Review of the American Express Gold Card [2019]

Last year, American Express refreshed its popular Premier Rewards Gold card and made significant improvements. But they did not stop there, because over the past few days, they have announced new improvements to the map, which make it even better.

In this post, I wanted to review the American Express® Gold Card, which is a rewarding card for those looking to earn as many Membership Rewards points as possible.

So let's look at the details of the map:

Amex Gold Card Welcome Bonus

the Amex Gold Card offers a welcome bonus of 35,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $ 2,000 within three months.

Personally, I appreciate the privilege points at 1.7 cents each, so for me these 35,000 points are worth $ 595.

Note that even though these are the best welcome bonuses available to the public, higher quality offers are sometimes available through existing cardholder referrals, so this is something to watch for all the time.

Redeem Membership Rewards points for first-class ANA travel

Eligibility for Amex Gold Card

The welcome bonus associated with this card is not available for current card holders or for those who have already had the Gold Premier Rewards card in the past.

However, if you have already had this card or the Premier Rewards Gold card, you are still eligible for the card, but you are simply not eligible for the welcome bonus. In some circumstances, it may still be worthwhile to obtain the card if you benefit from it continuously.

Amex Gold Card is a credit card

It should also be noted that the Amex Gold card is a credit card. What is the difference between a credit card and a payment card?

• The fundamental difference is that a credit card allows you to finance a long-term fee, while a credit card requires you to pay your balance in full each month.
• Credit cards have a credit limit, but credit cards do not

But if you plan to apply for this card, there is another important distinction:

• Generally, you can have at most five American Express credit cards at a time.
• Generally, you can get approval for up to two American Express credit cards over a 90-day period.

American Express credit cards are not subject to this limit. This means that you could be approved for the Amex Gold Card even if you already have five American Express credit cards and even if you have already applied for two American Express credit cards in the last 90 days.

Amex Gold Card Annual Fee

the Amex Gold Card has a Annual fee of $ 250 (Rates and fees), and it is not canceled the first year. Although annual fees are high, the card offers credits worth up to $ 220 per year, as well as valuable bonuses for expenses in certain categories.

Amex Gold Card Bonus Categories

What makes the Amex Gold Card The bonus categories offered are so valuable. The Amex Gold card offers the following bonus categories:

• 4x loyalty points in restaurants around the world
• 4x loyalty points in US supermarkets, up to $ 25,000 in annual purchases
• 3x loyalty points on flights booked directly with airlines or via amextravel.com

It's an exceptional return on investment. According to my estimates, this corresponds to a return of 6.8% in restaurants all over the world and in American supermarkets.

To eat, this card even beats the 3x points that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offer on meals – this is one of the best credit cards for dining purchases.

Let's see how these bonus categories are defined.

Amex Gold Card 4x points in restaurants

When introducing the Amex Gold Card, it only offered 4 points in American restaurants, but it was extended to restaurants around the world. There is no limit to the number of bonus points you can earn with this.

In general, restaurants are fairly broadly defined and include everything from fast food outlets to cafes to fine restaurants.

Just note that convenience stores, discotheques and restaurants located in other establishments are generally not eligible for bonus points.

In addition, eligibility for bonus points is determined based on how the trader chooses to be ranked. It is therefore possible that some merchants are sometimes not properly classified.

The Amex Gold Card is ideal for restaurant shopping

Amex Gold Card 4x points in supermarkets

The Amex Gold card offers 4x points on the first $ 25,000 spent each calendar year in US supermarkets. This excludes big box stores and warehouse clubs. So do not expect to be able to earn bonus points at Sam's Club, for example.

Amex Gold Card 3x points on flights

The Amex Gold card offers 3x points on the plane ticket, without limiting the number of bonus points you can earn. This applies only when booking directly from an airline or via amextravel.com. In addition, charter flights and private jet flights are excluded.

Official booking through online travel agencies (except for amextravel.com) will not earn bonus points, although in practice it is sometimes possible to code 3 points. This is because often online travel agencies always have the airline bill directly when you book flights through them.

Earn three times more points on flights with the Amex Gold Card

Amex Gold Card annual appropriations

One of the things that helps to offset the annual fees of the Amex Gold Card is that the card offers annual credits of up to $ 220 – this includes a credit of up to $ 100 for airfare and a meal credit of up to $ 120.

$ 100 Amex Gold Card Credit on Airfare

The first advantage is that the Amex Gold Card offers a $ 100 annual credit on air taxes each calendar year. It's very similar to the credit offered on the Amex Platinum card, it's two times less.

Here are the basic terms to know:

• Purchases made by both the primary card member and authorized users are eligible, but you are limited to one credit, regardless of the number of authorized users you have.
• You can use credit for one purchase or for multiple purchases. It will continue to apply until you reach the $ 100 limit.
• The card member must select the airline with which he wishes to obtain the credit.
• This credit is potentially valid for purchases from most major US airlines, including American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United.
• If you have already selected an airline, you can change it once a year, every January. if you do not change it, the same airline will remain selected
• The conditions state that the credit must be credited within 2 to 4 weeks, although, in my experience, it is published much faster than that

So, what types of purchases are eligible? Depending on the conditions, here are the purchases that are not eligible for the credits:

Amex Gold Card Credit of $ 120 for the meal

The second advantage is that the Amex Gold Card offers a restaurant credit of up to $ 120 per year. This gives registered members up to $ 10 per month in statement credits when you pay with your card at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Boxed, and in Shake Shack establishments. participants.

The $ 120 restaurant voucher is a bit more complicated:

• This credit is valid for any purchase at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth's Chris Steak House Steak, Boxed and at participating Shake Shack stores.
• Purchases made by both the primary card member and authorized users are eligible, but you are limited to one credit, regardless of the number of authorized users you have.
• The credit comes in the form of a monthly credit of $ 10, for a total of up to $ 120 per year.
• Shake Shack pitches in baseball fields, stadiums, airports and racetracks are not eligible
• The conditions state that this is not valid for purchases of gift cards or merchandise, although everyone guesses if this is applied
• Only purchases in the United States are eligible
• The conditions state that the credit must be credited within 2 to 4 weeks, although, in my experience, it is published much faster than that.

Get up to $ 120 per year in value with the Amex Gold Meal Plan

My point of view on the Amex Gold card

the Amex Gold Card is a spectacular card for anyone who spends a lot of money on food (whether in the restaurant or in supermarkets) and who is looking to earn loyalty points.

For a long time Chase Sapphire Reserve® was the undisputed champion in catering, but this card is now even more interesting to eat (in the meantime, the Citi Prestige also offers 5 extra points for catering).

This card could be a fantastic addition to some other Amex cards that earn Membership Rewards points, including:

Although the annual fee of $ 250 is high, it is hoped that most people will be able to recover the bulk of these fees using annual credits of up to $ 220. If you are a person who could maximize these benefits, it would be essentially a card that will cost you $ 30 a year "out of your pocket" and that will offer you very good opportunities to earn points.

Bottom line

Not only Amex Gold Card already an upgraded version of the old Premier Rewards Gold Card, but on top of that, Amex continues to improve this card. The card now offers 4x member reward points on restaurants around the world, and they have also added Boxed as an option for the $ 10 monthly credit.

If you have the Amex Gold card, what was your experience?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for the mentioned American Express cards. These include: American Express® Gold Card (rates and fees).

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