Update 11/10/20: See better offer here.
Update 11/1/20: More people are being targeted for the 75,000 offer via snail mail.
The Offer
American Express Gold Card link
Until today, the standard/high signup bonus on the American Express Gold card has been 50,000 points with $4,000 spend. A few new offers came out today:
- New public offer: Get 60,000 points signup bonus when spending $4,000 within 6 months.
- This offer is showing for some both on the public signup page and via referral link. If you don’t see it, try a few browsers, incognito, etc, to get it to show. I got this one in Firefox.
- Alternative new public offer: Get 35,000 points signup bonus when spending $4,000 within 6 months. Plus, get 10% back as a statement credit on purchases made during the first 6 months of Card Membership, up to $250 back.
- This offer is showing for some both on the public signup page and via referral link. If you don’t see it, try a few browsers, incognito, etc, to get it to show. I got this one in Chrome incognito.
- We already posted about the new public Resy offer: Get 35,000 points signup bonus when spending $4,000 within 3 months. Plus, get 20% back as a statement credit when you make a purchase at restaurants worldwide within the first 12 months of Card Membership, up to $250 back.
- New targeted pre-qualified offer: Get 75,000 points signup bonus when spending $4,000 within 6 months.
Card Details
- Annual fee of $250 NOT waived first year
- Card will earn at the following rates:
- 4x points at Restaurants
- 4x points at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 in spend per calendar year)
- 3x points for flights booked directly with airlines
- 1x points on all other purchases
- $120 dining credit. This is a $10 monthly credit that can be used at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Shake Shack
- $100 airline fee credit
- No foreign transaction fees
- Full American Express Gold card review can be found here.
Our Verdict
Standard high bonus on this card has been 50,000 points after $4,000 in spend. We have seen 50,000 + $100 in the past, as well as a targeted 70,000 offer too.
These new offers are pretty interesting:
- Obviously the 75,000 offer is terrific and highest ever. It even gives 6 months to meet the spend. Only works for someone targeted with the pre-qualified tool.
- The 60,000 public offer is quite good, and most will consider it superior to the other two statement credit offers (you’re essentially buying 25,000 MR points for $250). It’s especially a powerful offer when you combine with a referral link since your friend will then get up to
25,00030,000 points for the referral as well. From this angle, the 60k offer can potentially be better than the 75k targeted offer. - Cashback aficionados might prefer the 10% statement credit offer. That’s for someone who values Membership Rewards points at 1 cent or less.
- The Resy offer isn’t really useful for anyone.
If you’re thinking of applying, make sure you read these things everybody should know about American Express cards first.
Thanks to those who tipped us off to this deal.
Was able to get the Gold with 60,000 points.
Was not targeted for the 75K but I normally get the popup saying I don’t qualify. I gave this a shot because the popup did not show.
Received pending decision notice initially and was approved today.
I am running into this scenario for the Amex gold. If my wife refers me, she would get 25,000 points and I would get 40000 points but I would have to spend $4000 in 3 months. Without the referral path, I would get 60000 points but would have to spend $4000 only in 6 months. Hmm.. Decisions decisions
Ladies and gentlemen. I have come to this post for your sage advice. Many moons ago, I was targeted for the Amex Platinum 100k offer so my offers now are straight trash. My wife has never received the 100k offer but I just checked and she IS targeted for the Amex Gold 75 offer as well as the 75k Amex platinum offer. She is currently at 3/24 (CSP, CFU and CF). Should I burn a 5/24 slot and just concede this is the best ever offer she will receive with Amex or just continue to apply for Chase cards? I’ve tried applying for Chase Business cards for her but been declined (sole prop with “business “). We may start traveling in the future so I’m thinking we may want Hyatt/ IHG/ Marriott or United card in the future.
Sorry for the long winded discussion, but I appreciate any assistance.
75k MR is way more valuable than 100k Marriott or 50k Hyatt if you want to fly international J. Also the Gold card is better for ongoing spend. The United card is mostly useless in my opinion because United regular Y is usually more expensive than the competition, especially compared to WN when checking bags. The Explorer card supposedly lets you circumvent the basic Y restrictions but the reality is that it doesn’t work.
