Overview
American Express Gold Card Snapshot
Annual Fee: $250
Recommended FICO Score: 690-850
Interest Rate: 15.99% to 22.99%
SignOn Bonus: 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in first 6 months
Card Type: Rewards
Best For: Dining and Shopping
The American Express Gold credit card is targeted to people with sizeable expenditures in dining and grocery shopping. It has a generous spending rewards structure offering: 4x points at restaurants and at U.S. supermarkets, 3x points on flights purchased through AMEX Travel or airlines directly and 1x on all other purchases. The AMEX Gold card also has a high annual fee, requiring sufficient spend in the right categories to make it profitable for those that hold it.
Reward Offering
The Sign On Bonus
The American Express Gold card has a one-time bonus of 60,000 points once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 6 months from account opening.
Reward Multiplier
4x
4x points on restaurants, including takeout and delivery.
4x
4x points at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year in purchases).
3x
Earn 3x points on flights purchased directly with airlines or at Amex Travel.
1x
Earn 1x points on all other purchases.
Other Benefits
$120 annual dining credit: up to $10 monthly statement credit when you pay with the Amex Gold card at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Boxed, and participating Shake Shack locations. Enrollment required.
Up to $120 in Uber Cash annually: add your Card to your Uber account and you’ll automatically get $10 in Uber Cash each month‡ for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S.
$100 in Hotel Credits: book The Hotel Collection through AMEX travel for two consecutive nights and get $100 credit.
Car rental and damage insurance, extended warranty and purchase protection.
No foreign fee transactions.
Who Is This Card Suited For
The American Express Gold credit card is primarily meant as a dining and shopping rewards card for high spenders. To assess whether this card is a good fit, you should ask your self these two questions and if you are not able to answer yes to both of them then you should consider another card.
- Do I expect to spend more that $6,250 annually ($520 a month) on dining out and grocery shopping? That is the amount that you’ll need to break even on the annual fee. I would argue that you should spend double that amount ($12,500) to really justify the benefits vs costs of the card.
- Will I take advantage of any of the annual credits for dining ($120), Uber cash ($120) or the hotel credit ($100)? If yes, then this will go a long way to bringing down the cost (potentially fully covering) of the annual card fee.
With regards to the annual credits, it’s important to be aware that they come with restrictions that may impact your ability to fully utilize them. Both the dining and Uber cash credits are granted as $10 monthly increments for the year, the dining credits are only valid at certain establishments and the hotel credits can only be used at ‘The Hotel Collection’.
The AMEX Gold card can be a powerful card for the high spending diner and shopper. Its spending multipliers are generous (4x for dining and grocery shopping), 3x on flights purchased via AMEX or directly with the airlines and the first years sign on bonus is worth $600. In the right hands and the right circumstances this is a profitable card.
Key Benefits:
- High spending multipliers on dining out, grocery shopping and flight purchases.
- Annual credits that can offset the annual fee.
- Ability to transfer miles to partner programs.
- No foreign transactions.
Key Drawbacks:
- High annual fee.
- Complex reward structure and restrictions on annual credits make optimizing card benefits complicated.
- No travel benefits.
Redeeming AMEX Points
An awareness of how how you can redeem AMEX points and the value you get from each option will impact the overall return you get from your AMEX cards. The below table summarizes the value you get from each option.
| Redemption Option | Value |
|---|---|
| Transfer To Program Partners | Most programs have 1:1 transfer rate. |
| AMEX Travel Portal | 1 cent per point |
| Redeem As Gift Cards | 0.5 - 1 cent per point |
| Shop With Points | 0.5 - 1 cent per point |
| Statement Credits | 0.6 cent per point |
Travel Partners
AMEX has 19 different airline partners that span 3 different alliances. To maximize the value of your points, it’s recommended that you consider transferring your points to partners programs when booking flights. The below table summarizes the transfer rates you get for each airline partner.
| Transfer Partner | Alliance | Transfer Rate |
|---|---|---|
| AeroMexico | SkyTeam | 1,000 : 1,600 |
| Air Canada | Star Alliance | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Alitalia | SkyTeam | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Aer Lingus | N/A | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| ANA | Star Alliance | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Star Alliance | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| British Airways | OneWorld | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Cathay Pacific | OneWorld | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Delta Air Lines | SkyTeam | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Emirates | N/A | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Etihad Airways | N/A | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Flying Blue Air France/KLM | SkyTeam | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Hawaiian | N/A | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Iberia | OneWorld | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| JetBlue | N/A | 250 : 200 |
| Qantas | OneWorld | 500 : 500 |
| Singapore Airlines | Star Alliance | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Virgin Atlantic | N/A | 1,000 : 1,000 |
AMEX also has 3 hotel partners and the transfer rates are listed below:
| Partner | Transfer Rate |
|---|---|
| Choice Privileges | 1,000 : 1,000 |
| Hilton Honors | 1,000 : 2,000 |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1,000 : 1,000 |
Card Fees And Expenses
| Annual Fee | $250 |
| Foreign Transaction Fee | $0 |
| Interest Rates | 15.99% to 22.99% |
| Late Fees | Up to $40 |
| Cash Advance | Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is greater. 25.24% APR |
