American Express Discontinues Gold Card

Via Doctor of Credit, it looks like American Express has decided to discontinue its Gold Card, which was one of the several charge cards offered by the issuer. This is not a major change that should have you worried about missing out if you never got the card and here’s why.

Gold Card =/=Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express

First, note that the American Express Gold Card is different from the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express (also known as the “PRG”)

The Premier Rewards Gold Card earns 3X on airfare purchased directly with the airline and 2X on supermarkets and gas, and comes with a $100 airline credit which helps to offset the $195 annual fee. It also comes with a worthwhile sign-up bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards that’s easy enough to find at times and it can even offer higher targeted offers up to 65,000. (There was once an offer for 75,000 but we haven’t seen that return in a long time.)

Meanwhile the American Express Gold Card came with no standard sign-up bonus, earned 2X for flights booked directly with airlines and at US restaurants and came with an annual fee of $125 (waived the first year).

This was one of the worst cards offered by American Express, since the Premier Rewards Gold Card had a much better sign-up bonus, earned much better bonus earning rates, and came with a travel credit to bring the annual fee down to $95.

Still, it wasn’t a complete waste of space since you could often find Incognito offers for this card offering a bonus of 25,000 Membership Rewards after spending $1,000 in 3 months. This was an easy to earn a quick 25K in Membership Rewards and since the annual was waived the first year, it didn’t cost you anything immediately.

Now, it looks like the card will be gone (although you can still probably add free authorized users to your Platinum Card® from American Express which come in the form of Gold Cards).

Final word

Overall, this isn’t a major loss at all but I never like seeing an easy point-earning oppurtunity vanish, which is exactly what this was. In the meantime, the Green Card is still available, which sometimes also offers a 25,000 Membership Rewards sign-up bonus and also waives its fee for the first year, so look out for that.