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AMEX Preferred Gold FREE $100 Gift Card

Johns Wu Posted in Expired Deals by Johns Wu
August 13, 2008 01:40 AM - 25 Comments

AMEX CD

AMEX is running a limited time $100 bonus for signing up for their Preferred Rewards Gold Card. Bonus deals like this have been getting more and more rare lately because banks are getting slaughtered by the sub-prime crisis.

Anyway, here’s the rundown on the $100 deal.

Easy as that. Keep it mind is that this card has a $125 annual fee, which is waived the first year.

If you liked this deal, you may also be interested in the AMEX Starwood free $100 Amazon gift card offer.

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Comments (25)
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  1. Eric said:
    on December 23rd at 05:25 am

    After redeeming my points a week ago and receiving my gift card in the mail, I called customer service this evening with plans to cancel the card. They told me they would add 2,500 points to my account if I kept it open. Might as well, its another $25 gift card.

  2. prof adler said:
    on December 30th at 01:34 am

    I want to make sure that this is not phishing.
    I called AXP and they said that there is no offer pending and I shouldn’t trust this offer. BUT it looks real to me.

  3. Bankaholic.com said:
    on January 7th at 07:23 am

    This is not fishing. If you look at the domain, it is from the American Express official web site.

  4. prof adler said:
    on January 11th at 01:50 am

    I think it is real, but axp say that the site should be
    https://www.americanexpress.com/
    not
    https://www201.americanexpress.com/
    the phone operators are lame so I bet they arewrong and I’m about to sign up.

  5. Cy said:
    on March 20th at 04:27 pm

    This is a PHISHING SITE, DO NOT USE!!!!

  6. Oz Shah said:
    on March 20th at 06:43 pm

    Cy: Are you sure? credentials look legit on the site…I dont see any funkified links …..

  7. Bankaholic.com said:
    on March 23rd at 06:18 am

    Cy,
    We are not a phishing site.

  8. prof adler said:
    on June 8th at 03:54 am

    It was legit
    Not sure if they still have this offer

  9. tom b said:
    on August 14th at 03:41 am

    Got rejected. Those bastards came up with all these BS reasons too. This is what they said:
    Too many accounts with balances (Experian)

    Number, type, and recency of inquiries (Experian)

    Too few credit card accounts on which, in our estimation, you have paid a majority of the balance in recent months. (Experian)

    Number of closed accounts (Experian)

  10. tom b said:
    on August 14th at 03:42 am

    i have opened and closed a number of accounts, but I’ve paid my balance in full every single month, and usually pay off balances with an online payment immediately after making purchases. this is really bs, i have a great credit score

  11. Alex said:
    on August 14th at 12:32 pm

    I think I did an AMEX promotion for this card last year. I have since canceled, but am I eligible for this one?

  12. Andreas said:
    on August 14th at 06:16 pm

    Every time you close a credit card account, your credit score can go down, especially if you’ve had the account for a long time. Account history is a part of your credit score. So if you no longer want to use an account, cut up the card and make sure there are no accumulating maintenance and other fees. Like that, your score stays intact.

  13. tom b said:
    on August 15th at 05:21 am

    andreas-
    it is true that canceling cards does lower your credit score, which is ridiculous but that’s aside the point. i heard it only affects your score for about 6 months. in the long run i think it’s better to just cancel the card because 1)that way you don’t have to worry about unauthorized use, and 2)it will help your credit score in the long run because not the hit on your credit score from canceling goes away while the hit on your score from accumulating 12 different cards may continue to lower your credit score as long as you have them. care to debate? i’d like to hear some concrete arguments to the contrary.

  14. Andreas said:
    on August 15th at 07:53 pm

    tom b-
    it’s all a balancing act, I’d say… Cancelling your oldest card is not a good move for sure, since this shortens your “length of credit history”. I found this article about it: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/Financial_Literacy/June07_credit_scores_ABC_a2.asp?s=3&caret=36b

    Cancelling a more recent card is also not good for your credit score, because this will lower your dept to credit ratio (more credit and less dept is best). By cancelling a card, you have less credit at your disposal.

    Contrary to what credit card companies sometimes want you to believe, you are almost never responsible for unauthorized charges. I haven’t read any small-print about this recently, but as long as you report unauthorized use within a given time-frame, report a stolen card immediately, and take reasonable mesures to protect your cards and pins from being stolen, the credit card company is liable.

    Unfortunately, I don’t know about the 6 month period you mention.

    Last but not least, you mention accumulating 12 credit cards. This relates to “Types of credit in use” on the above website. 12 cards, 2 car payments and a mortgage payment are certainly a better mix than 12 cards only. Unfortunately again, I don’t know what is too many cards, but 12 cards means that one has to apply for a new card quite often, and every application is mentioned on your credit report and too many applications over a longer period lower your score… So it really is a balancing act in my opinion.

