The change is: Starting 1st July, 2017 you will earn 1,000 Membership Rewards Points when you complete 6 transactions, each worth Rs.1,000 or more in a calendar month on your American Express Gold Card. That’s not a huge change, but yes it does matter for those who already struggling to do 4 txn’s till June 2017. I hope this also affects the MRCC card and lets have a quick look at the changes and its impact.
Amex Gold Charge Card India
Changes to Amex Gold Card Monthly Bonus Reward points Eligibility
Until June 2017:
- 1000 Bonus Points
- Eligibility: 4 transactions each worth Rs.1,000 or more
From July 2017:
- 1000 Bonus Points
- Eligibility: 6 transactions each worth Rs.1,000 or more
- Renewal Fee Reversal: Redeem 12,000 Membership Rewards Points to renew your card membership without Paying.
The Renewal fee reversal concept by taking away the reward points has been added recently not only to this card, but also to other cards like Amex Platinum Travel Card as i wrote about it recently, wherein i had to let go of 10,000 Reward points for Membership fee waiver. Apart from redeeming your points for the popular statement credit, you also can redeem it for 18k & 24k carat Gold collection as below.
Amex Gold Card Redemption
So the overall reward rate looks like this,
On achieving 18 Carat Collection by redeeming Points for Rs.7,500 Statement credit,
- Spend: 3 Lakhs (including spends to achieve monthly bonus)
- Reward Rate: 2%
On achieving 24 Carat Collection by redeeming Points for Rs.10,000 Statement credit,
- Spend: 6 Lakhs (including spends to achieve monthly bonus)
- Reward Rate: 1.75%
if you prefer to redeem for above, you need to spend another 6 Lakhs to accumulate 12,000 Points to redeem it for membership waiver. But hey, do note that, if you happen to redeem it for 24 carat and then spend another 6L, which is total of 12L spend, you may not need to use your points for renewal fee waiver as you maybe eligible for free reversal based on the spend.
Whats your take on recent changes to Amex Gold charge Card? Do share your views in comments below.
I have been using Gold charge card for the last 6 months. So far accumulated 24K rewards points. 10K statement credit would be best way to redeem the rewards or any other suggestions?
10k credit is good to go!
If you are using amazon it is better to redeem for Rs 11,000 credit. i.e. 1000 extra than statment credit
That was replaced with Travel voucher. 11k Amazon voucher no longer exists.
Hey laka how did u manage so much points in just 6 months you seem to have spent almost 7L i think. For that much spends amex travel would have been better.
Hi Prashanth, I am not a frequent traveller hence opted for gold charge card. I accumulated 8k points by referring my friend, 6K – Bonus points for using card 4 times a month for transactions above 1000. And the remaining 10K- Normal usage! Awaiting another 2K points for applying supplemtary card ☺
But the reward rate is much higher in first year i.e. 10.4%, which I think is second highest after Diners.
12 transactions of Rs.1,000 will get you 13,440 points (1,440 spend points + 12,000 bonus points)
4,000 Welcome Bonus points
1,000 points on Standing Instructions
Total Points = 18,440 points
Worth Rs. 7,610 (i.e. Rs.7,500 statement credit + Rs.110 for reaming 440 points @ 25paise)
Rs. 72,000 (6*1,000*12) Amount Spent
Rs. 1,150 first year card fees
Total Amount Spend is Rs.73,150
Return is 10.4%
My question is, instead of scarifying 12,000 points or paying Rs. 4,500 + tax as renewal fees, is it not better to close your card and apply again.
My friends in past have managed to either convince Amex to slash the renewal fees to Rs. 1,000 + tax with 5,000 bonus points included or have reapplied again (with Amex never rejecting their re-application)
You may close and reapply but you loose the credit history and adds up many short term credit cards on your CIBIL, also affects the score when u re-apply again. Anyways its only matter of time before Amex finds this if misused by many and reject the new applications in such cases 🙂
Does this also mean that we won’t be getting 5k MR points on paying the renewal fee?
I don’t see an update for MRCC as it is there for the gold card on Amex site. I feel they want to slowly get away with Gold. Fuel offer stop from today, what(card) is another alternative for refilling fuel and earning good points?
