Why you should get the Amex Gold Card

I have had an American Express card for 15 years, and my experience has been great. And my Gold Card is perhaps the most important and valuable card in my wallet, and my free travel has really taken off since I got it.

Welcome Bonus
Amex is currently offering 60,000 bonus points to the general public after spending $4,000 or more in the first 6 months of cardmembership. This is the standard bonus, although better offers do come around—Amex was recently offering a $200 statement bonus as well.

But to really get the most value, it’s worth asking around to see if you can get a referral from a friend who has the card. These offers are rarely worse than the public offer (and if they are, you don’t have to use it), but can be better. Much better. Currently, friends and acquaintances who sign up via my referral link earn 90,000 points instead (alas, I can’t post it here, but if you know me, reach out!).

Points can be redeemed directly at 1¢/pt for flights on Amextravel.com, or transferred out to airline partners where you can likely redeem them for even greater value (e.g. I booked a $900 flight to Japan for 50,000 Skymiles transferred from Amex not too long ago), among other possible redemptions of varying values. With the welcome bonus ranging between $600-900 in minimum value, this is a pretty easy way to turn that spending into, say, a free trip to Europe. 

Bonus Points
With the Amex Gold, you will earn 4x Membership Rewards points on dining at restaurants worldwide, 4x at US grocery stores, and 3x on flights booked directly with airlines or via amextravel.com. 

The rewards rate for dining and groceries are the best among major travel cards, although the Chase Sapphire, Citi Premier, Wells Fargo Autograph, and Bilt cards all come close at 3x for dining. The Citi premier earns 3x on groceries, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 3x on certain online grocery purchases. 

The Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Premier, and Wells Fargo Autograph each earn 3x on flights, while several others (including Bilt and the Chase Sapphire Preferred) earn 2x. Notably, many of the Gold Card’s competitors earn bonus points on other categories, such as the Chase Sapphire bonus on widely-defined travel (including parking and bus fare), the Citi Premier and Bilt bonus on hotels (3 and 2x, respectively). 

And note: if you only spend the $4,000 required to earn the bonus on dining and groceries, you’ll earn another 16,000 on top of the 90,000 bonus, enough for at least two tickets to Europe from most major airports.

Annual Fee and Credits
The Gold Card carries a fairly expensive annual fee at $250. But that is offset by $240 in Uber Cash and statement credits for certain dining purchases, making it possible to recoup nearly the entire fee.

Each month, you will receive $10 in Uber Cash, which is use or lose. To receive the full $120, you’ll need to spend at least $10 each month with either Uber (rides) or UberEats (takeout or delivery). Uber Eats is fairly widespread, so it is usually not too difficult to find a place to order takeout at least once a month. 

You can also receive up to $10 each month in statement credits for dining with certain merchants, most notably Grubhub, Shake Shake (certain locations, like stadiums, excluded), Goldbelly, and the Cheesecake Factory.

The Grubhub benefit is my favorite, because it allows for an incredible rewards combo. If you’ve signed up for Rakuten (if not, use this referral link to earn $30 after spending $30), you can earn 1% cash back or 1 Amex point for each dollar spent at Grubhub when you activate the Rakuten offer on the Grubhub website using the Rakuten Safari or Chrome extension. You can also order Grubhub via the IHG portal and receive 250 IHG points for each Grubhub order (500 for your first). By doing this, you can earn 5x Amex points per dollar spent, receive your $10 statement credit each month, and accumulate IHG points to boot. Because IHG redemptions start at 5,000 points, if you’re like me and order two $5 bubble teas each month via grubhub, you’ll be getting 50x points on those bubble teas and earn enough for a free hotel night in just a year. (To be fair, I only found one 5,000 point hotel on the IHG website after poking around for a few minutes, and it was in Jakarta, but still!)

Benefits
The Gold Card also comes with a fairly solid suite of benefits on purchases, including no foreign transaction fees when swiping abroad (although it is less widely accepted overseas than Visa or Mastercard), baggage insurance, and trip delay coverage. If you pay for a rental car with your card, Amex will also provide collision (not liability) coverage, albeit secondary to your own insurance. 

Amex’s customer service is also great, although thankfully I haven’t had to use it too much. My Amex cards have never been compromised, and the only issue I’ve had was an instance where the Postmates app double charged me for a food delivery. After an hour on the phone with Postmates couldn’t resolve the problem, Amex took care of it in 5 minutes.

