American Express Gold Card Review

Link: Learn how to apply for the card_name (See Rates and Fees)

When it comes to American Express, people typically think that the gold standard is the card_name or the secretive and elusive Centurion Card. From this perspective, the gold is overlooked. The card_name is an incredible product for day-to-day spending and opportunities to maximize rewards without breaking the bank on annual fees.

The Membership Rewards (the card_name’s rewards currency) earned are terrific for their incredibly valuable transfer partners, no matter how you want to travel. From short domestic flights to grandma’s house to round-the-world adventures, the possibilities are genuinely Nonstop 😉

American Express Gold Card Welcome Offer

This sign-up bonus is a great head start to build or grow your Membership Rewards balance. The amount of spend is pretty typical with comparable cards, but the welcome offer is incredibly lucrative by how valuable the MR points earned are. Add that the card is meant for more day-to-day spending rather than just outlier purchases, and the value is increased again.

With every increasing grocery and restaurant price, reaching the minimum spend of over six months should be manageable based on your typical day-to-day spending. However, it also may make sense to time your sign-up around a big purchase, such as if you need to purchase furniture for your apartment (what I am doing right now) or if you can charge tuition to your card.

American Express Gold Card Fees

With a mid-range annual fee, the American Express Gold Card should be justifiable for most people, given that you can recoup more than the fee in value each year. It is not as expensive as some of the more expensive cards out there, but also large enough that the card can offer some incredible perks. Of course, it is higher than some alternative intro travel cards, so you should calculate if the credits (described in the Perks section) are personally worth the annual fee to you.

Additionally, remember that as long as you pay off your card on time and in full every month, the APR rate will not make a difference, as you will not carry a balance.

When planning for a trip overseas, many often forget about the importance of how you spend your money. Rather than pay fee after fee every time you swipe your card, having no foreign transaction fees on the American Express Gold Card can save a significant amount of money on any trip out of the country, whether it’s paying for drinks in Mexico or a spa day in Sweden.

Earning Membership Rewards

Many individuals, including myself, spend much of their discretionary spending on restaurants and groceries. That is my top two spending categories by a large margin. With travel commonly being another of my larger expenditures, the ability to earn more on flights also adds up. While I wish the earning would be on all travel, including hotels and 3^rd party flight bookings, the Gold Card shines strongly in the lifestyle section.

The earning structure is simple. Although earnings could be higher on non-bonus spending, the ability to default to 1x on other purchases is still great if you want to keep a simple setup, especially if you already spend a lot of money at restaurants and supermarkets.

Redeeming Membership Rewards

Given that there is no bonus to redeem your extremely valuable Membership Rewards points for travel with American Express, I typically recommend transferring the points out to partners. This way, you can extract more value from the same number of points, multiplying the benefit of your spending and any bones from this card.

For me, the best thing about Membership Rewards is the flexibility of some of American Express’s transfer partners that are not available with any other card, such as ANA Mileage Club. One of my favorite redemptions was transferring 7,000 miles to British Airways and $5.60 in taxes and fees, thanks to a transfer bonus. I was able to get an American Airlines ticket that allowed me to fly down to Florida to visit my father on an otherwise $230.

Of course, if you are searching for luxury, you could transfer 88,000 miles to ANA to book a roundtrip United business class to Europe for under $90. This means you could fly on an otherwise multi-thousand-dollar ticket in the comfort of your lie-flat seats for a small fraction of the cost. 

American Express Gold Card Perks

If you can use the credits from the Gold Card, which should not be too tricky if you occasionally use Uber or shop at one of the dining merchants, then the $250 annual fee is effectively brought down to just $10 by the $240 in credits.

I am a big fan of Amex offers, which have saved my family hundreds of dollars over the years, covering the annual multiple times. They might range from bonus points on spending to a $100 statement credit on a certain amount of spend. Additionally, while many consider The Hotel Collection more limited than Amex’s Fine Hotels and Resorts (that comes with the Platinum Card), the perks are still great if you happen to be staying at one of the properties for 2+ nights.

The Last Point

I am still very impressed by the card_name due to its incredible earning bonus opportunities on restaurants, groceries, and airfare. Very few other cards earn points at the same rate, not to mention one with such an effectively low annual fee.

Of course, the current welcome bonus gives yet another reason to apply for this card. Between the points from the welcome offer and daily spending, your balance of Membership Rewards will take off in no time 😉

A reasonable annual fee, great earning opportunities, and of course, terrific redemption opportunities make the card_name a great addition to any wallet.