American Express: Should You Upgrade From The Cobalt Card To The Gold Card?

At this time, American Express Canada is offering select American Express ^Cobalt® Cardmembers the opportunity to upgrade to the American Express Gold Rewards^® Card.

Upgrade to a Card now, and you could earn 20,000 bonus Membership Rewards points by making $3,000 in purchases on your Card in the first three months of membership + you could earn 10,000 points by making a purchase between the 14th and 17th months of membership.

Let’s quickly compare the benefits of the American Express Cobalt^® Card and the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card.

The American Express Cobalt^MD Card is unbeatable when it comes to accumulating points: you can earn between 1 and 5 points per dollar.

This is a 1 to 5% return on all these purchases.

Just like the American Express^MD Gold Rewards Card, you can easily use these points as statement credit towards your everyday or travel purchases. The value is the same for both: 1,000 points = $10.

Or you can transfer them into Aeroplan points, Avios (British Airways/Qatar Airways), Flying Blue, Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors.

The American Express Cobalt^MD Card has a monthly fee of $12.99, which translates into $155.88 per year.

So? What should you do if you are an American Express Cobalt^MD Card holder and American Express Canada suggests you upgrade to the American Express^MD Gold Rewards Card?

First, analyze your spending in the 5X categories (grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores, food delivery). And don’t forget the gift cards you can buy in grocery stores.

For example, if you spend $1,000 per month on groceries and/or restaurants and/or food delivery, you’ll earn 5,000 points or $50 cash back per month, or 50,000 points or $500 cash back per year with this card for this purchase category!

By upgrading to the American Express^MD Gold Rewards Card, you will now earn only 2 points per dollar for groceries and only 1 point per dollar for restaurants, convenience stores and food delivery.

Truth be told, the only category of purchase where the American Express^MD Gold Rewards Card stands out is at pharmacies, offering 2 points per dollar (compared with just 1 point for the American Express Cobalt^MD Card).

On the other hand, if you don’t have a lot of spending in the 5 points-per-dollar categories (or have another American Express Cobalt^MD Card in your household), switching from the American Express Cobalt^MD Card to the American Express^MD Gold Rewards Card may be worth considering to benefit from:

• The Welcome Bonus Offer
• The travel benefits

This offer may also be of interest to people who already have the American Express^MD Gold Rewards Card (and who have already obtained a welcome bonus for this Card via this offer, for example).

And then, afterwards, you may eventually apply again for an American Express Cobalt^MD Card (however, you probably won’t be eligible for the welcome bonus, as American Express has tightened the rules considerably since 2020).

Having received this offer myself – and being the holder of both Cards – I’m not going to accept it. Although the offer sounds tempting, I don’t want to part with the American Express Cobalt^MD Card, which I still consider one of the best credit cards in Canada.

It’s a card I renew year after year (and we explain why here).

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And then, this offer to switch from the American Express Cobalt^MD Card to the American Express^MD Gold Rewards Card makes me assume that American Express is looking for fewer holders of the very lucrative American Express Cobalt^MD Card!

In particular, following this latest news:

• recent changes affecting the Platinum Card^MD from American Express and the Business Platinum Card^MD from American Express,
• the addition of a $2,500 monthly purchase limit in the 5-point category of the American Express Cobalt^MD Card

All the more reason to keep my American Express Cobalt^MD Card in my credit card portfolio!