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Personal Finance (Not Investing) • What's Your Credit Card Rewards Strategy?

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Though I'm brand new to this particular thread, I'd love some advice from you Bogleheads in the US:

Is it worth paying $650 in exchange for 100,000 Membership points from American Express?

The question came up today because I got an offer for the Gold card. I have no use for the card except for that bonus, which I can earn easily. I know some would value that number of points at $2,000. So is it really a "slam dunk"? Is it worth it?

In order to keep good relations with American Express, I would plan on paying the annual fee twice and cancelling before the third year. In other words, I would not try to save $325, knowing how obvious a cancellation within twelve months would appear to the issuer.
I don't think so, but I don't like playing miles games. In order to get the max value, you'd have to transfer to an airline points program and find a sweet points deal. Some examples: https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/s ... p-rewards/

If you don't, then you are just going to have to redeem them for gift cards at $1000 value, but since you paid $650 fees that means you only got a $350 bonus. There are plenty of free or low fee cards with better bonuses than that.
Actually, 100,000 points are only worth $700 in Amazon gift cards. If you redeem the points for cash, they are only worth $600. So outside of travel, Amex points are a terrible value.

Statistics: Posted by safari — Fri Aug 09, 2024 3:00 pm — Replies 7317 — Views 1487474



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