American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card

I can make installments on my gold if I wish. Doesn't need to be paid in full. They are just going to charge crazy interest.

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I have never had a credit card. My wife has one. My credit score is excellent but quite frankly I'm just afraid of credit cards because of all the stories I hear about them.

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I find it easier to budget with a credit card, but that's me.

As far as the card goes, odds are you won't see a better offer on the PRG. Should you keep it after the first year? It shouldn't be hard to earn enough points to offset the annual fee.

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The only way to justify the PRG or Platinum is to take full advantage of what they offer. My wife and I flew to Paris last year solely on Amex points earned in 9 months on my PRG. I got the 50k offer, and another 15k bonus for spending $30k on it in a year.
With either gold or platinum, you see the most value if you travel. With the PRG you get $100 in airline credit per year, dropping your annual fee to $95 right there. The platinum airline reimbursement is $200 of the $450 annual fee. If you travel a whole bunch you'd be wise to just get the platinum.
Customer service is great. Their app is the best financial institution app I've used.

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I dont know man I find all credit card perks to just be garbage. Im with the chase private client group and they gave me the palladium card and it literally does nothing special for the $600 I think I paid, Im cancelling that when the renewal is up and its supposed to be the most exclusive card or whatever the banker told me. The black amex, I could get it i bc I charge $3-5K a day at sams club buying cigarettes and tobacco alone but it has a $7500 first year total cost and I just saw zero perks other than maybe egotistically that would recoup that cost. Its just silly what all these card companies are doing.

IMO the best card hands down depends on what city you live in, for me in Houston, the presidential plus visa is the one bc I can go in the lounge when I travel, its accepted everywhere(amex you still have issues in some places), and the cost isn't too bad. When American Express has their lounges in every airport, that will be when I go back to the platinum card but for now the clubs are scarce and just not worth it.

Amex cards are nice bc they have no limits and in my line of work you're literally living off credit from the tobacco to the alcohol vendors to the soda & water vendors then the separate snack companies and whatever other nonsense vs the Visa I was always having to either pay off my balance early or ask them for upgrades which they do so slowly.

The bottom line is the green card from amex is imo the best card on earth and its $95/year and does everything the gold,platinum even the black card does for $7500 the first year. The only difference I think is the no hotel and rental car upgrades, not a big deal to me and no buy 1 get 1 free first class tickets which isnt really an issue for me bc Im not gonna pay $16k full fare for a first class overseas ticket anyways.

I have a friend that flies for business at least once a month and travels another 10-15 times a year for pleasure and he carries Amex platinum and citi prestige card. He follows the points guy pretty regularly and strategically uses all his credit cards. He told me he never charges anything on his Amex platinum or citi prestige, he just holds it for them travel benefits.

He uses a different Amex card linked to the same membership rewards account for a lot of his spending, as that card earns more points per transaction.

someone that travels as much as he does can easily justify the $450/year annual fee of those types of cards.

Which card do you use for your SAMs club purchases? The pres plus?

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First off the points you mention in supermarkets is up to $6000/year no more, believe me I had the talk with them bc we spend more than that at home on grocery purchases and I was wondering why the points stopped.

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The points don't "stop" as I understand it; at least not for my Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card. I get 6% back at grocery stores, up to $6,000 a year. After that amount you still get rewards, just at a 1% rate.

I was gonna say that you might switch to the united club card since you are based in Houston. It gives 1.5 United miles per $ spent and will get you into the United airport clubs. I think SAMs will take that card. This is the new version of the pres plus card but it doesn't give you elite qualifying miles like the pres plus does.

The Amex prg will give you 2x points on groceries. I don't think there is a limit.

I agree the centurion is worthless from an economic perspective.

Man that's a pain in the butt. With that much in expenses though, I would try to maximize and diversify your points stash. You should never pay for a flight or hotel room with that kind of point generating ability and you should be taking some really fine trips too.

At $50k spend per week, you should be banking enough for 2 domestic flights and a week of nice hotel per month.

trust me when I say, its not what you think. We're in an industry of razor thin margins. I spend $6 on a pack of cigarettes to net .50 if that. Its just an industry where charges are enormous bc you're buying 100 types of cigarettes by the carton then you look at a cooler, how many drinks are in there these days? My god the monster reps come meet me with new drinks all the time and you buy by the cases. Its very capital intensive I mean 1 case of monster is $31+ then they've got multiple sizes of each flavor and thats why you see today corporations are taking over and squeezing out the little guy. In the 1980s gas stations were these little 300 sq ft stores that sold gas, today these megastores have tons and tons of inventory as margins on gas have collapsed.