Update 7/25/24: Well, that didn’t take long. The previously rumored changes to the American Express Gold card are now live. The increased annual fee of $325 won’t go into affect for current cardholders until 10/1/24, if you have an anniversary date before 10/1/24, you won’t be charged the increased annual fee until next year.
Both Resy credits and the Dunkin’ credits are for US locations only AND require enrollment, so remember to do that before getting your cuppa!
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Doctor of Credit is reporting on some rumored changes to the Amex Gold card. Apparently, the CEO of American Express recently teased an announcement about Amex’s “refreshed U.S. Consumer Gold Card in the coming weeks” and now Doctor of Credit has also reported on what those changes might be. I want to emphasize that all of this is rumor at this point and there has been no official communication from Amex about specifics changing on the card. That said, if these turn out to be the actual changes, I think the Amex Gold card might come out better for me but I have to question the broader market for it.
The rumored changes to the Amex Gold card
Doctor of Credit reports the following rumored changes coming to the Amex Gold card:
- $325 annual fee ($75 increase from the current $250 annual fee)
- Option of white gold card
- $7 monthly Dunkin donuts credit (update: US locations only)
- $50 semi-annual Resy credit (update: US locations only)
- 4x points at restaurants will be limited to $50,000 in purchases per year
- Up to $10 monthly Uber cash credit remains unchanged
- Up to $10 monthly dining credit for select dining purchases, which will continue to include GrubHub and a number of other merchants. Milk Bar and Shake Shack will be removed from this credit but Five Guys will be added as an option
Essentially, the card is increasing in price by $75 a year while adding a $50 semi-annual Resy credit and a $7 monthly Dunkin Donuts credit. The other two key changes for some will be the new $50K annual cap on earning 4x at restaurants and the addition of Five Guys as an option for using the second dining credit (and loss of Milk Bar / Shake Shack if those were favorites of yours).
Quick thoughts on the rumored changes
My first reaction is that while I’m not surprised to see a rumored increase in annual fee (as that has become Amex’s MO when refreshing a card), I simultaneously question the wisdom of increasing the fee on what I consider to be their core grocery & dining card to a price that I think many average folks will find hard to swallow.
That’s to say that while I like the card and I find the Amex Gold card to be the backbone of an Amex strategy for most Membership Rewards fans, I think the price tag was already on the high end for many people. I feel like the increase to an annual fee that is “more than three hundred dollars” makes this a card that won’t feel compelling to anyone who isn’t doing the math and making a focused effort to come out ahead. While $250 was already high, I think that $325 is likely to turn people off pretty strongly unless they are very confident that they’ll use the credits.
Speaking of the credits, I’m sure that some will also be turned off by the further cuponification of Amex cards. On the one hand, I agree. If I wanted to buy an Entertainment Book, I’d buy one. But I don’t.
On the other hand, I’m sure that some folks will be pretty satisfied with the additions. If you regularly make Resy reservations, you’ll probably be happy with what could be an extra $100 back per year. And if America truly does run on Dunkin, that’s another potential $84 per year if you use it every month (and I wouldn’t be shocked if it ends up being pretty easy to use that in the Dunkin app).
Personally, I think the math is going to work out better for me and it’s not because of the Resy credit. In fact, I’ve never used Resy and I’m not going to count on using it even if that credit does get added. However, I’m sure I’ll use the Dunkin credit if that gets added. I actually don’t really like Dunkin coffee, but I don’t dislike it strongly enough to choose Statbucks over Dunkin if this credit gets added. I’m not excited, but I’m already spending more than $7 a month on coffee and making that a stop at Dunkin once a month wouldn’t hurt me.
More importantly for me, I don’t currently use the secondary $10 monthly “Grubhub et al” dining credit at all. However, we do end up going to Five Guys about once a month as-is. I was on the edge before between the Amex Gold card and going to the SavorOne as my primary grocery and dining card, but the additional value I’d stand to get between Dunkin and Five Guys means that even after the $75 annual fee increase, I’ll probably come out a bit farther ahead than before. If I also use one or both of the Resy credits, it might seem like an improvement for me.
However, I expect that I’m probably an edge case in that the addition of Five Guys makes a big difference for me on a dining credit that I wasn’t using and that I’m easily willing to switch one coffee stop a month to Dunkin. I imagine many people will not like paying more for increased couponification.
Obviously the new cap on dining is also a problem for anyone who had very high dining expenses. I think a reader once mentioned being in a position to frequently hire out catering for filming productions or being a caterer who occasionally has to order out from restaurants to fulfill all of their needs. If you were in that type of circumstance, the cap on dining here would be a huge bummer. That said, you could switch over to the Business Gold card for significantly increased capacity so long as dining remains one of your two two categories each month.
