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The American Express® Gold Card is a key card in Amex’s Membership Rewards ecosystem as it offers the best earning rates out of any American Express card in select major spending categories. It’s a card that offers valuable benefits that help cardholders offset the annual fee and as it earns a currency that’s transferable to an impressive variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs, it’s a card that can help cardholders make significant savings on aspirational travel bookings.
The American Express® Gold Card
In brief
The American Express® Gold Card was completely overhauled back in 2018 and the result is a card that now offers the best earnings rate for spending at US supermarkets and the best earnings rate on dining out of any American Express Membership Rewards card. It also offers credits for dining and Uber spending as well as trip delay coverage that most cards of this level do not offer.
In detail
Here’s what you need to know about the American Express® Gold Card:
Annual fee:
- annual_fees (rates-fees)
Cost of authorized user cards:
- $0 (zero)
Current welcome bonus:
- New applicants can earn 60,000 bonus Membership Rewards Points after they spend $4,000 on their new card in the first 6 months of card membership (terms apply)
Note: The terms and conditions of this offer state that the welcome bonus is not available to applicants who hold or have previously held this card or the Premier Rewards Gold Card.
Earnings (terms apply):
- 4 points/dollar on spending at U.S Supermarkets (up to $25,000 in spending/year)*
- 4 points/dollar on dining and takeout
- 4 points/dollar on Uber Eats purchases
- 3 points/dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel
- 1 point/dollar on spending in all other categories
*Any spending made above the $25,000 cap will only earn 1 point/dollar
Key benefits (terms apply and enrollment may be required):
- Earn valuable points that can be transferred over to a variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs.
- Up to $120/year in dining credits at select eateries (comes as a $10/month credit)
- $100/year Hotel Collection credit
- $10/month Uber Cash Credit useable in the US (Gold Card must be added to Uber App)
- Trip delay protection*
*Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.
Thoughts on the Amex Gold Card
The Gold Card earns valuable Membership Rewards Points
Membership Rewards Points are Amex’s flexible rewards currency and they can be transferred across to a wide variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs at a ratio of 1:1 (terms apply). With the option to transfer the points that the American Express® Gold Card earns to programs like Delta Sky Miles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, the British Airways Executive Club, Flying Blue, and Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles, cardholders can use their earnings to save a significant amount of money while flying in some of the more aspirational First and Business Class cabins around.
I’m a big fan of Membership rewards because cards like this Gold Card make points relatively easy to earn and because the points are relatively easy to use. Add to that the fact that Amex frequently offers bonuses for transfers to its loyalty program partners, and it’s easy to see why the Membership Rewards program is so popular.
The welcome bonus is attractive
The current welcome bonus of 60,000 points is a significant improvement on the 35,000 bonus points that this card offered for a period last year, and the fact that new cardholders are being given 6 months to earn the bonus (rather than the standard 3 months) is a very nice added extra.
I value Amex Membership Rewards Points at 1.5 cents each (that’s a conservative valuation based on the value I know I can get out of each point without much effort) so that values the Gold Card’s welcome offer at an impressive $900.
The card offers excellent earnings rates (terms apply)
The 4 points/dollar that the American Express® Gold Card earns on dining is one of the best rates of return offered by any card on the market, and the 4 points/dollar that it earns on purchases made at US supermarkets (up to a spending cap of $25,000) makes this one of the more rewarding cards in a category that attracts a significant level of spending for most people.
Note: Purchases at big box stores like Costco and Sam’s Club will only earn 1 point/dollar.
The Gold card also earns cardholders 3 points/dollar on spending made directly with airlines and it’s worth noting that this is a rate that can only be beaten by two other personal credit cards – the Platinum Card® from American Express and the Citi Prestige Card – and both of those cards charge a considerably higher annual fee than the American Express® Gold Card.
Based on my valuation of Membership Rewards Points, the Amex Gold Card effectively offers cardholders a 6% rebate on dining and on spending at US supermarkets (on up to $25,000 of spending) and a 4.5% rebate on purchases made directly with airlines. These are rebates that most cards struggle to beat.
Up to $120/year dining credits
The American Express® Gold Card offers cardholders a credit of $10 per month, which can be triggered by spending with/at the following Amex partners (enrollment required):
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Grubhub
- Ruth’s Chris Steak House
- Seamless
- Participating Shake Shack locations*
- Goldbelly
- Wine.com
- Milk Bar
*Excludes Shake Shack locations in ballparks, stadiums, airports, and racetracks.
Only spending made in the United States will trigger the statement credit and while authorized users are eligible for these credits, it should be noted that only one $10 credit is available per account per month.
If you happen to frequent one or more of the eateries listed above, or if you order through Grubhub and Seamless, the $10/month could be classed as a genuine saving and one that’s well worth having.
If, however, the fact that the Amex Gold Card offers these credits leads you to spend money you may not otherwise have spent, the credits are not a genuine saving and should be discounted from your calculation when you weigh up the value of this card to you.
Up to $120/year Uber credits (enrollment required)
Holders of the American Express® Gold Card receive up to $120 in Uber Cash credits/year and these appear as $10 monthly credits in the Uber app (the Gold Card has to be added to the Uber App for these credits to appear).
