Once I considered how many points I was leaving on the table, I looked at what my family was spending each month and added up the points we could have been earning just by using this card over other rewards credit cards.
Amex Gold Dining Rewards
We were spending about $350 a month between coffee shops, restaurants, Uber Eats and more, which, over the course of a year, added up to about $4,000. That may sound like a lot, but I’d challenge you to go back and look at all those latte charges. They add up!
Doing the math, that translates to 16,000 points annually when you’re earning 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar and spending $4,000 a year.
Amex Gold Grocery Rewards
We love to cook at home, entertain and buy a lot of our stuff from grocery stores. Spending $500 a week is a no-brainer for us, especially considering the number of things that our local grocery stores sell.
Many of the stores you frequent will likely code their purchases as grocery stores, so check out with small purchases at some of the stores near you. And don’t forget that your holiday purchases at year’s end might be a lot more than you originally thought.
$25,000 a year at grocery stores at 4 points per dollar meant we were building up a cool 100,000 points in our account each year.
Amex Gold Flight Rewards
For a long time, we used airline-specific credit cards to earn airline miles, but if we ended up buying with a different airline, we’d earn fewer miles. It made sense for us to move our airline ticket spending to a card that earns flexible rewards, like Membership Rewards, so we have more options on how to use our points.
We spent about $3,000 a year on flights using the card last year, so we earned 9,000 Membership Rewards points just by using this card instead of others.
Amex Offers
American Express has a program known as Amex Offers. By simply adding an offer to your card and then using it, you can save money in the form of statement credits or bonus Membership Rewards points. The savings or number of points you earn can be substantial, for anything from clothing purchases to buying coffee.
We often purchase electronics from Best Buy, so I was excited to see an offer come up for 1 extra Membership Reward point per eligible dollar up to 5,000 points.
In one year alone, we earned just over 30,000 Membership Rewards from these unique Amex Offers.
Rakuten Shopping Portal
One often overlooked benefit of having an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards, like the Amex Gold, is the Rakuten shopping portal. By starting your shopping here, you’ll earn a percentage of your purchase back.
Rakuten is different in that the cash back can be earned as Membership Rewards points. In our history with Rakuten and American Express, we’ve earned over 200,000 extra points. Your points earned will vary, so I won’t add these points to this equation, but just know you can add more points to your balance with this shopping portal.
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