Amex Gold: No-BS rewarding card
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Amidst the complex offerings of credit cards, Amex Gold is a breath of fresh air and is my 2nd most utilized card after Axis Atlas.Mind you, I've not used this card extensively but rather for a very specific purpose every month. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the card offers 1000 bonus MR (Membership Reward) points upon completing 6 transactions of Rs. 1000 each within a calendar month.
How I have utilized the card is quite straightforward -
1. You earn 2 MR points for every Rs. 100 spent.
2. If you're buying a GV (gift voucher) through Amex GYFTR website with the Amex Gold, you get 5x the value, meaning 10 MR points per Rs. 100 spent.
3. Buying 6 Amazon vouchers worth Rs. 1k each month to get (6*100 + 1000) = 1.6k MR points on a spending of Rs. 6k
4. Keeping the value of a MR point ~ Rs. 0.5, you get 13.3% as return reward which inarguably is a steal in the current credit card landscape
5. Repeating the same for 12 months, you get 19.2k MR points on a spend of Rs. 72k.
6. What can you get with 19200 MR points?
1. 6k Amazon GV + 1.2k MR points still left
2. 7k Shoppers Stop GV + 1.2k MR points still left
3. 9k Taj GV + 1.2k MR points still left
4. 19.2k Marriot Bonvoy points
5. 6.4k Club Vistara points
6. 9.6k Virgin Atlantic points
These are just a few of the many redemption options available. I've listed out the ones which I frequently redeem for.
The underrated advantage which I've always felt with Amex is their backend and customer support system. You typically receive your bonus points smoothly within a day or two after fulfilling the offer. Even if you don't, there is the ever so reliable live chat support ready to assist with inquiries.
As the title suggests, this card is ideal for people who prefer not to delve into the complexities of maximizing card benefits. It has got a very straightforward use to earn a very decent reward.
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Yes Saadhav, annual fees is Rs. 4.5k from second year onwards. But based on my personal experience, I was able to get a 50% fees waiver just merely by talking to the customer support. So Amex guys know how to retain their customers is what I would say.
hmm.. assuming your calculation of 72k bought via reward multiplier (which is the highest as other transactions will fetch 2MR for every 100 spent) you get 19.2k MR points where with the recent devaluation of Amazon/FK gold collection (initially it was 1MR = 0.39Rs) where 1MR = 0.33Rs, you get 19.2k MR * .33 = Rs. 6336 then from second year your renewal fee is 4500+GST = Rs. 5310 so overall 6336-5310 = 1026/72k = 1.4% CB rate, only use is if you convert these MR to Bonvoy points or airmiles, same with MRCC card as well which is worse as you will end up paying 400 from your pocket to keep the card from next year for 6k Amazon vouchers every month (1500*4)
so if you are only buying Amazon gift cards then best is SBI Cashback/HDFC Millennia which gives 5% directly from Amazon site (Amazon has 3.6L per year limit so 2L limit for SBI and 1L for HDFC Millennia can be easily achieved to escape 1000+GST for card renewal fees)
Hi Arun,
I disagree with your calculations. If you just consider Rs. 1180 as first year fees, then -
First month: Rs. 10k spend + Rs. 1180 fees - 9680 MR points (8k bonus MR points on referral+ 1600 on first 6k spend and 80 on remaining 4k spend)
Second to 12th Month: Rs. 6k spend - 17600 MR points
Annual spend - Rs. 77180 earns 27280 MR points
27280 MR points = 8k Amazon voucher + 3280 MR points still left.
Even if I redeem it for absolute worst rate of Rs. 0.25, 3280 MR points will fetch Rs. 820, giving value of Rs. 8820 in monetary terms on a spend of Rs. 77180, which turns out to be 11.4 % reward rate.
Trust me, I've been a big supporter of SBI Cashback card and used it extensively before, but due to very opaque backend system and not earning cashback on genuine transactions sometimes, I had to part my ways with it.
