Earlier today American Express was showing a number of new benefits for the Premier Rewards Gold Card when you were logged in. These benefits are no longer showing, but I suspect this card is being revamped and we will see these benefits formally announced and launched soon. New benefits are as follows:
- $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.
- Card will earn 4x points at U.S. Restaurants
- Card will earn 4x points at U.S. supermarkets, up to $25,000 in spend per calendar year
The card will lose 2x points at U.S. gas stations, but the other benefits will remain the same. This card comes with a $195 annual fee, but it also comes with a $100 airline credit towards incidentals. For a lot of people this card will be worth keeping long term with the new benefits, I suspect it will likely mean some people cancelling their Chase Sapphire Reserve. It’s good to see American Express adding benefits while Chase is busy cutting them.
Hat tip to US Credit Card Guide
Data point, I went to cheesecake factory and bought a $10 gift card and it triggered the credit. You can keep adding $10 to the same gift card to eventually build up money to take family out for dinner etc
Here is how to use the $10/month dining credit, from someone who doesn’t use these restaurants/services: Go to a Shake Shack once a month. Find someone who is homeless outside or someone in line who isn’t wealthy enough to have an Amex card. Buy them $10 worth of food. Or just buy food and take it to an area with homeless people and give it away. Not much work. This is what I will do every month.
Exactly. Restaurants are way too limiting. For only $10.00/credit a month, it should apply to anything that codes as dining.
Still at a loss for the missing $75/fee however. Rebates for any purchases coded a restaurant, and maybe $100+ in travel credit (anything that codes as travel) and then this this becomes more interesting. Until then I m sitting this one out as there as Amex already has higher grocery store %. This doesn’t unsteady the current cards.
There sure are a lot of whiners on here.
Let me tell you a story about a company I used to work for, I’ll call them “CS”. A couple times a week, CS would cater food for the entire company. Expensive for sure, considering we had over 200 employees. But it was a tech company and they made so much money they didn’t know what to do with it, apparently.
One day, a person doesn’t find any food they can eat due to their religion. So they email the CEO and HR and complain that they’re being discriminated against because they can’t eat the catered food. Can you guess what happened?
CS decided to immediately stop catering lunch, and sent out a company wide email saying that because someone complained about a perk being offered for FREE, which they did not have to participate in (read: they could easily go get lunch on their own dime), they were done. People don’t appreciate what’s given to them.
A lot of you are WHINERS and COMPLAINERS. Seriously, if you aren’t going to order food to be delivered with Grubhub or Seamless to utilize the $10/mo credit, then that’s fine. It isn’t COSTING you anything. It’s a perk they (reportedly) are adding, stop being ungrateful.
Oh, the 4% at supermarkets is capped at $25k — yes tell us all how unfair it is that you’re buying 50 $500 gift cards, paying nearly $300 in activation fees and are ONLY going to be able to come out ahead by $950. That’s SO UNFAIR.
The comments on here can be so childish, you guys know who you are. Stop posting complaints about new improved perks to this card which are actually nice for EVERYONE to get, just because you’re not going to be able to buy 5,000 gift cards and quit your day job, and make six figures a year spending every day running to Kroger and the Post Office or Walmart.
Well said.
I don’t see any “WHINERS and COMPLAINERS”. That’s just in your mind. People are just rationally analyzing it for their circumstances, which you should be aware could be completely different to yours. The “dining credit” is a very obscure niche “benefit”. Amex can be pretty bizarre.
Really go look at the new post Doc made, it’s all whining. The credit isn’t obscure, most people use the Uber credit for Uber Eats. Seamless/Grubhub is the same as Uber Eats (same concept – food delivery). I can’t imagine a ton of people are outside the service areas. And if they are, it’s a benefit they won’t get to use but the majority will so I can’t understand complaining about something that’s a perk for most. Amex probably has a good deal with the restaurants listed and grubhub/seamless which makes it a win/win for them, and a win for most of us.
Your point is well-understood. However, if a company provides a service to employees, such as free lunch, and it’s all pork, that could be a problem to some. The company can offer more choices, or don’t offer it all. However, if the company has cash, they could also offer profit-sharing or bonuses instead of free lunch. The equivalent point others are trying to make is that a yearly benefit, a la the flight credit or Chase travel credit is more accommodating.
I wonder if they’ll increase annual fee to $295
Someone on FlyerTalk with a PRG card called up Amex and was told that new (unspecified by the Amex CSR) benefits were coming to the PRG card on Oct 4. So hopefully on that date we’ll know the full story.
The dining credit reminds me of those coupon books that kids sell for fundraisers that are worth “$500” but each coupon individually is worth less than the hassle of remembering to use them. The amount of money I would save on this credit from my natural spending would be literally been zero.
Sounds like you’re better off with a 2% cash card or BoA TR/PR
I got this card recently mainly for sign up bonus, and will cancel as soon as I safely can. Is it still the case that I have to wait for the first AF to post, or can I use these changes as an excuse to close it earlier? (It’s my first amex card, and I want to get the other amex SUBs, but not pay any AF. No amex card has “benefits” that make them worth keeping for me.)
Chase UR biggest problem is no year long grocery category bonus on any of their cards…this is one of our largest spend categories. If AmEx does in fact release this gold card (and also keep their 1 to 1 transfer to JetBlue as permanent) then I think I am ditching Chase UR for AmEx MR.
while the 4x on US ONLY restaurants and groceries look attractive, the $10 a month dining credit does not sit well with me. Especially since it only limits you to using it on those 5 brands.
Pass!
Well, it’s also a benefit when there was none previously.
I just closed my PRG in July… this might be re-opened. I’ve been using my Uber Card for restaurants, but I’ll get a better return with this new earning rate. Hmmmm… this would also make the EDP pointless except for gas… I’m going to have to bring out some calculators lol