I’m curious about this point: “The Explorer card supposedly lets you circumvent the basic Y restrictions but the reality is that it doesn’t work.” Can you shed a bit more light on why you say this?
I’ve been planning to get a United Explorer card once I begin traveling again, primarily for the free checked bag, ability to bring a carry on with basic economy fares, and the expanded saver-seat availability. (I don’t plan to put any actual spending on it except for the United flights that I want to use the benefits on.) Any reason to shy away from this card if those aspects are the reason I’m interested in it?
United won’t let basic economy N fares do online or even kiosk check in. When you come to counter, they force you to check the carry on per the N fare rules. If you want to play hide the bag and successfully check in without surrendering it, you can then take it onboard during group 2 boarding. This hassle kills the value of Explorer card in my opinion. By contrast, the AA and DL cards make their basic economy fares much more palatable
I’d encourage your wife to get some barclays cards before the amex cards. Both the JetBlue card and the Aviator Red have very large sign up bonuses for very little spend and AA miles can be very valuable for international travel. Personally, I’d get the Marriott card for the 5 free nights then the Barclays Aviator Red and Jet Blue Card, then go to AMEX.
Got 60k, not 75k…but then this happened -> based on your history with credit card balance transfers, American Express welcome offers, introductory APR offers, or the number of Cards you have opened and closed, you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer.
This is silly, all I’ve had in the last 2 years has been the SPG card and I’ve kept that card and paid the annual fee for multiple years. Anyone have any idea why Amex would have done this?
Have you put any significant spend on the spg card? If you have just kept it and not put any spend on the card that may be the reason.
They are likely referring to all cards opened and closed.
I got the same garbage result from both online application and customer service application. Have a platinum that i signed up for earlier this year which i got welcome bonus for, but nothing else to warrant being denied for this one.
I had the same notification for at least a few years! Then randomly I got targeted for the 75k point gold card but actually this was about 2 months ago. So who knows
im not seeing the 75k offer.
P2 sent me a referral email so they get 30k for referring me to the personal Gold. Email says, “You have an offer to earn a bonus of $600 in rewards value waiting for you! Your bonus will be received in the form of statement credits and/or Membership Rewards.” Will this be 60k MRs or what is this referral exactly? I don’t want a statement credit.
I think it should be 60K. I have the same referral offer. You can confirm by just opening the link.
No love for me, I’m getting the “not eligible for bonus” popup. Opened 4 Hilton cards and Green in last 14 months.
Applied a few days later, and yay! No popup, application in review for 2 days, then approved.
I think there may be glitch in the system if these popups are appearing, then not in 2 days. I will try to reapply.
I got the same pop-up at first after waiting for some inquiries to drop. Just used my other AMEX card as my daily driver for two weeks and no pop-up!
I had a GOLD card in the 90s. I doubt there was a bonus then. Would I fall under any Amex rule that would prevent me from getting the bonus now if I app’ed for the Gold card?
The word is that it falls off after 7 years. If you don’t get the popup, you’ll probably be okay.
Any DP on increased (deny) pop-ups with 30k Referral for AMEX Gold (personal)? Tried to refer 2P but she got pop-up (deny for min-spend bonus). She currently has two cards and was approved for Green card early this year. No red flags on her account as far as I can tell… (cross-post from other referral thread since this might be a better place for this question)
Hello DOC,
I see that some of the personal Amex cards in the referral page tagged as “Referral offer” or “Special Offer for You”. Interestingly after using various VPN I get 60,000 points for Amex gold card and it is tagged as “Special Offer for You”. I have used a referral link of my spouse and then I go to all personal cards page. In this page only gold card is tagged as “Special Offer for You” but others are tagged as “Referral offer”.
Now if I apply for the “Special Offer for You” gold card using the referral link, I wonder whether my spouse will get the referral bonus or not.
Please advice.
Thank you!
I believe if you go through a referral link (you’ll see the pop-up), then any subsequent movement all tracks back to the referrer.
Thank you! Your are awesome. I see the popup though. So I hope it is fine.