5 Reasons to Get the American Express Gold Card

Rosemarie Clancy
By Rosemarie Clancy 
Published
Edited by Mary M. Flory

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The American Express® Gold Card got a makeover last year, and the new metal card may now deserve a place in your wallet if you don’t already have it.

The card offers 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on airline bookings, which makes it popular for travelers, and it now offers 4x points on dining and grocery purchases, which broadens its appeal immensely. Terms apply.

Let’s take a look at the best reasons to consider getting this card:

Welcome bonus

Membership Rewards points are a valuable type of flexible points. They can be used to book travel directly with AmEx, where they’ll be worth a cent each, or they can be transferred to travel loyalty programs to increase their value. The American Express® Gold Card currently has this welcome offer: Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership. Terms Apply.

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Bonus point categories

You'll earn 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on your dining purchases. The American Express® Gold Card also earns 4 points per dollar on U.S. supermarket purchases of up to $25,000 per year. Both are popular bonus earning categories, and together they can really help you rack up Membership Rewards points fast. The card also earns 3 bonus points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or through AmEx Travel. All other purchases earn 1 point per dollar. Terms apply.

Statement credits and Uber Cash

The American Express® Gold Card has a $10 credit every month ($120 a year) when you use your card to get food delivered by Grubhub or Goldbelly, or when you pay with the card at The Cheesecake Factory, Wine.com, Milkbar or select Shake Shack locations. Terms apply.

The card also comes with up to $120 in Uber Cash per year. Add your American Express® Gold Card to your Uber account and each month, you'll automatically get $10 in Uber Cash for U.S. Uber Eats orders or Uber rides. Terms apply.

Travel partners

The AmEx Membership Rewards program has more travel industry partners than any other major U.S. credit card. It has 19 airline loyalty program partners including Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles and JetBlue True Blue in North America. Foreign frequent flyer program partners include ANA Mileage Club, British Airways Executive Club, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and others. Membership Rewards has three hotel partners: Choice Privileges, Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy. You can transfer your AmEx points to any of these travel partners and probably increase the value to about 2.8 cents per point (according to our calculations). Here is a complete list of travel partners and transfer rates.

Travel perks

The American Express® Gold Card has several travel benefits including no foreign transaction fees, which are usually around 3% of the purchase price on cards that charge them. It also comes with secondary rental car insurance when you use your card to pay for the rental and decline the collision damage waiver. Terms apply.

Cardholders also get lost or damaged baggage insurance of up to $500 for checked bags and $1,250 for carry-ons when your card is used to book a flight. And if you book a two-night stay from the Hotel Collection via American Express Travel, you’ll get a $100 resort credit to use on dining, spa services or activities. Cardholders also have access to discounts via the Travel Collection by Travel Leaders Group. Terms apply.

The bottom line

One thing to consider if you think the American Express® Gold Card is a good fit for you is that AmEx is not as widely accepted outside the U.S. as Visa and Mastercard are. There’s also no lounge access with this premium card. And the $250 annual fee is no longer waived the first year. Terms apply.

But the welcome offer, bonus earning categories and travel benefits can easily offset the fee and make the American Express® Gold Card a valuable card addition to your wallet, especially if you can maximize the dining and supermarket bonus categories.


How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024, including those best for:

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