American Express Gold Card Dining Credits
One of the great benefits of my American Express Gold card is the $10 monthly dining credits. With a $120 a year per card, it can cover a large chunk of the $250 annual fee. This is a great card for when you venture over 5/24 and in fact I have more than one. This can be done via upgrades or downgrades from other Membership rewards earning cards or just by grabbing a second one without a welcome offer attached. What I want to focus on is using the American Express Gold card dining credits and how it can all go wrong if you aren't diligent.
A Little Background On The Amex Gold Dining Credit
As I said above this comes via a monthly credit, which can become kind of tedious at times. It would be nice if American Express just gave you a $120 credit to use how you saw fit throughout the year. That would make it too easy to use though! The credit card issuers love these monthly credits broken up over a year because it causes breakage. The $10 a month credits are also limited to the following options that trigger the credit:
- Grubhub
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Milk Bar
- Wine.com
- Shake Shack (participating locations)
My Recent Failure With Amex Gold Dining Credits
Every once in a while, many of us may like to play things a little too close. From time to time I forget about the credits until the end of the month and this happened once just last month. Yes, even with the Travel on Point(s) monthly reminder post, I waited until the last day of the month. I placed two orders, one at 4:17 PM and one at 4:19 PM Pacific time. I noticed after the purchase that the charges showed as pending per usual, but when they officially posted the charge was listed as June 1st. This meant, the credits posted as June and I missed out on $20 in credits.
Firing Up Amex Chat
I decided it was worth it to try and reach out to American Express. After all I had the receipts, I saw it pending with May 31st date and thought I might get lucky. Unfortunately, the chat rep did not feel sorry for me at all. After a very lengthy wait the rep directed me to the terms and conditions page for the dining credit. Amex told me to pound sand essentially. It is still worth a try since you may get a more willing rep that will offer a one time courtesy.
Using American Express Gold Card Dining Credits: ToP Thoughts
The moral of the story is to not be a Rick. Do not wait until the last day of the month. In fact, you should really set a monthly calendar reminder to use these in the first week or so of the month to be safe.
The terms are very clear, but I think we forget that technology is not always on our side in this world of instant charges. Using American Express Gold card dining credits are a valuable part of offsetting the annual fee. Follow our Travel on Points monthly checklist and get ahead of the game.
Have you made the same mistake before with this credit or another one? Come over to our Facebook group and share your scars with us.