Based on my personal experience with Amex, I was able to get a 50% fees waiver for my Amex Gold on renewal and a 100% waiver on my MRCC
wrt to Gold Card, 12k bonus (before 30-May it was 8k) is for the person who is referring and for the new person/customer its 2,000 Membership Rewards Points upon spending INR 5,000 in the first 90 days if he is also getting Gold card and that is only for the first year right and also AMEX at offline is not much accepted
so sorry as I didn't get why to spend 10k for referring and for new folks its just 2k MR points, also Gold has renewal fee waive off option whereas MRCC has 1.5L
edit: got your 8k logic now 😃
No, the updated referral is- 12k MR points for the one who is referring and (4+4)k MR points upon spending 10k in first 90 days, for the one who is referred. This is specific to Amex Gold credit card.
So suppose you spend 6k in Amazon gift vouchers which earns you 1600 MR points and rest 4k in normal spends, which earns you 80 points. Then total MR points comes out to be 9680 MR points upon spending of Rs.10k which is a 48.4% reward rate!
below is for Gold
MRCC now shows 1500+GST for 2nd year onwards via referral link whereas without any referral its 4500+GST which is a good deal as for Gold with and without referral its 4500+GST and no option for waive off
Arun, please check my latest comment over the referral benefits for Amex Gold card. It's 8k and not 4k. Happy to discuss with you in private chat if you have any more questions.
Also, based on my personal experience and several friends, they got a 50% waiver for Gold atleast on their renewal. For MRCC, I got a 100% waiver next year.
Someone is finally saying facts about it! Now with the referral offer, getting the card has become even more lucrative for both (referee and the referrer)
What is the validity of the MR points?
This post seems like a psyop ad intended for revenue generation via the referral game 😄
Sure enough though, it is a decent card, but be prepared for the yearly begging for fee waiver.
Dede baba dede, fee waiver dede! Full nahi toh, half hi dede!
It is true that the referral game of Amex is quite strong.
If I have to extract out 10 minutes of my day to chat on live customer support for reducing my fees, then surely it isn't a bad deal. Even if they just reduce it by half (that is Rs. 2610). I'm still earning a healthy 8.4% reward rate in second year
Reason for the post is to evaluate if this card makes sense for you or not. If it does, then feel free to DM for referral. Otherwise, sure there are more cards out there which might suit your needs
Amex mrxc also give accelerated rewards 5x via amex GyFTR site?
Amex MRCC gives accelerated rewards of 2x via GYFTR site
Marriot Bonvoy points is every time 1:1?
cardexpert review for the card says "At the moment we could get a great value with Marriott (50Ps/MR) "
If anyone wishes to know more about the card or apply, feel free to reach out to me. Will be happy to share 
it's just no brainer for first year for all benefits it provides. Can use for one year and either close or negotiate with amex on fee.
if Anyone wish to apply for this or any amex card , DM me for queries/ referral + additional benefits
wrt to Gold Card, 12k bonus (before 30-May it was 8k) is for the person who is referring and for the new person/customer its 2,000 Membership Rewards Points upon spending INR 5,000 in the first 90 days if he is also getting Gold card and that is only for the first year right and also AMEX at offline is not much accepted
so sorry as I didn't get why to spend 10k for referring and for new folks its just 2k MR points, also Gold has renewal fee waive off option whereas MRCC has 1.5L
edit: got your 8k logic now 😃
No, the updated referral is- 12k MR points for the one who is referring and (4+4)k MR points upon spending 10k in first 90 days, for the one who is referred. This is specific to Amex Gold credit card.
So suppose you spend 6k in Amazon gift vouchers which earns you 1600 MR points and rest 4k in normal spends, which earns you 80 points. Then total MR points comes out to be 9680 MR points upon spending of Rs.10k which is a 48.4% reward rate!
Someone is finally saying facts about it! Now with the referral offer, getting the card has become even more lucrative for both (referee and the referrer)
What is the validity of the MR points?
They never expire!