Amex Gold Card Gets New Family Rule for Welcome Bonus
American Express continues to add new restrictions to welcome offers. We saw this first with the family of personal Delta credit cards, then Platinum Cards, and Cash Back cards. Now the latest victim is the Gold Card.
You might be wondering in what family does the Gold Card belong? Well, here are the new terms on the welcome bonus:
You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Premier Rewards Gold Card, the Platinum Card®, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application.
So American Express is grouping the Gold Card with Platinum cards. But there are no Gold Card related restrictions on any Platinum cards. That means that you should first apply for a Gold Card and then a Platinum Card.
Conclusion
These new bonus restrictions are getting pretty confusing when it comes to American Express cards. Not only are the cards strangely grouped together, but some of the restrictions only work one-way.
Let us know what you think.
HT: Travel-on-Points
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I’m confused the green isn’t grouped in the same family with the most restrictions. That would mirror Delta and cash back card changes.
My guess is the green isn’t popular enough to warrant family language.
Also possibly the gold card is a loss leader (with the 4X in two popular big spend categories). I tell my wife (who likes to keep things simple), use the gold for anything food related, the Venture X for everything else. I bet the gold doesn’t get a lot of 1X spend, and it’s popular enough with all the bloggers hyping it up that it doesn’t need a SUB bonus for people to want it.