The American Express® Gold Card offers good rewards on dining and at U.S. supermarkets. But with a high annual fee and a somewhat complicated rewards system, the card isn’t for everybody.
Here’s what you need to know about the Amex Gold Card.
American Express® Gold Card at a glance
The American Express® Gold Card offers excellent rewards for dining at restaurants worldwide and on groceries at U.S. supermarkets. But the high annual fee coupled with complicated statement credits and rewards points make the Gold Card lose a little bit of its shine.
American Express® Gold Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: AS HIGH AS 100,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $8,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer.
This bonus is earned as Membership Rewards® points.
The bonus above is very likely not the best bonus available on this card. Amex continuously changes the bonus on this card and you can probably find a better bonus by going directly to the American Express website or finding a referral link from a friend.
Annual fee: $325
Rewards
- 4x at restaurants worldwide
on up to $50k in purchases per calendar year. - 4x on groceries at U.S. supermarkets
on up to $25k in purchases per calendar year. - 5x on prepaid hotels
booked through Amex Travel. - 3x on flights
booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel. - 2x on prepaid car rentals
booked through Amex Travel. - 2x on cruises
booked through AmexTravel.com. - 1x on other eligible purchases.
Rewards are earned as Amex Membership Rewards® points. Categories that earn bonus points when booked through Amex Travel may book through AmexTravel.com or the Amex Travel app.
American Express Membership Rewards® can offer great value if you transfer the points to one of Amex’s many travel transfer partners. You can also redeem the points for travel through Amex Travel.
One important downside to Membership Rewards is that the points cannot be redeemed for cash back at a decent rate in most cases. See our article on how to cash out Membership Rewards® if you’re interested in cash back rewards.
Benefits
Additional terms apply to all benefits. See your card’s Guide to Benefits for details.
Consumer insurance benefits
- Purchase Protection. Covers damaged, stolen, or lost purchases up to $10,000 per purchase and $50,000 per calendar year for 90 days from the date of your purchase.
- Extended Warranty. Doubles the length of the original manufacturer’s warranty, up to one additional year on warranties of 5 years or less. Coverage limits are the amount charged to your card, up to $10,000 per item, and $50,000 per Card Member per calendar year.
Travel insurance benefits
- Trip Delay Insurance. Covers delays more than 12 hours, up to $300 per trip, maximum 2 claims per Eligible Card, per 12 month period. Must book round-trip travel using your card.
- Baggage Insurance Plan. Covers lost, damaged, or stolen baggage up to $1,250 for carry-on baggage and $500 for checked baggage. Must book travel using your card.
- Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance. Provides secondary coverage for damage to or theft of a rental vehicle when you rent with your card. Not available in Australia, Italy, and New Zealand.
- Global Assist® Hotline. Provides a variety of travel and emergency assistance services. Card Members are responsible for costs of providing the services.
Partner benefits and statement credits
- $120 ($10 monthly) Uber Cash. Add your card to your Uber account and automatically get $10 in Uber Cash each month for Uber Easts orders or Uber rides in the U.S. An Amex card must be selected as the payment method for your Uber or Uber Eats transaction to redeem the Amex Uber Cash benefit. Unused Uber Cash expires monthly.
- $84 ($7 monthly) Dunkin’ credit. Earn up to $7 in monthly statement credits after you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at U.S. Dunkin’ locations. Enrollment required.
- $100 ($50 semi-annually) Resy credit. Get up to $50 back semi-annually in statement credits each calendar year after you pay with the Card to dine at U.S. Resy restaurants or make other eligible Resy purchases. Enrollment required.
- $120 ($10 monthly) Dining credit. Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the Gold Card at participating partners. Current partners include Grubhub (including Seamless), Buffalo Wild Wings, Five Guys, The Cheesecake Factory, and Wonder. Enrollment required.
- $100 credits with The Hotel Collection. Book two nights or more with The Hotel Collection‡ through Amex Travel and receive a $100 credit towards eligible charges. Eligible charges vary by property.
- Hertz Five Star® Status. Enrollment required.
- Amex Offers. Save money with targeted offers on your credit card. Enrollment required for each offer. Learn more about Amex Offers.
