Trying to decide if I should get the Amex Gold Card. The $325 annual fee is giving me pause.

I am looking to get my first grown up credit card, do you get enough out of the card for the $325 AF to be worth it? I got a new job and want to start utilizing a good credit card is this the way to go or should i look somewhere else?

For those who don’t know the Charles Schwab Investor Credit Card is a card the earns 1.5% cash back that is automatically invested into an eligible Charles Schwab account. Obviously these earning rates are poor in comparison to its peers like the Fidelity Rewards and Robinhood Gold. I wanted community feedback on how American Express/Charles Schwab could improve this credit card to make it just as good or better than another card like the Fidelity Visa.

4 days in San Antonio, Texas on the river walk, intercontinental hotel.

Booking was $1,100

$300 Amex hotel credit
$250 free night
$100 property credit
$240 breakfast credit ($60 per day)
$100 Resy credit

Yes, I had to spend from the “coupon book”. But at the end of the day, this is $990 of real world goods and services, that did NOT come out of my bank account.

It could be argued that I would not spend $60 a day for breakfast, but I am certainly going to eat breakfast somewhere right?

It could also be argued that I don’t need to spend $100 in the hotel bar, but I would anyway.

And this is before any of the perks or benefits or statuses, or free vacations. I cannot tell you how happy I am with the value of this card.

I have the gold and blue business plus card. Absolutely love them and utilize every credit on my gold. I really wanted to complete the trifecta but knowing that the plat is only really good for flights has held me back. Well, that and not getting offered the 175k sub.

Once the gold card got the hotel perks it made me kinda bummed because that took half of what made the plat special. Don't get me wrong, I will use Lulu, uber eats, resy, etc etc but the exclusivity of the card doesn't quite seem to be there. Any insights?

So even though I've been in the Amex ecosystem since around 2008, I've never held the Amex Green, Amex Gold, or Amex Platinum cards. I just got rid of Amex Biz Platinum card and my goal is to get the Schwab Amex Platinum within the next 1-2 years, but since I know applying for that will mean I can never get the Amex Green or Amex Gold SUB's, I'm trying to decide on my strategy right now which is either:

Option 1

• Get the Amex Green for 40k SUB
• Wait for an upgrade offer to Amex Gold and hope it's high (anything under 60k means I should have just gone for the Amex Gold to start)
• If I don't get an upgrade offer for Gold, apply for it on my own in a year

The main benefit of going this route is I could potentially get an upgrade offer of 80k-100k points so that I'd earn 120k-140k points total, but I'm not sure how rare that is. The main downside is that it will extend how long it will take me to get a Schwab Platinum card (could be 1-2 years before I get it), since I might have to wait 6-12 months for an upgrade offer or apply for the Gold seperately.

Option 2

• Get the Amex Gold for the 100k SUB bonus now
• Apply for the Schwab Platinum in 6-12 months

The main benefit of going this route is that it locks in the 100k SUB for Gold now, which I know is at or near an all-time high. The main downside is it means I'll never get at Amex Green SUB offer (I know 40k isn't amazing, but I'm looking to get the new card sooner rather than later)

Some other factors to consider are:

Even though I can apply for the Green, Gold, and Schwab Platinum separately, I'd like to avoid applying for all 3 as I've signed up for 3 personal credit cards in the last year (Atmos Summit, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Citi AAdvantage Platinum)

I've historically been a high spender with Amex generally putting around $100k-$150k/year in spend on my various Amex cards, at least over the last few years. Only mentioning this in case it makes it more likely that I'd get a nice upgrade offer from Green to Gold

I do not want to take advantage of a Green to Platinum offer, as I want the Schwab Platinum as a forever card, so if you think there's a decent chance my Green upgrade offer will be to Platinum and not Gold, let me know.

Questions are:

• In my shoes, would you go for Option 1 or Option 2? Why?
• What do you think the odds are of me being offered 60k or more to upgrade to Gold?

And if there's another path/strategy you think I should consider, I'm all ears!

I haven’t seen this posted elsewhere, other than “will they reimburse the new $219 amount?”.

Though the tracker title still says “$209 CLEAR+ Credit”, the progress bar tops out at “$219 To Go”.

For my CS Platinum - I would assume for all other cards with the benefit.

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Does my one have any idea whether it will be beneficial to hold the amex green card on August 20, when it is to be renamed the “classic green card”

I’m considering applying prior to the renaming / refresh.

Can I use my monthly $10 Uber Credit Balance to pay for Uber One every month? I am not sure if that is possible or if people do that, but would love to know.

I just got the Card yesterday and already checked with Support and am not eligible for the Uber One Membership credit because I did not have an account soon enough for those that might ask about that.

The Amex Green is due for a refresh soon and I’m curious to know what ideas people may have for what that would look like. I think I direct competitor/hybrid of the Citi Strata Premier and Chase Sapphire Preferred would be nice. Credits definitely need some work as CLEAR while a good idea on paper just doesn’t get much practical use. I would love to see maybe something Resy as I know that is Amex bread and butter for these cards and maybe also a hotel credit mixed with something of else. Any thoughts?

Hello everyone I recently booked an Ana flight to Japan with points but it won’t let me upgrade cabins. Does anyone know why ?