There is one card that I recommend to everybody who wants to listen, and that is the American Express Gold card. I’ve written about it before, most recently when I put it on top of my list of my favorite credits cards. I figured a proper analysis is long overdue, so in this post I want to talk in more detail on what this card offers and whether it could be a good fit for you.

Just to let you know: want to apply for this card after you finish reading this post? Use my personal referral link to gain access to the time-limited (as high as) 100.000 points welcome bonus (requiring a spend of $6000 in 6 months). Otherwise, the offer will more likely be 60.000 points.

1. Basics of the American Express Gold Card
2. Industry-leading bonus categories: 4x points on dining and groceries
3. Credits and Perks
4. Amex Rewards Points are a useful points currency
5. Bottom line: Is the Amex Gold worth it?
6. Summary

Basics of the American Express Gold Card

• Annual fee: $325.
• Welcome bonus: up to 100.000 points after spending $6000 in 6 months (if you use my referral link!).
• No foreign transaction fees.
• Bonus categories:
  • 4x on dining, including takeout, worldwide up to $50.000 per year
  • 4x on groceries in the US, up to $25.000
  • 3x on airfare purchased directly with airlines or through Amex Travel
  • 2x on pre-paid hotels through Amex Travel
  • 1x on everything else
• Credits:
  • $120 Uber cash, provided as $10 monthly credits
  • $120 Dining credit, provided as $10 monthly credits (use at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys)
  • $100 Resy credit, provided as two $50 semi-annual credits
  • $100 Hotel credit, when booking through Amex’s The Hotel Collection
  • $84 Dunken credits, provided as 7$ monthly credits

At face value, the card is on the more expensive side with a $350 annual fee. This is not a fee that’s ‘easy’ to just spend, so the card better be worth it. On the other hand, we do have some industry-leading bonus categories, combined with a theoretical $524 worth of credits. But, these are only any good if you can maximize them – and is that actually feasible? Let’s dive into it!

Industry-leading bonus categories: 4x points on dining and groceries

The Amex Gold has a number of intriguing bonus categories that I think are worthwhile:

• Dining and Groceries: the Amex Gold provides 4x points on both dining worldwide (dining in and take-out) worldwide up to $50.000 per year, as well as at US grocery stores up to $25.000 per year. This is why I say that if you like to eat, Amex Gold is the card for you! These returns are industry-leading for these categories in 99% of the cases: there are two cards that under specific circumstances can trump this: (1) the Citibank Strata Elite card will grant 6x points for dining during ‘Citi Nights’: 6pm to 6am the next day, on Friday and Saturday, and (2) the Bilt MasterCard will grant 6x on dining purchases on the first day of every month (‘Bilt Rent Days’). Otherwise, Amex Gold is the best you’ll get in these categories.
• Airfare: the Amex Gold also provides 3x points on airfare booked either directly with the airline, or through Amex Travel. This is nice, but not the best: Amex platinum grants 5x points, and many other premium credit cards will grant the same or more if booking through their respective travel portals. That said, I do see value in this, because the 3x points are granted when booking direct with airlines. Direct is my preferred way of booking flights, since airlines can’t give you the run-around when there are issues. But again, cards like the Sapphire Reserve will also give you 3x for all travel, so it’s by no means unique.
• Pre-paid hotels through Amex Travel: The last special category provides 2x points for hotels booked through Amex Travel that are also pre-paid, so you’ll need to pay in full through Amex Travel in order to get double points. This category is rather so-so and is trumped by many other cards, including the Chase Sapphire cards and Capital One Venture cards. Moreover, many cards will grant you even more points (5-10x) if booking through their respective travel portals.
• Everything else: you’ll get 1x points on any and all other category, which is in line with many other credit cards.

As an illustration of the amount of points I gathered this year, just look below: 33.348 points on dining alone would not have been possible without the Amex Gold’s 4x points category on dining.

Overall, the Amex Gold’s value in the dining and groceries categories is unmatched by other cards. As for the other categories, they are nice but not revolutionary.

