The Amex Gold card is a premium card designed to help you make the most of your shopping and dining experiences while also providing modest travel rewards. If you enjoy eating out consistently this card can make getting that second side or that “one more drink” a little friendlier on the wallet, while also serving as a more general purpose reward earning credit card.

Quick Facts:

• Annual Fee
  $250
• Interest Rates
  21.99% / 21.99% 
• Rewards Rate
  1x-4x Points 
• Intro Offer
  Up to 90,000 Points (Usually fluctuates between 60,000 and 90,000 points) as long as $6,000 are spent in the first 6 months of having the card (see American Express® Gold Card | American Express Cards for details on the latest intro offer)

From Amex

Dining

• $120 Dining Credit
  Earn up to a total of $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, and select Shake Shack locations. This can be an annual savings of up to $120. Enrollment required.
• $120 Uber Cash‡
  Enjoy up to $120 in Uber Cash annually with your Gold Card. Just add your Card to your Uber account and you’ll automatically get $10 in Uber Cash each month for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S. (Plus, you’ll earn 4X Membership Rewards® points for each Uber Eats purchase on your Card.) 
• 4X Membership Rewards® points
  at restaurants worldwide‡
• 1X Membership Rewards® points
  per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases.

Travel

3X Membership Rewards® points On flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com.

• American Express® Preferred Access
  With Preferred Access, you will have access to premium seats for select cultural and sporting events, based on availability. ‡ For more information, please visit americanexpress.com/entertainment.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees
  Shop like a local. No matter where you’re traveling, when you use your American Express ® Gold Card there are no foreign transaction fees from American Express.

The Hotel Collection‡

• You came for the style, now stay for the perks. Get a $100 experience credit[1] with a two-night minimum stay when you book The Hotel Collection through American Express Travel.
  • [1]Experience credit varies by property.

Shopping

4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per year in purchases

Dispute Resolution: If you ever look at your American Express® statement and see a charge you don't recognize or notice you're still being billed for a service you canceled, chances are you want it corrected right away. American Express can work with you and the merchant to help resolve the issue.

Detailed Review

So you’re thinking about applying for the Amex Gold Card. The Amex Gold has a lot of versatility with a focus on shopping and dining rewards that can make it a very useful everyday card to use. With an annual fee of $250 you want to be sure you use your card for shopping and dining, and also take advantage of the credits the card offers with certain restaurants and services. Let's walk through what a day maximizing our Gold Card could look like to highlight the benefits of this card and see if it's right for you!

Shopping

It’s a lovely Saturday morning and we’re easing into the day. After a leisurely breakfast it's time to get some groceries for the weekend. Let’s break out our Amex Gold and get rewarded for our shopping trip!

4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per year in purchases

• Unfortunately this only applies to supermarkets in the US
• Superstores, convenience stores, warehouse clubs, and meal-kit delivery services are not considered supermarkets for these rewards

1X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases

While we’re out we should check to see the latest Amex offers to see if we can save on any other purchases we need to make from shopping to services

• Amex offers are sent out via emails and accessible in the app. They change often so check before a larger purchase to see if you can get some extra savings!

Travel

After a successful grocery run, we have some time to plan our next get away. Although not a travel specific card, our Amex Gold can still help us out here as we book our flights and stays.

• We’ll get 3x points on any travel booked through the Amex Travel website (American Express Travel: Book Flights, Hotels, Cars, Cruises & More)
• We also receive up to a $100 credit at The Hotel Collection properties when staying two or more nights two nights
• And we get access to American Express® Preferred Access which allows us to purchase tickets for premium seats and special events

Dining 

Now we have a trip scheduled to look forward to and some reward points on top. Let’s reward ourselves by ordering some food for lunch (We’ll get to those groceries later!).

• With our Gold card, we have a $120 annual credit with Uber that can be used for rides and Uber Eat orders
  • The $120 is split into $10 increments that you receive each month 
    • These credits don’t roll over so be sure to use them each month!
  • You’ll also get 4x points on your Uber Eats Orders

Looks like the afternoon has passed us by! Time for dinner and a nice night out )I promise we{ll get to those groceries at some point)

• With out Amex Gold we have a $120 dining credit for certain US locations and food delivery services
  • Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, and select Shake Shack locations
  • Like the Uber Credit, the $120 is spread into $10 monthly increments that do not roll over.

Things to Think About

With our day done, now is a good time to reflect on whether the Amex Gold card fits our lifestyle and circumstances. Firstly, the $250 annual fee is not small, and its important the benefits the card provides are not pushing us into lifestyle inflation just to have the card. For example, the $120 Uber credit and $120 dining credit may seem to offset most of the $250 annual fee, but that assumes we were already spending that much on Uber and those dining services in the first place. If you rarely use Uber, forcing yourself to take a ride each month (which will almost surely be more than $10) is a net loss. Similarly, $120 in dining credits are not very helpful if you otherwise would never go to those restaurants or use those food order services. Additionally, it’s worth highlighting the restrictions on some of the higher reward bonuses like the strict definition of what classifies as a supermarket for 4x rewards points (see above). You want to be sure the card’s benefits match your current spending habits or, at the very least, open up doors to spending habits you were already planning on adding to your daily life.

 

In summary

The Amex Gold card is a diner friendly card with the versatility to help you earn rewards across multiple categories of purchases. If you already use some of the services that reward you with credits, it will be fairly easy to cover that $250 fee and make the Amex Gold a valuable addition to your wallet.