Rumored Changes to the American Express Gold
American Express’ CEO hinted at changes to one of their most popular cards, the American Express Gold in the coming weeks. Are these changes a deal breaker?
American Express Gold Card Refresh Coming
According to American Express CEO Stephen Squeri during their Q2 2024 earnings call he is quoted as saying “We are on track to refresh approximately 40 products globally by the end of the year. As part of that number, we look forward to announcing our refreshed U.S. Consumer Gold Card in the coming weeks, adding to the nearly two dozen refreshed and updated products we’ve announced through the first half of the year.”
For context, the current benefits of the American Express Gold are:
4x Points on Dining globally
4x Points on Grocery Stores in the US (up to $25,000 of spend)
3x Points on Airfare
$250 Annual Fee
$10 monthly Uber credit
$10 monthly dining credit to be used at GrubHub/Seamless as well as Cheesecake Factory, Milk Bar, or Shake Shack
If you utilize the credits each month, your net out of pocket cost is only $10. For a card that earns 4x points on dining and grocery stores, that’s a no brainer.
American Express has been increasing the annual fee on a number of their cards and plan to do so to more in the near future. We’ve seen fees increase along with increased annual, quarterly, or monthly credits. I’m typically not a fan of these changes as it feels like these cards are turning into glorified coupon books
On the flip side, if you take advantage of all of the credits, you can more than offset the annual fee on a lot of cards. For example, the American Express Platinum has a massive $695 annual fee but if you use all of the credits each year you can get more than $1,884 in statement credits.
American Express is banking on breakage, or people not using all of their credits. I wonder how many people actually use enough of the credits each year to offset their annual fee. Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you’re one of the smart ones!
What to Expect?
While we don’t know exactly what changes are coming, Doctor of Credit recently reported on the changes found on American Express’ test server.
New $325 annual fee ($75 increase)
60,000 point signup bonus + 20% back on restaurants up to $100
Option for a white gold card
$7 monthly Dunkin’ Donuts credit
$50 semi-annual Resy credit
4x on restaurants limited to $50,000 per year
Removing Milk Bar and Shake Shack from the $10 monthly credit
Adding Five Guys to the $10 monthly credit
If these rumors are true, there is the potential to go from just $10 a year out of pocket to actually coming out ahead $99 if you utilize every credit.
The biggest negative change for some people is the limit of earning 4x points on dining to the first $50,000 of spend. If you spend that much per year, my recommendation would be to have your significant other sign up for their own card and shift spending to that one. If that’s not an option, the Citi Strata Premier is the next best card as it earns 3x points on dining for a low $95 annual fee.
Wrapping Up
While these are still just rumors, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these new changes take effect in the next few weeks. I hate seeing inflation of annual fees coupled with offsetting statement credits. If these changes do come to fruition, I have no doubt I’ll be able to use them all and come out ahead each year. This will still be the best card for dining and grocery store spending.
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