Another question, i did qualify movie block blaster offer for june, how much time it takes to get BMS coupons?
I will be going back to using my Citi Bank Indian Oil card – 2.5% cashback (redeemable in terms of fuel).
I called customer care today they said that the movie vouchers will be mailed after 27 july as they have received bumper response to the offer. As far as fuel iffer is concerned one can used citi indian oil credit card an all timer.
I have MRCC card and I got 1000 bonus points for doing 4 transactions in July. Look like this is applicable only to Gold charge card
Yes, you are correct. 6 transaction change is applicable to only Gold Charge Card.
I have Amex Gold card which i got in a promotional offer from Amex corporate team. Got the card without joining free, 1k Rs as Statement Credit on 1st month & 50% discount on annual fee.
Now that they have increased the number of transactions required for getting bonus points, i had thought of canceling the card. I was utilizing the 3% cashback for fuel in amex cards. But last time in the petrol pump, the sales girl overcharged me. 780 Meter reading & she charged 880 to card. Only when i got the charge slip, i found the mistake. When i argued, she told it was 880. Then i asked for machine bill, for which she replied that she already canceled it. So i raised a dispute with amex after few minutes. They customer rep told me that he will call me back in 2-3 days when this amount is charged to card(from outstanding) & i don’t have to do anything. He also told that this dispute will take around 3 weeks to settle. For 1 week i didn’t get any call, so i called back to Amex to see what happened. The “new” customer rep told that the old guy with whom i complained is on leave. She made an instant credit of 100 Rs to my account telling : ” based on your good transaction history, we don’t want to make you wait for 3 week dispute time. We are crediting from our end”. Its not about the 100Rs I got back, but the way they treat customers is really awesome. So i dropped the plan to cancel the card 😉
These days I am getting 1 Bonus MR point/50 on my Gold charge card in addition to the regular points. It is mentioned as Safekey Offer in my points summary.
I’ve changed my strategy to ensure no impact on my monthly statement. 26th of every month is my statement generation date. And from this month onward, I’ll make 2 transactions once the statement gets generated. So, 4K payment due remains as is for me.
How does it make sense???
American Express Membership Rewards® Credit Card it says No Membership Rewards Points are awarded on your American Express Card for all your spending on fuel, insurance and utility payment.
can the money be loaded in wallet (paytm/phonepe) will points be awarded in this case, also will bonus points be awarded for loading money in wallets .
Hi Saurabh,
Yes, you will be awarded Membership Rewards Points for loading your Wallets which you can use for paying for your mobile/ electricity / Fuel spends.
Thanks
Are they still giving 2.5% fuel surcharge waiver on hpcl fuel pumps? Don’t see it being mentioned anywhere!
Sid,
I hold a Supplementary AMEX MRCC which is life time free.
Now AMEX is offering me Gold card as LTF based on salary. I wanted to know which card is more beneficial MRCC or Gold? Is there any benefit available in Gold card which is not avialable in MRCC?
If MRCC is better then I would not take gold card now and wait for annual fee discount on a premium amex card.
MRCC is better if you are targeting Monthly bonus, as u can get it faster. If limit is the thing, gold is better.
Thanks a lot Sid!!
Hi Siddharth,
In the 24 Carat rewards, will I get all or will I have to choose one among the options?
You have to choose one….
u get to choose 1
You can select only 1 option out of the rewards listed. 😉
What can someone do if he finds it difficult to do 6 transaction on amex gold card to get 1000 bonus rewards points?
Add money to a wallet like PayTM or MobiKwik and use that for purchases
If you use Paytm, Ola then u can charge those with 1000/- transaction. While buying grocery, split the bill into 1000/- at Dmart, etc.
Hello all,
I just crossed 18000 points with my Gold charge card and looking to redeem the points for Welcomheritage hotel 2N3D voucher. Has anyone used this voucher and how was the experience?
Rgds
Shasidhar L
Looks like the Welcomheritage hotel 2N3D voucher against redemption of 18,000 points is replaced by Rs 11,000 worth voucher for redemption on American Express Travel Online site.
The links on Amex site to the 18 carat/24 carat gold collection is broken.
Anybody recently redeemed their points against 18 carat/24 carat gold collection?