American Express is offering 75,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for the new Business Gold Rewards card today only, November 3, 2011. The $175 annual fee is waived the first year and this card rewards you with 3x points for airfare, 2x points for advertising, gas and shipping and 1x on all other spend.
The biggest catch here is that to receive the sign-up bonus you need to spend $10,000 within 5 months, which may not be an issue if you indeed run a business, but if you're a sole proprietership or have a very small side business, this could be a lot.
Another aspect is that Membership Rewards points are simply not worth as much as they used to be, as we wrote in American Express Membership Rewards Changes: Miles, Points and Spend Strategy since Continental is no longer a transfer partner, Aeroplan has raised the price of their award redemptions, and British Airways is devaluing its single partner award chart come November 16. So while I do continue to put airfare and grocery spend on my personal AMEX Premier Rewards Gold Card for the 3x and 2x points, that's the only spend I put on it.
To put this offer in context, I got the old version of this card, the American Express OPEN Business Gold Rewards Card (no 3x points for airfare or 2x points for advertising, gas and shipping) with the same 75,000 point signup bonus, but only a $2000 spend, which I considered well worth it for the bonus. I already have the personal AMEX Premier Rewards Gold Card with 3x on airfare, and since I live in NYC and don't own a car, the 2x on gas is of no use to me 🙂
So here's what I'd recommend:
- If you already have the new Business Gold Rewards Card and got the 50,000 point bonus, try sending a secure message to AMEX asking if your bonus can be bumped up to 75,000 points, in light of today's publicly available offer
- If you can easily meet the $10,000 spend and don't already have a Business Gold Rewards Card and haven't received a targeted offer with lower spend threshold, then apply today
- If you don't yet have a Business Gold Rewards Card but the $10,000 spend would be very tough, wait it out; you may receive a targeted offer with a lower spend
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Hat Tip: Ben