People that currently hold the American Express Business Gold Card should have recently (or will soon) receive a mail out describing a few upcoming changes to the card. Also just a friendly reminder that it’s currently possible to get 75,000 membership rewards points on this card as the sign up bonus.  We’ve outlined the upcoming changes below:
Contents
3x Point Changes
- Currently cardholders receive 3x points on all airfares purchased directly airlines and 2x points on advertising in select media, shipping, at gas stations, and made directly from select computer hardware, software, and cloud computing providers on up to $100,000 in purchases per year
- Starting January 30th cardholders will be able to choose which of the above categories they want to earn 3x points in and the remaining categories will earn 2x points
Obviously this is a positive change, it gives consumers more choice on which categories earn at an increased rate which is only a good thing. Gas stations would be the main one of interest to me, although there are already a slew of cards that earn 5% cash back in this category so you’d need to value Membership Rewards points at over 1.67¢ per point for the Business gold card to make sense and that’s before taking into account the annual fee of $175 this card comes with.
Internet marketers will also find the 3x in advertising expenses an attractive proposition as well. You can view examples of what falls into each category according to American Express by clicking here.
Double Dipping Will No Longer Work
- Currently some purchases will fall into two different categories and will earn category bonuses twice.
- Starting January 23rd all purchases will only fall into one category
This was a good opportunity for those who knew about it, but in all likelihood it won’t affect most cardholders. Although I can sense that between now and January 23rd a lot of cardholders will be trying to find these double dip opportunities (feel free to share your data points in the comments).
Additional Cardholders Will Earn MR Points Into Their Own Account
- Currently if you add an additional user they will earn MR points that go into the primary cardholders account
- Starting January 23rd additional cardholders that have enrolled in membership rewards points separately from the primary cardholder will have MR points awarded to their own MR account.
As long as the additional card member isn’t enrolled in MR seperately, the points will still go to the primary cardholder. It looks as if American Express are just making sure that points go where they are supposed to go. It’s my understanding that if you’re giving these cards to employees they’ll still earn MR points for your account as long as theirs is not linked.
Failure To Pay Minimum Results In A Forfeiture Of Points
- Currently if you don’t pay the amount due on your statement, you’ll still earn membership rewards points.
- Starting January 23rd if you don’t pay the amount due on your statement, you’ll forfeit all points that would have been earned from that statement.
This is standard from most rewards cards and I’m surprised that American Express didn’t have this rule previously. You should be paying your statement in full anyway so this should not affect you.
Our Verdict
It’s a shame the double dipping opportunities are now gone, but it’s not something I ever bothered with in the first place. Choosing your own 3x categories is a great benefit, I just wish the categories were more attractive. The other two changes shouldn’t really affect anybody. All in all I’d say that these are positive changes but the annual fee of $175 is still not being close to justifiable for my mind.
Given that you can churn American Express business cards, I’ll likely usually have this card as long as the sign up bonus is good without paying an annual fee. Hopefully they add more 3x categories to choose from (restaurants, please!). In case you missed it at the start of this post, the bonus for this card is currently at 75,000 points with no annual fee.
Hat tip to MileCards who have been doing some fantastic posting of late.
Will,I just got this card recently, how do you select the category that you want to earn 3x points? Which option should I house when I’m logged in my American express account?
It’s not available until January 30th.