Thread: My first post and my first Gold Card

Hello all.

I am excited and it little scared. I was just approved for a Gold Card. I use to have an AMEX years ago when I was in my 20s and I screwed it up big time. I paid it off and I thought AMEX would never accept me again.

I received an invitation letter in the mail and thought, what the heck, I will try it. I have been working hard to improve my credit and I guess it paid off. I was instantly approved! Now I am over 40 and I want to make sure that I do not screw it up again. I am much wiser but I still want to be careful. I read the info posted here about the Gold Card. Do you all have any additional advice?

Thank you, I am listening, and I will follow the advice.

first of all congratulations on getting your gold card. advise I would say use it responsiblely.

will you be using the card for personal use or do you travel on business?

when I was in my mid 20's I got turned down for the Gold card when the annual fee was both 65 and 75.00 congratulations on getting the gold card.

Congratulations on the new card!

Only advice I would give is leverage your Internet access to manage your card. It is much easier now than 20+ years ago too:
1. Check your current balance
2. Make a payment mid month
3. Ensure you are not over spending or forget charges

Keeping an eye on your spending online has helped a few people (me included) realize some of our bad spending habits. Perfect example is a co-worker did not realize she put almost $2k on her Amex until she checked the balance Wednesday. Really opened her eyes to what she did over the weekend.

Thank you all.

I will be using the card for personal use and travel. My wife and I travel quite a bit. So I plan to use the card for car rentals, hotels etc...

It was so embarrassing early in our marriage since my credit was bad and she had to use her card for everything. So I was determined to improve my credit.

Here's another lesser known perk with AmEx. If they are able to look up your old account info, they can backdate your current card so the "member since" date on your card is the date you opened up the original card 20 years ago. Best of all, they report that date to the credit bureaus so it looks like your AmEx has been open for decades. It'll do wonders for your credit score by improving your average age of accounts!

Originally Posted by jeffysdad

Set the account up for autopay where Amex will automatically debit your checking account for the full amount due on the same date every month. You can usually pick the date; pick one you will remember.

Be careful with this. Amex will debit the minimum due not the full statement balance. They let you carry a balance from large purchases. If you only pay teh minimum due you will build up debt and pay a lot of interest.

Thanks, I will remember that.