Great Card If
- You want a card with flexible redemption options
- You spend a lot at U.S. supermarkets, on dining out, and airfare
- You can make use of the annual dining credit
- You want a card with no foreign transaction fees
- You’re an active-duty military member who wants access to exclusive card perks and benefits.
Don’t Get If
- You don’t enjoy traveling
- You don’t spend much money on dining out, airfare, or supermarkets
- You prefer a card with no annual fee
- You prefer a card with increased offerings like airport lounge access or hotel elite status
Amex Gold Card — Is It Worth it?
The Amex Gold card is an absolute workhorse of a card when it comes to earning Amex Membership Rewards points, especially for those that have a large level of annual spending on dining or U.S supermarket purchases. In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find many better cards for these purchases.
Some might see the $250 annual fee that the card charges and immediately write it off as a non-starter, but you should consider that the card offers a $120 annual dining credit and a $120 annual Uber Cash.
Plus, when you combine those credits with the card’s other benefits like baggage insurance, access to Amex’s The Hotel Collection, and access to Amex Offers, you can see it is fairly easy to get more value out of the card than the fee you pay.
To help make your decision, ask yourself these questions:
- Do I spend a lot each year on dining, on airfare, and at U.S. supermarkets?
- Can I easily get more value out of the card’s benefits than the annual fee I’ll pay?
- Do I want a card that earns transferable rewards?
If you answered yes to those questions, then the Amex Gold card would likely be very worth it for you.
Active-Duty Military? You can access exclusive military benefits as an Amex Gold cardholder.
Amex Gold Card Top Benefits
$120 Dining Credit
Earn up to $10 in statement credits each month when you use your card to make purchases at the following restaurants and food delivery services:
- Grubhub
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Goldbelly
- Wine.com
- Milk Bar
- Select Shake Shack locations
$120 Uber Cash
Your Amex Gold card gives you up to $120 each year in Uber Cash, distributed as $10 each month, that can be used on Uber rides, Uber Eats orders, and Uber groceries in the U.S. (only available in select markets). Be sure to add your Gold Card to your Uber account to receive this benefit!
The Hotel Collection
The Amex Gold card gets you access to The Hotel Collection. This group of exclusive hotels offers special benefits to cardmembers when booking a stay of at least 2 nights at select properties in the collection. You can enjoy the following benefits with The Hotel Collection:
- $100 hotel credit to spend on dining, spa, or resort charges
- Room upgrade when available
Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance
Use your card to reserve and pay for your car rental, decline the rental agency’s coverage, and you’ll be covered (up to $50,000) if the car is damaged or stolen. This coverage is secondary to other insurance.
Baggage Insurance Plan
If you pay for your entire ticket with your Amex Gold card, and the carrier damages your bag or the items inside, you can receive coverage of up to $1,250 for carry-on baggage and $500 for checked baggage.
Purchase Protection
When you make a purchase with your card and the item is accidentally damaged, stolen, or lost, you’ll receive coverage for up to 90 days from the purchase date and $10,000 per occurrence.
Extended Warranty Protection
If you purchase an item that has a manufacturer’s warranty of fewer than 5 years, your card extends that warranty coverage by 1 additional year.
Best Ways To Earn and Redeem Your Amex Points
Even though the Amex Gold card is great at earning points on its own, there are still many other ways to earn Amex Membership Rewards points that you’ll want to be aware of.
Since you’ll earn points rapidly, you need to learn how you can put those points to good use. To do so, we recommend you check out our guide to the best ways to redeem your Amex points for max value.
So much of learning how to maximize your points and miles comes down to learning how to effectively use transfer partners to reach your travel goals. Given that, if you want to learn how to squeeze as much value as possible out of your points, you need to learn about the American Express transfer partners and how to use them!
Alternatives to the Amex Gold Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is one of the most popular travel rewards cards on the market, and with benefits including 2x points per $1 spend on dining and travel, no foreign transaction fees, and flexible redemption options (including transfer partners), it’s easy to see why the card is so popular.
For just a $95 annual fee, you’ll be able to start earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points, one of the most valuable loyalty currencies available. Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed for incredible value through the program’s select Chase transfer partners.
See how these 2 cards stack up: Amex Gold Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
There’s a lot to love about the Capital One Venture card — including airline and hotel transfer partners and 2x on all other purchases.
If the majority of your daily spending comes from purchases outside of dining and travel categories, then the Capital One Venture card might be a great option for you.
See how these card stack up: Amex Gold Card vs. Capital One Venture Card
Citi Premier® Card
The Citi Premier card offers 3x points per $1 on travel purchases, including gas stations, making it one of the few travel credit cards on the market to offer a high return on gas purchases.
This makes the card an excellent choice for those who drive often for work or love taking road trips. Citi Premier cardholders will also earn 2x points per $1 on restaurants and entertainment purchases.
See how these cards stack up: Amex Gold Card vs. Citi Premier Card
We’ve compared the Amex Gold card to some other popular credit cards:
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.
Disclaimer: Any comments listed below are not from the bank advertiser, nor have they been reviewed or approved by them. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments.
5 comments
rOB
October 04, 2018
Is this a “new” card or precluded from getting if you have previously
had the Gold Card ?
Stephen Au
October 05, 2018
Hey Rob, the Gold card and old PRG card are considered the same product, so you can only get the sign-up bonus once.
Patricia
October 05, 2019
I recently used my boyfriend’s Gold Business card to book a trip which included 4 Delta Air Line tickets. The next day there were several charges ranging from 7.50 for trip delay insurance and 9.95 for baggage premium insurance? Is this an automatic charge? I didn’t request or need either. Is this something I can have removed off the card? It was almost 100.00?
I appreciate your help. Thank you
Christine Krzyszton
October 06, 2019
Hi Patricia. First, please be advised that we are not American Express or Delta. We are Upgraded Points, a blog specializing in points, miles, credit card, and travel resources. You could call American Express at the number on the back of the card and inquire about the charges in question. Sorry we can’t help you further.
Feroz Siddik
October 05, 2018
You may actually get a better offer for 50,000 points if you use a referral code.
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