Two Common Rewards the American Express Gold Rewards Card Is Not Giving You

What’s The Amex Gold Rewards Card Missing?

First Published Date: November 15, 2015

Although the American Express Gold Rewards Card is a premium travel rewards card with a hefty $150 annual fee, it’s missing two common benefits that are a must for a travel rewards card. Most other premium travel credit cards that have an annual fee of $99 to $120 will provide you these important benefits.

These two benefits are:

– Trip Cancellation Insurance and

– Concierge Service

You should not go on a trip without these two, as they will be lifesavers in case you have to cancel your trip or require assistance before or during with concierge service help.

Trip Cancellation Insurance reimburses you in case a trip has to be cancelled due to covered causes like illness, death, and much more. Concierge Service is like having your own personal assistant and can help you in various scenarios in your own country or foreign lands where you don’t know anyone.

Features like these (and many others like those discussed here) aren’t provided by the American Express Gold Rewards Card, but you will find these features in many other travel rewards credit cards that have a lower annual fee than Amex gold.

Before making your rewards credit cards selections, do thorough research and visit the A Dawn Journal Credit Card Section for more tips. Here are some articles you can start with.

Credit Card Travel Emergency Hacks You Were Not Aware Of

How Your Credit Cards Can Help in a Travel Emergency

First Published Date : June 25, 2016

When you are travelling, if you run into unexpected troubles or in the event of emergency, travel credit cards can help you in foreign lands 24/7 and help is only a phone call away. You can even make free collect calls from foreign countries. Today, I will go over some of these free services that travel credit cards come with that can be lifesavers if you run into troubles.

You Lost Your Luggage – You can go through the traditional system in place and file a complaint that usually ends up with you making endless calls or spending a lot of time talking to the airline counter OR you can just call the concierge service provided by your credit cards and they will take care of the rest. Better yet, you may be eligible to receive coverage for expenses that incur due to lost luggage if your card provides lost luggage insurance.

You Are Stranded at Airport – A call to your concierge can sort things out for you and you may be eligible to receive coverage for costs such as hotel, transportation, food, and others if your card provides Flight Delay insurance.

You Need Medical Help – If you need medical assistance in foreign lands, travel credit cards can offer referrals to doctors, hospitals, consultation, medical transportation to the nearest facility or to your home country, transport your family from home to you, air-transport you from a foreign country to your home country if required, provide payments for all these costs and much more. Just make sure your travel credit cards come with a solid medical travel insurance from a reputable insurance provider.

You Need Legal Assistance – If you run into legal problems in foreign countries such as involved in car accidents, detained by local authorities, and so on, your travel credit cards can arrange to seek help from lawyers, embassies or consulates, assist with bail bond and so on.

You Lost Everything – You lost your passport, travel documents, cash and are stranded in the middle of nowhere? Relax and take a deep breath. Your travel credit cards can arrange and provide emergency cash, card replacement, assist with replacement travel documents, tickets, visa, immigration, customs, and much more.

What I mentioned above and possibly more can be covered by your travel credit cards. The art is to pick the best travel credit cards that meet your needs and make sure the concierge and insurance benefits are provided by reputable providers with adequate coverage. A Dawn Journal has lots of credit card articles that are unbiased and without any affiliations to any credit cards, unlike most other sites (meaning I do not collect any commissions for referring or providing links to credit card companies). And also keep an open for my next book Credit Card Hacks: What Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You to Know.

Which Credit Cards Offer an Annual Companion Flight?

Save Money with an Annual Companion Flight

First Published Date: November 25, 2015

There are many perks and features credit cards come with that a lot of people aren’t aware of. Today, I will talk about how you can travel for a lot less with the annual companion flight that comes with some credit cards.

There are currently two credit cards that offer an annual companion flight. What this means is that you buy one plane ticket at regular price and you get a companion ticket at a heavily-discounted price. Here are the two cards:

WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard – Buy a ticket at regular price anywhere within Canada or U.S. (excludes Hawaii and Puerto Rico) where WestJet flies and get a companion round-trip with you for $99 (excluding taxes, fees and charges). Read my WestJet RBC World Elite review here. Annual fee = $99.