    Don’t hesitate to reply with your thoughts.

  15. JB said:
    on August 20th at 06:32 pm

    I have Blue from Amex, and was thinking about the Gold. When I logged into the amex website, there was a chat box with an operator. I asked if I qualified for the 10,000 points and 1st yr fee free, she said that the 10,000 points offer was not available, but that she could waive the first year. I asked if the 10,000 points offer would be available in the future, she said if they do, they usually mail an offer to select customers. So not sure if this offer was valid, and if so, it’s probably expired. Just my 2 cents.

  16. JB said:
    on August 20th at 07:12 pm

    I stand corrected. I phoned amex just to confirm, she said that the website has different offers that what the phone operators can offer. she said they were legit. I went ahead and applied and should get the card in a week or so. Will let you know if I get my points!!

  17. Rick said:
    on August 21st at 08:14 pm

    Are you people kidding me your credit score will go up if you close credit cards that are paid in full. Why because if you have many creditcards with high limits(12,000etc.) Creditors will be hesitant in granting you more credit because you have a chance to go deep in debt in there eyes! When I bought my mortgage my agent told me to close every card that is paid in full, (but of course keep one or two open). what happened , my score went dramatically up!

  18. Andreas said:
    on August 21st at 08:53 pm

    Rick-
    Can you give us some more information? Amount of available credit before and after you closed some of your accounts? Number of accounts before and after?

    One part of the credit score is the credit-to-dept ratio. It’s usually expressed in a percentage: 10% e.g. would be if you had $1000 of available credit and a balance of $100. The lower this percentage, the better. But I don’t know the following example would affect your credit score: 5 cards/accounts, $20,000 limit on each one (=$100,000 credit line), $100 total balance spread across the 5 cards. Your credit to dept ratio would then be 0.1%. In theory, this is good, but is this useless when it comes to your credit score because you might then not have a healthy credit mix? (e.g. no mortgage, no car payments)

  19. Free Gift Cards said:
    on September 1st at 02:36 am

    This is a great free stuff site! Love it!

  20. Oz Shah said:
    on December 13th at 05:53 am

    ndreas said:
    on August 21st at 08:53 pm

    Rick-
    Can you give us some more information? Amount of available credit before and after you closed some of your accounts? Number of accounts before and after?

    One part of the credit score is the credit-to-dept ratio. It’s usually expressed in a percentage: 10% e.g. would be if you had $1000 of available credit and a balance of $100. The lower this percentage, the better. But I don’t know the following example would affect your credit score: 5 cards/accounts, $20,000 limit on each one (=$100,000 credit line), $100 total balance spread across the 5 cards. Your credit to dept ratio would then be 0.1%. In theory, this is good, but is this useless when it comes to your credit score because you might then not have a healthy credit mix? (e.g. no mortgage, no car payments)

  21. Oz Shah said:
    on December 13th at 05:54 am

    #
    Andreas said:
    on August 15th at 07:53 pm

    tom b-
    it’s all a balancing act, I’d say… Cancelling your oldest card is not a good move for sure, since this shortens your “length of credit history”. I found this article about it: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/Financial_Literacy/June07_credit_scores_ABC_a2.asp?s=3&caret=36b

    Cancelling a more recent card is also not good for your credit score, because this will lower your dept to credit ratio (more credit and less dept is best). By cancelling a card, you have less credit at your disposal.

    Contrary to what credit card companies sometimes want you to believe, you are almost never responsible for unauthorized charges. I haven’t read any small-print about this recently, but as long as you report unauthorized use within a given time-frame, report a stolen card immediately, and take reasonable mesures to protect your cards and pins from being stolen, the credit card company is liable.

    Unfortunately, I don’t know about the 6 month period you mention.

    Last but not least, you mention accumulating 12 credit cards. This relates to “Types of credit in use” on the above website. 12 cards, 2 car payments and a mortgage payment are certainly a better mix than 12 cards only. Unfortunately again, I don’t know what is too many cards, but 12 cards means that one has to apply for a new card quite often, and every application is mentioned on your credit report and too many applications over a longer period lower your score… So it really is a balancing act in my opinion.

    Don’t hesitate to reply with your thoughts.

  22. prof adler said:
    on December 22nd at 07:10 am

    After selling my $100 starbux gift card for $75 via craigslist I called to cancel this AXP card. They offered me $25 credit on AXP. SO, I figure after I spend the $25 on gas I’ll cancel AXP card sometime next year.

  23. gabe said:
    on December 27th at 07:57 pm

    no they’re not

Trackbacks

  1. Money Market News » FREE $100 GC @ AMEX Preferred CardBest CD (Certificate of Deposit) Rates, Money Market Rates, High Interest Accounts
  2. FREE $150 GC - Citi PremierPass Signup Bonus at Best CD (Certificate of Deposit) Rates, Money Market Rates, High Interest Accounts

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