Rates and fees
- Annual fee: $325
- Foreign transaction fee: None
Our quick take on the American Express® Gold Card
Cards and Points Rating: 2.5/5.0
Read more about our star ratings.
The American Express® Gold Card has lost a lot of its luster. Over the last few years, Amex has increased the annual fee, capped the rewards you can earn, and added a bunch of benefits to the card that are fairly onerous to use.
When it comes to earning points, the card earns decent enough rewards at restaurants worldwide and U.S. supermarkets, but Membership Rewards® has its downsides. The fact that you can’t redeem the points for cash back rewards at a reasonable value means that the program has significantly less value if you’re not willing to learn how to use international airline loyalty programs.
We like that Resy credits are structured as $50 in semi-annual credits (versus monthly credits on the Delta credit cards) but the mental overhead of remembering to use small monthly credits for Dunkin’, Uber, and dining at a very small set of restaurants means that these benefits provide very little value. (Enrollment required and terms apply to most credits.)
If you are a travel rewards enthusiast who dines out frequently and purchases groceries at U.S. supermarkets, you can possibly get enough value out of the card to justify its annual fee, but we think most people can find better cards for them.
Likes
- $50 semi-annual Resy credit.
- Purchase protection and extended warranty.
- Good rewards rates on Dining (worldwide) and U.S. Supermarkets.
Dislikes
- High annual fee.
- Capped rewards in bonus categories.
- Membership Rewards® are hard to use.
How to maximize the Amex Gold
If you’re interested in earning Membership Rewards® points for your everyday spending, the Amex Gold is the card you want to have in your wallet and use for most of your spending.
Maximizing rewards on purchases
Here’s a quick view of how the rewards compare to both other cards that earn Membership Rewards and the overall credit card marketplace. Read on for more on where you should use your card to maximize rewards.
| Category | Membership Rewards Comparison | Other Cards |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Supermarkets (Groceries) | ||
| Dining | ||
| Travel booked through Amex Travel (or a competing bank portal) | ||
| General Purchases |
Use the card for purchases at U.S. Supermarkets until you spend $25,000 on the card in this category during the calendar year. After that, you’ll earn only 1 point per dollar, so it’s probably worthwhile to switch spending over to another card that earns more rewards on groceries.
The Gold Card should also be your go-to dining card within the Membership Rewards ecosystem. No other Membership Rewards card will earn more points on the first $50,000 you spent at restaurants. Plus, between the Resy credits, the Gold Card dining credits, and the Dunkin’ Credit, you can earn more when you dine at specific places.
When it comes to booking travel, you’ll get more points if you make your Amex Travel bookings (and your direct airline bookings) on your Amex Platinum card. (Plus you’ll get better travel insurance benefits.) But if you don’t have the Platinum card, the card is a decent choice for booking travel.
Use other cards for non-category purchases that only earn 1x points with the Gold Card. If you have a small business and want to earn Membership Rewards, we’d recommend The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express.
Additional tips on using the Amex Gold
Want to get even more out of the card, here are some additional tips on using specific benefits of the Amex Gold card:
- You can select any Amex card as your payment method on Uber to get the Uber Cash. This is particularly interesting to Delta credit card holders who can earn a rideshare statement credit. If you select a Delta Platinum- or Reserve-level Amex as your payment method and take a $20 Uber ride, you could use your $10 monthly Uber Cash and earn you $10 monthly statement credit in the same ride.
- You can buy gift cards to lock-in your Resy credits. If you’re not going to dine at a Resy restaurant in time to earn your credit, you usually can lock in this benefit by buying a gift card. Most of the time, gift cards purchased at a restaurant trigger the Resy credits. Also if you have multiple cards that offer Resy credits, most restaurants will allow you to split payment across multiple cards, allowing you to earn multiple cards’ Resy credits in one visit.
- Buying gift cards also works for Dunkin’ and monthly dining credits. Gift cards purchased at the select restaurants included in the monthly dining credit and at Dunkin’ should also trigger the Gold Card’s statement credits.