MBNA Alaska World Elite MasterCard – Buy a ticket at regular price anywhere within Canada, U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) or Mexico where Alaska Airlines flies and get a companion round-trip with you for from $121 USD. Annual fee = $75.

There are some other cards that offer an annual companion flight with a catch, such as you have to fly on rewards points or spend certain amounts. Example: American Express Air Miles Reserve Card, American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card, American Express AeroplanPlus Platinum Card, and RBC British Airways Visa Infinite

Which Credit Cards Offer Airport Lounge Access?

Free Lounge Access with Credit Cards

First Published Date: December 13, 2015

When you are on a long international flight, the crummy and horrible waiting area can be a torturous place to spend your time. Your travel experience can get even worse if you have several never-ending layovers in between. Lounge access can make your whole journey memorable, with free amenities such as better food, resting area, shower facility, drinks, workstation, and much more that you would not have access to otherwise. Airport lounges are the travel industry’s best-kept secret and annual membership is expensive. But savvy travellers can score access to these calm, secluded, and ultimate relaxation area lounges for free, regardless of their flight class, with some credit cards that offer free lounge access.

Credit Cards with Lounge Access

1. BMO Air Miles World Elite MasterCard

Credit Card Annual Fee = $120

Lounge Access = 2

2. BMO World Elite MasterCard

Credit Card Annual Fee = $150

Lounge Access = 4

3. Amex Air Miles Reserve

Credit Card Annual Fee = $299

Lounge Access = 4

4. ScotiaBank Amex Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $399

Lounge Access = 10

5. Amex Business Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $399

Lounge Access = Unlimited

6. Amex Aeroplan Plus Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $499

Lounge Access = Unlimited

7. Amex Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $699

Lounge Access = Unlimited

How Financial Crisis Affected Credit Card Borrowers

Record Debts Being Written Off

Published Date : Sep 29, 2009

The financial crisis in which we have been living for some time now has changed the realities which we had accepted for some time, and many of those realities have changed for the worse. But for borrowers on credit cards who had been panicking about the pursuit from the issuers, there is one statistic which has improved. The issuers of credit cards are charging off a record amount of debt – meaning that they have accepted that people are not able to make their payments, and chasing them for those payments will not change the reality that they simply cannot afford to pay. It should be noted that this is not the case for every customer – if you can afford to pay but don’t want to, then the status quo will remain.

The simple truth of the matter is that with the unemployment rates having increased due to the global financial crisis, there are more and more people who simply cannot meet their credit card payments. Traditionally, this has led to  a troublesome situation where the banks pursue people to make any kind of payment at all, promising in many cases that if you can make “just a small payment” your account will be held for a while and that pursuit will be ended. For many customers, this pleasant notion has been miles away from the reality, which has been that a small payment alerts the company to the fact that you are responding to pressure, and the pressure just gets ramped up that little bit more.

When a company finally accepts that there is nothing they can take from you, they charge the debt off. What this means in practice is that they lay off collections activity and write the amount off, taking a hit on their profits which needs to be covered by the amount of money each bank sets aside for such reasons. It does mean that annual bonuses for the bank workers will be a little bit lower, but you will find fewer and fewer people complaining about that eventuality. As much as the everyday workers at a bank are relatively blameless for the profligacy of the bank’s lending policy, we are all having to cut out coats according to our cloth these days.

The fact remains that people who knowingly borrow and spend recklessly will have to be pursued to make their payments. Now is not a good time to take out a credit card and run up a mountain of debt which you have no intention of meeting. Quite apart from anything else, banks are still hugely reluctant to lend large amounts of money unless they are sure, on the basis of their own research, that they will see a good return on that investment. If you have a good credit rating, they may well still lend to you – but would you want to risk a good rating now of all times? If, however, you are looking for a fresh start, now could be the best time to get that start.