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25,000 Point Sign-up Bonus for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card

by on February 21, 2012 · 19 comments

in American Express, Credit Cards

For the past year or so, the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card has had a 15,000 point sign-up bonus, but today American Express raised it to 25,000 after $2,000 in spend within the first three months and the $175 annual fee is waived the first year. While 25,000 isn’t exactly earth-shattering, it’s still a 67% increase. However, some TPG readers have gotten 50,000-75,000, so if you feel lucky, it might make sense to hold off for a targeted offer, though there’s nothing you can do to increase your chance of getting one. Also, if you’ve applied recently and only got 15,000 points, it could be worth a shot to send a secure message to Amex to ask for the 10,000 point difference in sign-up bonus.

If you are currently a Premier Rewards cardholder, you can refer friends and receive 5,000 Membership Rewards points by using this link (you must be logged out of your Amex account or else it may not load properly).

While 25,000 points isn’t the highest sign-up bonus out there, this card is all about the point-earning benefits. For me, it’s my #2 workhorse card after the Sapphire Preferred card because it’s the most lucrative earning Amex card out there and the $175 annual fee pays for itself if you spend enough and in the right categories.

Key benefits:
3 points per dollar spent on airfare booked through any site (including airlines directly) as long as the purchase is coded as airfare and 4 points per dollar if booked through Amex Travel.
2 points per dollar spent on gas and groceries
15,000 point bonus when you spend $30,000 annual. This essentially amounts to earning 1.5 Amex points per base dollar spent for the first $30,000 in spend (not including any bonuses for airfare/gas/groceries).
Purchase Protection

Main downsides:
2.7% foreign transaction fee. I never use this card abroad
$175 annual fee is steep compared to $95 on the Sapphire card

Related information: Comparing the Premier Rewards Gold vs. the normal Gold card

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author.s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.

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  • http://twitter.com/sarahcpedersen Sarah Pedersen

    Cool! I was just telling some friends about the Premier Rewards Gold Card this weekend… Do you know if there’s a way that I can send them this deal (via my account) so that I can get my 10K bonus for each person who signs up?

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    Actually thats a 10k link but if you read the T&C it says they had to be submitted by Feb 13. You can try this link for 5,000
    http://americanexpress.com/refer

  • arjun

    I was targeted for 75k after $1500/3 months PRG after filling out my info in the “view your special offers” page:

    https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/25330?linknav=us-CCSG-ProspectNav-SpecialOffers#!view-your-special-offers

    Seems to only work for non-AMEX holders. I was also targeted for 77.5k Delta Gold card after $10,000/6 months.

  • Bender

    Crap. My platinum fee is due in 7 days and I’m not sure what to do with my 70k MR points. I just got the Sapphire Preferred so that’s tying up my spending ability for 2 more months and I won’t hit the $30 bonus on the PRG. Think its better to apply for this anyway at 25k MR or maybe better to toss the points into Flying Blue with the 25% bonus (although I think there are fuel surcharges here from the US-Europe)?

    I’m stuck

  • Anonymous

    Flying Blue has crazy fuel surcharges- the only way to make that work is to take advantage of the rotating promo awards and booking business class (since fees on coach tickets are nearly the price of coach!).

    I think this offer is good and will allow you to keep banking Amex points without a fee for the next year. That was you can take advantage of a better transfer bonus if and when it comes along.

  • http://profiles.google.com/eheinz Erik Heinz

    http://americanexpress.com/refermygold is the current one as far as I know.

    I have a postcard that says referred applicants must apply by 3/31, be approved by 4/15. However, when I go to the URL and login the terms say I can refer people all the way up 12/31/12 and they must apply by 1/10/13. And I can score up to 250K max with 50 referrals.

  • Lantean

    well, it’s actually not as bad as you think… why not just pay the annual fee on the platinum card and then when a better gold or business gold card offer comes along, get it and cancel the platinum. you will get the unused portion of your annual fee back ($37.50 for each month remaining). chances are in 2 months there may be a decent offer… so it’ll cost you only $70 to keep the points alive, plus you’ll have the platinum card for those 2 months for lounge access.

  • tripper

    Is there a way to book Delta using Flying Blue points that there won’t be surcharge. If there is where can I search for that availability?

  • Anonymous

    Search on Delta for the low availability flights (Delta flights) and then search those same dates with Flying Blue when you locate them. You will be able to book that same flight with the same fee that Delta would leverage ($50).

  • Ryan

    I’ve had the Amex Gold card for about nine months now and I’d really like to upgrade to the PRG card to take advantage of the additional rewards. Is it possible to upgrade without having a hard pull of my credit report?

  • Anonymous

    You. An upgrade without a pull but you won’t get the 25k sign up

  • BigJim

    I’ve had this card before, then upgraded to platinum. If I applied again, would I be able to get the bonus?
    Thanks

  • Anonymous

    As TPG mentioned, there’s been WAY better. IMO hold off…

    After following TPG the past year or so:
    PRG Personal – 75k (with some people getting extra bonuses along the way)
    PRG Business – 75k
    AMEX Plat – 100k

    I don’t think I could sign up for a card with under a 50k bonus and be happy about it these days.

  • PJ

    I am better off with at least one card to work on signon bonus AT ALL TIMES if possible. Citi world dividend rebates $200 after 500 spend. I am ON. also United Explorer with5o K signon bonus on 1st purchase

  • PJ

    if your credit score is above 800 and have no borrowing plans in sight do you worry credit pull at all? i would try to pull in all possible decent bonus offers as much as they can give me

  • Darko

    Hello all, I am new to this portal (and international btw), so I might need your help…

    I received AMEX mail pre-approved application offering me PRG card and giving me 50,000 points redeemable toward $500 in gift cards at select retail – Home Depo, Barnes & Noble, PF Changs HOHL’s The Cheesecake Fastory and other irrelevant… (just have to spend $1,000 in the first three months, 1 year $175 fee waived)…

    Now at this portal I see that some people got $75,000 (probably other conditions applies)

    Then I went to see special offers for me and is says Sorry no offer for you…

    I’ve never been holding AMEX card except this summer when I interned for Big4 who uses their cards (returned the card back)…

    And when I try to log in to AMEX with my username, I couldn’t (did 3 times and my account has been locked)…

    My question is whether this is a good offer, is there any better, like $75,000, does referral program works if friend referred me to AMEX…

    Thank you for your help….

    Darko

  • Jforce

    Hi TPG,

    I recently just received a PR Gold card and was only granted 10,000 points. I called AMEX and requested that not only was I shorted from the original 15,000 point offer, I wanted to see if they could increase my bonus to 25,00o points. Well I was on the phone for a good 45 minutes and essentially they played dumb to this offer saying they couldn’t find it online. Eventually they transferred me to the operator without my discretion and when I dialed back in they were closed! I’m new to AMEX and I know this may sound like I’m being greedy for an extra 15k points but I feel I got the short end of the stick on this one…not to mention very unimpressed with how they handled this request.

    Very simply, any recommendations on how to get the additional 15k?

    Thanks!

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