- Don’t discount the Hotel Collection if you’re not into luxury hotels. The Hotel Collection offers many reasonably-priced mid-scale hotels and the $100 credit you can get on a 2-night stay can often pay for several meals.
My experience: Why I opted out of the Amex Gold card
Aaron Hurd
Executive Editor of Cards and Points
I used to have the Amex Gold card, but I dropped the card when Amex raised the annual fee. Here’s why.
I mentioned in my review that Membership Rewards points are relatively hard to use… that’s mostly because you have to jump through quite a few hoops to get cash back out of them, so you’re stuck either booking travel through Amex Travel to use them or learning airline transfer partners.
That said, I do use Membership Rewards often… but not in the way you might expect. Most of my point transfers from Membership Rewards are to… Delta?!? Sure, hard-core miles and points aficionados are scoffing at me right now, but most of my travel is within the United States with my family and for work, and being Minneapolis-based, Delta has the most schedule from my home airport.
Ultimately, a card with this high of an annual fee needs to offer clear and compelling value that is easy to use. And when I can get equivalent or better rewards in all of this card’s categories on other cards, I’m left with jumping through a bunch of hoops to get statement credits in order to justify paying the annual fee. And at that point, my time is better-spent elsewhere.
The best way to use Membership Rewards®
The Membership Rewards® points you’ll earn, a transferrable points currency that can provide excellent value for travel redemptions. With Membership Rewards, you’ll earn points in a single pool across all of your cards and you can use the redemption options available on any of your cards with the points you earn from your other cards.
All cards that earn Membership Rewards® points offer the program’s most valuable redemption option, point transfers to airline and hotel transfer partners. Most cards do not offer a good option to redeem points for cash. You can learn more about in our guide to Membership Rewards.
Is the American Express® Gold Card right for you?
The American Express® Gold Card won’t be for a great card for everyone, but here are some ways to know that the card might be right for you.
- You know how to use Amex Membership Rewards® transfer partners. Because Membership Rewards doesn’t offer a compelling cash back redemption option, you’ll want to make sure you know how to use the program’s best redemption option (transfers to travel partners) before collecting these points.
- You spend a lot (but not too much!) in the card’s bonus categories. You’ll get the most points from the card if you spend a lot at restaurants (worldwide) and at U.S. Supermarkets, but Price is Right rules are at play… if you go over the card’s bonus reward caps ($50k annually for restaurants and $25k annually for supermarkets,) you’ll earn only 1 point per dollar on your subsequent purchases.
- Your natural spending aligns with the credits. If you use Uber frequently, get your daily coffee at Dunkin’, dine out at Resy restaurants, and are on a first-name basis with the host at The Cheesecake Factory, you can get plenty of value from the card’s credits for these purchases. But if not, you’ll find yourself either leaving this value on the table of jumping through hoops for a bunch of $10 credits.
Alternatives: Cards to consider instead of the American Express® Gold Card
If you’re considering the American Express® Gold Card, you probably are attracted by the card’s combination of rewards and benefits, but you might be disappointed by the high annual fee. Here are some other cards to consider and links to some of our articles that might help you find a better card for you.
- You want rewards on dining. Plenty of cards with no annual fee offer 3% cash back rewards on dining—and in most cases you’re likely to come out ahead with another card, when considering annual fees. The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a good option, and you can get up to 5% rewards on dining with the Citi Custom Cash.
- You want rewards on groceries. The AAA Daily Advantage Visa Signature® Credit Card can get you 5% cash back on a large amount of groceries and the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express earns 6% on the first $6,000 you spend at U.S. Supermarkets each year, then 1%. Our list of the best grocery store credit cards has some great options.
- You like Amex consumer insurance benefits. Using a card with consumer insurance benefits like Extended Warranty and Purchase Protection can save you money if your purchases break, are stolen, or fail. Many Amex cards offer these benefits. Find these cards in our guides to Amex Extended Warranty Protection and Amex Purchase protection
Bottom line: A good card for some, but an expensive choice for most
If you’re a very specific type of consumer, you can get a fair amount of value out of the American Express® Gold Card, but most people looking at this card’s rewards and perks can probably find better rewards and benefits elsewhere.