You can also score additional discounts with Amex Offers. By activating these offers on the Amex website I recently got $50 back at a Japanese steakhouse, saved 10% on a purchase at Quince, and am paying only $2/month to stream Peacock TV. Amex also regularly offers bonuses on points transfers to certain airlines or hotels, allowing you to stretch points even further. And the Gold Card offers access to Amex’s “Hotel Collection,” a set of very nice hotels. While you’ll get a $100 room credit (for things like spa treatments or room service, depending on the hotel) if you book via Amex, these are generally too expensive for my taste, but certain people will benefit from that bonus as well. 

Drawbacks
Those who eat out and order takeout will likely reap huge rewards from the Amex Gold card on an ongoing basis, and almost anyone would benefit immensely from the massive current sign up offer, but it does have some downsides, and won’t be a fit for everyone, at least not long-term.

First, it can be hard to get–it requires good to excellent credit and sufficient income to convince Amex that you can afford the payments and annual fee. 

Second, it can be a bit harder to use than other cards. Amex is not as widely accepted as Visa or Mastercard. And Amex Membership Rewards points are not as user-friendly as other credit card points; the only “easy” redemption offering decent value is booking flights through Amex. And while you can get better value by transferring points out to airlines (see below), this can be complicated. 

Third, the credits may be hard to take advantage of if you don’t live near restaurants that offer takeout through Grubhub/UberEats. Even if they do, they may charge more for those services than if you ordered directly with the restaurant (this is always worth double-checking). And even if not, you still need to be organized and on top of things to make sure you receive the full credit each month. Even in that case, the credits might not be valuable to you if you don’t like to order takeout. And you have to be financially prepared to take the $250 hit all at once and then slowly recoup it over the next 12 months. 

Finally, unlike some other cards like the Chase Sapphires, if you decide the Amex Gold isn’t the right card for you long-term, it cannot be downgraded into a no-annual-fee card. Instead, you would have to completely close your Gold Card account. While you could open a new Amex account with a no-annual-fee card at the same time, you would lose the continuity on your credit history.

Overall
I love this card personally, and with an offer this big, Amex is betting that you will too. If the card makes sense for you, the $600+ in value for a trip on Amex’s dime is as good a reason as any to give it a whirl now.

Key Card Details

Welcome bonus
Public offer: 60,000 points
With referral: up to 90,000 points

After spending $4,000 in the first 6 months

Annual fee
$250

Credits/offsets
$120 Uber Cash ($10 deposited to your account monthly, use or lose)

$120 Dining Credit ($10 per month, use or lose, at Grubhub (including Seamless), The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, and select Shake Shack locations)

$100 experience credit when booking 2+ night Hotel Collection stays via amextravel.com

Earning rates
4x at restaurants worldwide
4x at U.S. supermarkets
3x on flights booked directly with the airline or via amextravel.com
1x on other purchases

Protections
No foreign transaction fees

Global Assist Hotline (“24/7 emergency assistance and coordination services, including medical and legal referrals, emergency cash wires, and missing luggage assistance”)

Baggage insurance (up to $500 for checked baggage, $1,250 for carry-on)

Car rental loss and damage insurance (secondary)

Extended warranty (double manufacturer’s warranty up to 1 year on warranties of 5 years or less)

Purchase protection (qualifying damage, loss, or theft within 90 days of purchase)

Perks
Amex Experiences and Preferred Access (exclusive access to ticket presales and premium seats, etc.)

Key Redemptions
Travel portal: 1¢/pt on flights at amextravel.com

Best statement credit redemptions: n/a

Transfer partners
Airline: Delta Skymiles, JetBlue TrueBlue, Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles, Aeromexico Rewards, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France FlyingBlue, ANA Mileage Club, Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways Executive Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Emirates Skyward, Etihad Guest Miles, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus, KLM FlyingBlue, Quantas Frequent Flyer, SAS EuroBonus, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel: Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, Choice Privileges

Example transfer redemptions (from San Francisco):
Singapore for 74k Delta miles + $96 ($1200 cash price)
Sydney for 75k ANA miles + $106 ($1100 cash price)
Washington DC for 25k Avianca miles + $11 ($400 cash price)
Johannesburg for 73.5k Air France/KLM miles + $365 ($1450 cash price)

Offers are subject to change without notice. Double check the offer and your eligibility prior to applying.

Updated: 23 June, 2023