Just like the credit that’s offered with the Platinum Card® from American Express, this Uber Cash credit can be used on Uber rides and Uber Eats orders within the United States and, just like the credits on the Platinum Card, these are credits that do not roll over from month to month – if you fail to use your $10 credit in any given month, it’s gone forever.
For anyone who uses Uber or Uber Eats at least once a month, this is a very useful benefit and a genuine cash saver and it can help offset some of the card’s annual fee.
Note: Although you have to have your Amex Gold Card linked to your Uber wallet to ensure that you get the monthly credits, you don’t have to pay with the Gold card to ensure that the credits are triggered. I get monthly credits courtesy of my Platinum Card but I pay for most of my Uber trips using my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
$100 Hotel Collection credit
The Hotel Collection is a hotel booking portal run by Amex Travel and holders of the Amex Gold Card who book a stay of 2 nights or longer through the portal, are given a $100 onsite credit. This credit can be used to offset spending on dining, at the spa, and on activities charged to the room during a stay.
If you’re likely to need to book a stay of 2 nights or longer during your cardmember year this could be a nice benefit to have – $100 will go a long way towards buying 2 people a nice meal at a good hotel – but some caution is required.
Firstly, if you wouldn’t have made the hotel booking if the American Express® Gold Card wasn’t offering you an on-site credit this isn’t a genuine saving for you. Secondly, be aware that bookings made through the hotel collection are considered 3rd party bookings by most hotel chains so any elite benefits you may have with that hotel’s loyalty program are unlikely to be honored.
Essentially, the $100 credit is best used at properties where the cardholder doesn’t have elite status and where the $100 would have been spent whether or not the credit was being offered (this works particularly well at boutique hotels which for the most part, don’t have loyalty programs).
The Gold Card offers trip delay coverage
At the beginning of 2020, American Express improved the travel benefits on a number of its cards and one of those improvements was the addition of Trip Delay coverage to the American Express® Gold Card.
This coverage isn’t as good as the coverage offered by the Platinum Card or by the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card as your trip needs to be delayed by over 12 hours before the card will come to your rescue, but in the event that this happens, cardholders are entitled to up to $300 per trip for expenses, like overnight accommodation, meals, and other key essentials. The coverage is limited to two claims per 12 consecutive month period.
Per Amex: Up to $300 per Covered Trip that is delayed for more than 12 hours; and 2 claims per Eligible Card per 12 consecutive month period. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.
Final thoughts
The American Express® Gold Card is a card you hold for its great earning rates and not its benefits. Some of the benefits that the card offers can be very useful, but the Gold Card’s primary function for most cardholders is as a points earning machine.
If you’re a fan of Membership Rewards and spend significant sums on dining and at US supermarkets, this is almost certainly a card you should be considering – there isn’t another American Express card that can match what the Gold Card earns in those categories.
Just as importantly, it’s good to remember that no other card on the market offers excellent returns on both dining and US supermarket spending – there are cards that offer great returns in one category or the other, but not in both – and that’s a key strength that the Gold Card has.
If you’re just looking for strong earnings on dining, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is probably the card to go for as it comes with a lower annual fee. If it’s just a great return at US supermarkets that you’re after and you don’t mind earning cash back, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is probably the card to consider.
Overall, however, the American Express® Gold Card is a key component in most people’s Membership Rewards strategy as it offers strong earnings in categories where a lot of people put a significant amount of spending. Put simply, if you’re looking for a card to help you boost your Membership Rewards Points balance on spending you make every day, this is probably the card for you.
Find out how to apply for the American Express® Gold Card
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, please visit this page
I and my wife each have the new Amex “rose gold” card. Would you please
explain any differences between the new card and our old “|gold ” cards with the
same card numbers and new cvv numbers and later expiration dates?
Thank You,
Milton G Anderson
The gold card is a rip off. The dining credits funnel your spending to a few specific restaurants that not everyone uses. They are monthly, so they force you to repeatedly remind yourself to use (or lose them).
Same thing for the Uber credit. Even more useless if you don’t use uber.
This card basically gets you to pay $250 for the opportunity to earn 4x MR points, and to schedule your dining and transit usage around the limited options Amex has – like some Shake Shacks, or the Cheesecake Factory.
Never once have I said to myself I need an excuse to eat more Cheesecake Factory. The value prop for this card is so mediocre that it was the card that originally made me realize what a sucker I have been to the miles/points game. And then from there – it was all downhill. I started cancelling cards left and right.
So in a way….the Amex Gold card was a great card; it saved me tons of money by teaching me to cancel all these cards – and quit signing up for mediocre cards (Especially as 60k convertible currency points have been diminished in value so much. 60k of any point or mile isn’t what it used to be in 2007.
This is just my opinion though. But $250 for this is ucky – it is a $99/yr card with crappy Uber/Cheesecake factory benefit.
Wow, someone woke up on the crabby side of the bed today.
No credit card with a fee will be right for everyone. That’s why you have to do the math yourself. And there are a lot of considerations that go into it. For us, the two $10 monthly credits wouldn’t be great if it were ONLY for a few restaurants. But where it works is that both Grubhub and Uber Eats let you use their app for pickup orders. When you look through the lens of those two food platforms, it’s a lot larger of a window of places you can use the credits. Maybe there are people who don’t get takeout twice a month, and if so, this wouldn’t be a great benefit. It also wouldn’t be great for folks who live in a rural area and don’t have access to these services. But for our family of four, it’s not that hard to use.