American Express Business Gold: Up To 75,000 Membership Rewards Points Annual Fee Waived

Update 3: It seems like they are using more highly targeted means now, opening lots of incognito windows will no longer work. Readers have had success with using their work computers and also using IPs in different states (when visiting friends/family or travelling for work). It also seems like you need to click on the card from home page (e.g click view all business cards then the gold card) for some reason (obviously trying to stop people like us).

Update 2: There is a new offer which is 75,000 points after $5,000 in spend. Find out how to get this bonus by clicking here.

Update: I am reposting this offer because it is still available and other bloggers are posting about this inferior 50k offer via FedEx. I can confirm that the 75,000 link is still available (Jan 13th, 2015), I had to open about 40 browser windows before it appeared. After you apply online it will say something along the lines of “Pending, please call in” just wait a few hours and check the application status it should not require calling in. There is also now a 50,000 personal offer available (might be 75,000 but can’t get that to load yet).

The Offer

• American Express is currently split testing three different offers on their Business Gold Rewards card. All of them have the annual fee waived for the first year, the offers are as follows:
  • 25,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $5,000 or more within three months
  • 50,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $5,000 or more within three months
  • 75,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $10,000 or more within three months

Getting the different offers is a bit tricky. You need to open this link: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/credit-cards/business-gold-rewards and keep using different browsers/devices until you see the offer you’d like to apply for. I think the easiest way to get this offer is to keep opening incognito windows into chrome and pasting the link until you see the offer you like. Alternatively, you can just call American Express and say you saw the 75,000 point bonus in your browser and ask to apply for it that way (this is the same way you can get a 100,000 point bonus on the American Express Business Platinum card)

The Fine Print

• Offer only available to those who have not held this card in the previous twelve months (American Express business cards are churnable)
• Annual fee of $175 is waived for the first year
• This is a business card, you’ll need a business to apply for it
• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 3x on airfares purchased directly through the airline
  • 2x on purchases for advertising in select media, shipping, at gas stations, and made directly from select computer hardware, software, and cloud computing providers
  • 1x on all other purchases

Our Verdict

This bonus regularly goes up to 50,000 points, but I’ve never seen it as high as 75,000 points (Update: It was 75,000 points with only a $5,000 spend back in 2013 according to MJC). Given that the annual fee is waived for the first year this is a great deal. The main downside is that you’re required to spend $10,000 to get the points. Let’s assume you make $10,000 in purchases at a gas station to earn the sign up bonus, you’d earn 20,000 points in addition to the sign up bonus but you could have used a cash back card that earns 5% at gas stations instead which means you have an opportunity cost of $500 (less whatever you value 20,000 points at).

I think the best way to meet this bonus is to put purchases that don’t have a category bonus associated with them, that way your opportunity cost is much lower. I’m going to apply for this card as I think 75,000 flexible points without an annual fee is a great deal – I also have a business so I don’t expect too much trouble with reconsideration if I’m not approved automatically.

What do you think of this deal? Are you going to apply?

Hat tip to Points Centric (follow this blog if you haven’t already, lots of good stuff recently)