KEY LINK: American Express® Gold Card – Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. $325 annual fee (see rates and fees)

I’ve often said that one of the best ways to get a lot of miles and points is through careful and judicious signing up for new credit cards. It can be difficult to earn an appreciable amount miles and points when you’re only counting on your organic spending, 1 or 2 miles at a time. So it can make sense to regularly apply for new cards in order to take advantage of some of the bonuses that are out there. As always, make sure that you are in a financial position to always pay your statement in full and that you don’t apply for a new card just because some guy on the Internet said you should.

American Express® Gold Card Review – welcome offer

First up let’s talk about the welcome offer on the Amex Gold Card. The Gold card currently is offering the ability to:

• Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Plus, receive 20% back in statement credits on eligible purchases made at restaurants worldwide within the first 6 months of Card Membership, up to $100 back. Limited time offer. Offer ends 11/6/24.

This is worth several hundreds of dollars if you redeem it for travel, and it’s pretty easy to get more value than that through transfer partners.

American Express® Gold Card Review – earning points

The Amex Gold Card has the following earning structure:

• 4X points at restaurants worldwide on up to $50,000 in purchases per year (then 1X)
• 4X points on groceries at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 in purchases per year (then 1X)
• 3X points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com.
• 1X points on all other eligible purchases

American Express® Gold Card Review – redeeming points

One thing I really like about the Amex Gold Card (and all Membership Rewards cards) is its flexibility in redeeming miles. You can transfer your points to airline and hotel transfer partners, or you can redeem miles for travel purchases directly. Unlike redeeming travel with Chase or Capital One, redeeming points directly for travel is not as attractive, since you only get a value of 1 cent per point toward airfare and 0.7 cents per point for cars, hotels, vacations and cruises. However, if you also have The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, you can combine your Membership Rewards to pay for flights and get a 35% bonus on up to 1,000,000 bonus points per calendar year, which can represent a solid redemption.

Your best bet for Membership Rewards is likely going to be transferring them to hotel and airline travel partners.

American Express® Gold Card travel benefits

The Amex Gold also comes with a variety of useful travel benefits

• Up to $120 in Uber Cash annually- each month automatically get $10 in Uber Cash for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S., totaling up to $120 per year. Effective 11/8/2024, an Amex Card must be selected as the payment method for your Uber or Uber Eats transaction to redeem the Amex Uber Cash benefit.
• $84 Dunkin’ Credit: With the $84 Dunkin’ Credit, you can earn up to $7 in monthly statement credits after you enroll and pay with the American Express® Gold Card at U.S. Dunkin’ locations.
• $100 annual experience credit when you book a two-night minimum stay through The Hotel Collection
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
• Lost luggage reimbursement
• Trip delay reimbursement
• No foreign transaction fees (see rates and fees)

American Express® Gold Card benefits and perks

Besides the travel perks, the Amex Gold card also comes with a variety of other benefits and perks.

• Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Five Guys locations. Enrollment required.
• $100 annual Resy credit ($50 in the 1st half of year and $50 in the 2nd half).
• Eligibility for potentially lucrative Amex Offers

Other Cards To Consider

In addition to the Amex Gold card, here are two other cards that offer similar benefits that you could consider:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – Earn 60,000 bonus points after $4,000 in purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. $95 annual fee.
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card – Earn 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. $95 annual fee.

Bottom Line – Should you get the American Express® Gold Card?

KEY LINK: American Express® Gold Card – Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. $325 annual fee (see rates and fees)

The Amex Gold card is a good one for foodies, since you’re going to get 4X points on many purchases where you are dining at restaurants or at grocery purchases at U.S. supermarkets. The Membership Rewards points that you’ll earn are flexible and allow you to maximize your points earning by potentially using one of a variety of different transfer partners. It does come with a $325 annual fee, but also includes the possibility to get some value back through the two $120 annual credits (for Uber and select restaurants). All in all, it’s a solid card and a good way to increase your balance of Membership Rewards points.

What do you think? Where does the Amex Gold card fall in the list of best credit cards out there?  Leave your thoughts in the comments

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