American Express Gold Card (USA) – 2022 outdated

The older brother to the Amex Green Card is the Amex Gold Card, which is the cousin of the UK-based Amex Gold.  Like with most credit cards, the US Gold Card has a better earning structure than the UK Gold Card.  The Amex Gold Card is one of the most iconic and also one of the most rewarding.  In the US, it’s a charge card, like the Green Card and Platinum Card.  The Gold Card’s annual fee sits a bit higher than the Green Card at $250, but, like the Green Card, it has annual credits to offset the fee.

Welcome Offer

At the time of posting, the Amex Green Card has a welcome offer of 60 000 bonus points after spending $4 000 in 6 months.  Previously, targeted welcome offers as high as 75 000 bonus points have been offered on this card.  60 000 Amex Membership Rewards points are worth a minimum of $600 when redeemed toward travel through Amex Travel. 

Earnings

The Gold card has several excellent bonus categories that are likely high spend categories for most people.  The card earns 4x points/$ on dining, which includes restaurants worldwide plus takeout and delivery in the US, and 4x points/$ on groceries in US supermarkets (on up to $25k/year).  In addition, the card earns 3x points/$ on flights booked through Amex Travel or directly with airlines.  All other purchases earn 1x point/$.  This card is clearly a predominantly food-focused card, as the airline requirement is noticeably more restrictive than the Green Card.

Dining and travel (especially airfare) have long been my biggest two spending categories, so the card fits me very well.

Benefits

Like other Amex charge cards, this card offers enough credits to roughly offset the annual fee, if the credits are actually of interest.  The Gold Card offers 2 credits worth $10/month.  The first is $10/month Uber Cash (that also can be used for Uber Eats).  This credit can stack with the Uber credit on the Platinum Card.  The second credit is $10/month that can be used at a handful of restaurants and takeout services (e.g. Grubhub).  These credits represent a value of $240 if you’d use the services anyway every month.

Holding the card also gives you access to benefits at Amex’s ‘The Hotel Collection’- which can give you, for example, a $100 onsite credit for incidentals like dining/spa treatment- as long as your stay is 2+ nights.

How to use the points

There are two primary ways to use Membership Rewards Points.  The first way is to redeem them for flights at a rate of 1 pt = 1¢.  Redeeming the points this way has the big plus of the tickets counting as revenue tickets for the purpose of earning redeemable and tier qualifying points on the airline.

The second way is to transfer them to a partner to redeem them for reward travel.  Amex sometimes has transfer bonuses to partners, which is a great way to get even more value out of the points.  Based on how I’ve redeemed transferrable points in the past, I peg the value of Amex points at around 1.4¢/pt on average when used to book travel. 

Examples of using the card

These examples exclude the credits that come with the card.  I don’t personally have a big use for either of the credits offered by this card, but my spending habits are, generally, atypical.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (4x)	$300	1 200	$200	800	$600	2 400	$400	1 600
Gas (1x)	$0	0	$100	100	$200	200	$100	100
Airfare (3x)	$700	2 100	$200	600	$0	0	$400	1 200
Hotels (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$200	200	$0	0	$300	300
Gen Travel (1x)	$400	400	$0	0	$300	300	$100	300
Dining (4x)	$600	2 400	$300	1 200	$300	1 200	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	8 100	$1 500	3 400	$1 700	4 600	$1 700	3 900
Average points/$		2.03		2.27		2.71		2.29

The Gold Card’s solid bonus earnings means that the average points earned is around 2 – 2.7 points/$, which is worth 2.8 – 3.8 ¢/$, with the valuation of 1.4¢/point for Amex Membership Ultimate Rewards points.

Specific examples

Card	World Traveller ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	2 728 (4.9%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	$37.10 / $17.60
General 1% cashback card	2 728 + $7.50 (5.9%)	2 200 MP + $2.30 (8.3%)	$44.60 / $19.90
Chase Sapphire Preferred	2 728 Avios + 1 500 UR (7.9%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.3%)	$59.60 / $24.50
Amex Green Card	2 728 Avios + 2 250 MR (9.1%)	2 200 MP + 690 MR (11.5%)	$68.60 / $27.26
Amex Gold Card	2 728 Avios + 2 250 MR (9.1%)	2 200 MP + 230 MR (8.7%)	$68.60 / $20.82

Is this credit card right for you?

This card is great for anyone who spends substantial amounts dining and groceries and likes to travel by air.  The airfare category is very specific and makes this card less versatile than competitors like Chase Sapphire Preferred for people that spend substantial amounts on hotel stays or other travel purchases.  Unlike the CSP, which is an approximates competitor to this card, this card doesn’t really provide any Amex MR-points related perks, beyond access to them and bonus points.  That’s part of the reason I value Chase points a bit more than the Amex points.