We’ll see whether rumors prove to be true. I suspect that existing cardholders will keep their annual fee through next renewal after some as yet unannounced date in the future. Again, it’s all rumored changes and we don’t yet have a timeline, so there is no sense in panicking just yet even if you don’t like the changes. At the very least, existing cardholders will probably get a chance to eke a little value out before being confronted at renewal with any annual fee increase that may be announced.
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Just a couple of quick notes:
1. The dunkin credit didn’t trigger for me when using the gift card load feature in the app, if I used google pay to select my Amex Gold card. It did trigger when adding the amex gold card directly to the dunkin app.
2. Many/most airport dunkin donut locations will not take payment via the dunkin app. Presumably, the amex gold credit would trigger if charged directly to the card, but I haven’t tested that.
Confirming app reload worked for me. $7 reload on the app 7/25 when the changes rolled out, received email from Amex tonight confirming $7 credit is on the way.
If you have multiple gold cards (including business gold) can you earn the Dunkin and Resy credits on each card? The Resy terms seem to say “no” but not sure I’m interpreting that correctly
Yes you can. Not on the Business Gold though, since It’s a complete different card with different benefits.
We still can milk out all these coupons in town, but this is such a hassle.
Oh also, it’s time to update your premium card calculator sheet.
Nick it seems your computer made a mistake by autocorrecting effect to affect.
Haha, love the very kind way of pointing out a grammatical error 🙂
Is 5 Guys active?
I enjoy traveling abroad, not a huge fan of dunkin, and coupon books aren’t really fot me. Good luck y’all
Is there a Resy at Home still, i.e. order thru the app for pickup
Anybody know if buying a $7 gift card in the Dunkin app will trigger the credit?
The Dunkin credit just went live today so no, nobody knows yet. Hopefully someone will try today and report back in a few days.
The terms say to wait 24 hours after enrollment before making a purchase, so keep that in mind 🙂
Need to update this to explain Resy requirements. From what I gather, you need to have a Resy account and have the card registered as a payment method on your Resy account. Then you you use your card at any Resy restaurant to get the credit, *even if you didn’t make a reservation with Resy* (I think). Please verify and update post. Also, from what I gather, authorized user purchases count as well.
correct- any payment at a restaurant that is on Resy should work for the credit (at least that is true for Delta cards)
Your version and Jeff’s are quite different. Jeff states that you need to have a Resy account and have your Gold card registered as a payment method there — not just use the Gold card at a Resy restaurant.
Do you need to have a Resy account?
I’m sure we all got the big, long, fancy image-filled email announcing these new benefits and changes!! (which, IMO are all lame).. and BURIED in the footnotes is the $325 annual fee statement. No mention that it’s increasing, just that it “is $325.” I know they have no incentive to trumpet a fee increase, but these communications always seem so disingenuous that it’s for the customer’s benefit.
For now I’ll keep the card through this cardmember year, because I value the 4x grocery quite a bit, though they’ve gotten really hair-splitting and claw back points a few times. I contested several because they were valid, even if Amex didn’t like the amount… but it’s annoying.
RE Dunkin’: Not great coffee. Tasty but unhealthy donuts. But they sell coffee in the bag, dontcha know. I can mix their mediocre grounds into my better-than-mediocre Costco coffee grounds and eek out a little value there, LOL.
I truly have come to hate the ‘coupon book’ approach. Amex has totally thrown in the towel on being a premium / status card.
This will likely be my last year of the Amex Gold. Without the airline fee bump, it’s just not presenting the same valuation that it used to.
I see this as good news. The resy credit is simple to use — so without much more thought im $25 ahead. Sold.
The higher annual fee is already in effect for new applicants.
If I’m reading the terms right, you don’t have to book using Resy to get Resy credit. As long as the restaurant is in Resy, you’ll get the credit for dining there. I might try a gift card purchase at a participating restaurant to help me avoid breakage.
“Eligible Resy purchases include purchases made directly from U.S. restaurants that offer reservations on Resy.com and the Resy app, and purchases made directly on Resy.com or in the Resy app.”
Yes that’s correct – been doing this for months with my Delta cards. Just use it at a restaurant that is listed on Resy and it will process.
I have been taking 5 cards to one resturant and buying 1 $80 gift card and the credit has worked for all cards. The first month we did one card online and that did not credit.
New credits are live. I just enrolled for the Resy and Dunkin credits. I see that Five Guys has been added to the $10/month dining credit as well.
And I’m seeing 100k SUB.