Amex Annual Fee

letiss7

Hi all,

First post on the Credit Card forum.
I've done a search and can't find if the question has been asked before.

I'm just about to enter the 2nd year of having the Amex Gold Rewards Charge Card and whilst I don't want to pay the £140 fee for the next year I also can't spend or convert the points I've gained so far as I am saving them to use on a holiday in 2020.
I will be credited with 10,000 points on renewal.
if I look at it that I am 'spending' £140 for 10,000 points then that seems like good value.

Am I missing something?

stevenhp1987

You will be credited 10,000 a month or so after renewal.

As soon as they post you can either cancel the card or downgrade and get a pro-rata refund of the fee.

If you cancel, and you don't hold another Amex Membership Rewards card, you will lose all the points.

As you say you have the Charge Card, you can only downgrade to another charge card.

If you had the Gold Credit Card, you could downgrade to the regular Rewards Credit Card which has no fee.

genetic

Generally, MR points are valued at 1p/ point. There are lots of exceptions, but that it what you can aim for. Unless you have a specific redemption in mind where you know you can get better value, you are paying £140 for £100 of points. Can't you transfer the points to BA or wherever you'll be using them, close the card (after getting the bonus) for a pro-rata refund and then re-apply in 6 months to get the sign-up bonus again?

letiss7

Thank you both for your replies. The main problem I have is that whilst I know I am going use the points for I don’t know which of airline schemes I will be using at this point so I can’t transfer the points.

simongregson

As the previous poster above said once the bonus points arrive you can apply for the 'rewards credit card' which has no annual fee then cancel your gold card. You will get a pro-rata refund of your annual fee and keeping the rewards card means that your reward points will not expire, so you can take your time to decide what to do with them.