, maybe the Gold will earn you more points.

Right now the BA premium plus card comes with 18,000 bonus avios for £3k spend in the first 3 months (or 19,000 if an existing BA card holder refers you). The Gold Bonus is slightly better at 20,000 MR (or Avios if you want to look at it that way) for £1k spend in 3 months or 22,000 points/avios if someone refers you for the card - plus a reduced fee (£93 for the first year)

PM me if you would like a referal link for the Gold Card and we both get some extra bonus points :beer:
Its very difficult to say which card you are most likely to be successful getting. Without knowing what Amex's specific criteria is - or your personal circumstances - you may very well have no issues getting either of them. There is lots of advertising going on for the Gold Card at the moment as the benefits have recently been refreshed (with a slightly higher annual fee) which suggests to me the card is being aimed at the general [average] traveler and probably isn't all that difficult to get.

You could also nip over to flyertalk.com as they have a forum dedicated to Membership Rewards and Avios (where the BA Card may be discussed) and you can see what people are saying about the cards and benefits (mainly the rewards, though)

Hope this helps

zee212

thanks alot for that detailed response, iv pm you

InsideInsurance

Remember that there is £60 cashback for the Gold card via Quidco or £45 for the BA Plus.

As a result of a prior complaint about their call centres I was offered fees to be waived for 1 year as a resolution so just applied and got the platinum chargecard as my first ever amex card. My credit rating isnt perfect and so the chargecards are certainly obtainable.