My Amex Gold Card Retention Offer Was Average at Best, But I Took It

My Amex Gold Retention Offer

While looking through my accounts yesterday for new Amex Offers, I noticed that the $250 annual fee had posted on my Amex Gold Card.

This has been a useful card that I normally keep in my wallet. It earns 4X on groceries and dining, and offers some other credits and benefits that add more value. But, for $250, I wouldn’t renew. So I looked for a retention offer, which you should always do, whether you really want to close the card or not.

Amex Gold Retention Offer

I clicked the “Chat” icon on the lower right corner, and asked to close my account. After explaining that I wanted to close my card, I was transferred to a specialist. That’s usually an indication that Amex has some retention offers for your account.

While chatting is a much easier option for me, this time round I noticed that I would get signed out of my Amex account every time I switched tabs. Normally I would go about my business and get work done while chatting with Amex.

It also proved to be a much longer chat than usual. The specialist quickly went over the benefits of the card and asked why I wanted to close it. I explained that I don’t think I’ll get much value out of it going forward.

She gave me the exact number of Membership Rewards points that I had earned on the card over the last year, which was close to 300,000 (that included signup bonus, maximized referral bonuses, and spending). I repeated that I wouldn’t earn as much going forward.

This continued for a while, with her throwing numbers and valuable benefits at me. Then came the first offer. “Redeem 25,000 Membership Rewards points for the annual fee.” That’s a 1 cent redemption, which is not a bad deal actually. But with my  Charles Schwab Amex Platinum I can do slightly better. So I turned it down by saying that I plan to use points for travel whenever that happens.

Then came the second offer. “Earn 20,000 Membership Rewards points when spending $2,000 or more within the next three months.” I pushed for something better, but that was it. I took it considering that I also saw an Amex Offer for 4,000 bonus points when spending $4,000, up to three times.

Breaking Down The Value Of My Amex Gold Retention Offer

Combined with the Amex Offer, if I spend $4,000 on groceries for example, I would earn a total of 40,000 points, while paying the $250 annual fee. At the current 1.10 cents cash out valuation, I could cash in 23,000 Membership Rewards points from my stash to pay the annual fee in full.

That doesn’t include the perks of the card. Here is the value I think I can get from the old, and new perks, over the next year:

• $120 Uber Cash – You get $10 each month. I always use up this credit, so I would value it at about $100.
• $120 Dining Credit – This works at $10 statement credit for using your Gold Card at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Boxed, and participating Shake Shack locations. I don’t always use it, and would probably value it at 50%, so about $60.

When you add that all up it is a value of $160. Plus with offers to add authorized users, and 4X on dining and groceries, it offers more possibilities to earn points.

Conclusion

This is not one of the best retention offers that we have seen. But I thought it was decent. I get some extra points from the Amex Offer, and $160 in value for one more year through the dining and Uber credits.

Have you contacted Amex for a retention offer? Share your data points in the comments below.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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