Credits and Perks

Personally, I like to directly offset a card’s annual fee by maximizing the card’s credits. With an annual fee of $325, how easy is it to get that annual fee back with credits? I think it’s fairly easy, actually, so long as you live around a medium-sized or larger city. Let’s dig into it:

• $120 Uber cash, provided as $10 monthly credits. You need to enroll for this benefit. This is as good as cash, but you need to remember to use it. I like to use this for takeout, but don’t forget to pay with your Amex Gold, or the credit won’t apply.
• $120 Dining credit, provided as $10 monthly credits (use at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys). You need to enroll for this benefit. Like with the Uber Cash, you need to remember to use it. When you do, simply use your Amex Gold to pay for your purchase and the credit will retroactively apply to your account balance.
• $100 Resy credit, provided as two $50 semi-annual credits. You need to enroll for this benefit. If you live in a larger city with many Resy-affiliated restaurants or cafes, this benefit will be very easy to use. You don’t even need to reserve through Resy: paying at an establishment affiliated with Resy with your Amex Gold is enough to trigger the credit.
• $100 Hotel credit, when booking through Amex’s The Hotel Collection. I do not favor these sorts of credits because card issuer’s selected hotel portfolios (such as Amex’s ‘The Hotel Collection’) tend to be pricey. I had a look and generally didn’t see any sub-$200 nightly rates, and generally in the $300-400 range. The $100 credit barely covers that, never mind that there is a 2-night minimum booking required. The Hotel Collection does grant some perks, including free breakfast, a complimentary space-available room upgrade upon arrival and late check-out. The thing is, you’ll have to spend extra for the purpose of using the credit: you’ll pay $700 after the credit, while otherwise you’d have paid $400 at a more affordable hotel. You may have used your credit, but you also spent $300 more than you were intending to…
• $84 Dunken credits, provided as 7$ monthly credits. You need to enroll for this benefit. This is probably the most useless credit for me, as I’ve only used it two or three times after forcing my husband to buy some donuts. We just don’t really frequent Dunkin…

Long story short, without much effort I think you should be able to to get $340 worth of credits ($120 Uber Cash, $120 Dining credit, and $100 Resy credit). That covers the $325 annual fee and then some.

How do I make sure I don’t forget about the combined $20 worth of monthly Uber Cash an Dining credits? It’s actually simple: when I get the email from Uber about the Uber cash deposit, my husband and I go get takeout, and we pay with Uber Eats for one meal, and Grubhub a second meal, both from the same restaurant. It raises some eyebrows when we pick up the food, as there are two orders for ‘Benjamin’, but I’ve found this to be the most efficient way to use both credits.

Amex Rewards Points are a useful points currency

Once you do use your Amex Gold and accumulate Amex Rewards points, what can you do with them? As always, the best use of the points, in my mind, is to transfer them to partners and use them through those partners to book business class flights. But, you should be able to get decent value with premium economy and select economy flights as well.

These are the transfer partners of the Amex rewards ecosystem in the US:

This is an excellent selection of transfer partners! Flying Blue, Air Canada Areoplan and the various Avios ecosystem partners (British Airways, Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia) are some of the most useful programs out there. Another program that can be useful are Cathay Pacific, because it’s schedule opens up 360 days in avance, allowing far-in-advance booking with oneworld partners, such as Japan Airlines.

One unique partner is ANA, which can offer tremendous value for business class flights on its own planes (~55.000 for a one-way business class flight), but finding availability can be very challenging. Otherwise, you can also book would these through Virgin Atlantic, which also has attractive pricing for flights to Europe, starting at 6000 points.

Another program that is unique to Amex Rewards but that I would not recommend to use, is Delta SkyMiles. For the most part the points prices for Delta flights that touch the US (which is most of them) are beyond unreasonable (think 300.000 points for a one-way business class flight to Europe).

Bottom line: Is the Amex Gold worth it?

To put it all together, here’s my rundown on this card:

• The $325 annual fee is a little steep, but can be more than ‘earned back’ by maximizing the Uber Cash, Dining credit and Resy credit. I don’t think this is challenging: simply use the email of the $10 Uber Cash deposit as a reminder to buy yourself two takeout meals, every month.
• The 4x points on dining worldwide, and groceries in the US, are industry-leading and the biggest draw of this card.
• The Amex rewards currency is useful thanks to a balanced set of transfer partners.

So yes, I think if you maximize those three credits, which is fairly easy, your card is essentially ‘free’ in that they more than cover the annual fee, and then you’ll get best-in-class returns on dining and groceries. Hence: for those that love to eat, the Amex Gold should be a no-brainer.

Summary

I provide my analysis of the American Express Gold credit card. To me, this card is a favorite and a card that will stay in my wallet long-term. Due to the well-positioned credits that generally fit within the ‘dining’ theme of the card, it’s easy to ‘earn back’ the annual fee, and then you get access to industry-leading 4x points returns on dining and groceries. Truly, this card is a slam dunk for people that like to spend on food, be it dining, takeout, or when doing groceries.

Ready to apply for the Amex Gold? Use my personal referral link to gain access to the time-limited (as high as) 100.000 points welcome bonus (requiring a spend of $6000 in 6 months). Otherwise, the offer will more likely be 60.000 points.