I recently had a very important decision to make with 100,000+ American Express Membership Rewards points.

The fee was due on my American Express Business Gold Rewards card. At $175 per year, we’re talking a pretty significant fee. Since I had over 100,000 Membership Rewards points in my account, I needed to decide whether or not I should pay the fee or transfer my points and close my card.

I had mentioned that I would not pay the fee or transfer the card to a no fee Membership Rewards earning account in my previous post.

So what did I do?

I’d like to say that I did nothing but that would not be 100% accurate.

I bought myself some time.

I called into Amex to find out about a retention offer and struck out. I was given some other options like transferring to a fee free card like the Blue for Business card. There wasn’t much else the rep said he could do.

The other option (besides closing my Gold Biz card or paying the fee) was to pay for the membership fee with points. I was told that I’d get the best rate over the phone and only have to pay 17,500 points, if I chose this option online it would be more expensive.

None of the options above excited me much and I was ready to close my card.

I then asked what would happen if I paid the fee and decided later on that I didn’t want it. (I figured that a pro-rated refund would be given.)

I was then told that I had 60 days from when the fee posted to get the fee reversed.

I figured that my best option was to pay the fee for now.

By doing so, it gives me some more time to make a decision and more importantly see if a bonus transfer offer comes up. A bonus offer could definitely be the tie-breaker when it comes to deciding where I to transfer the points.

What do you think? Was it worth paying the fee for now to give myself more time to make a decision?