With a shiny new welcome offer as high as 100,000 Membership Rewards® points after spending $6,000 in the first six months, the *amex gold card* is at the forefront of many travelers’ minds. Exactly which offer (if any) you’ll get varies — you have to apply to see — but Amex will clearly disclose your bonus before you accept and your credit is pulled.
That eye-popping bonus comes at a cost, though. After yet another refresh and fee hike last summer, the Amex Gold now carries a $325 annual fee (see rates & fees) – leaving many wondering: Is it still worth it?
Among travel cards, the Amex Gold lands somewhere in the middle of the pack. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s far from the most expensive. What matters is what you get in return – and there’s a lot.
To start, the Gold Card earns:
- 4x points at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year, then 1x)
- 4x points at restaurants worldwide (up to $50,000 per year, then 1x)
- 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express Travel®
- 2x points on prepaid hotels, cruises, and car rentals booked through American Express Travel®
That makes it arguably the best card on the market for food purchases – and let’s face it, we all eat.
Beyond the points, Amex adds real value through a series of monthly and semi-annual statement credits for select dining purchases, Uber Cash, and more. Stack those up, and it’s easy to offset much (if not all) of that $325 fee.
So … is the juice worth the squeeze? We think so – but let’s break it down together.
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American Express Gold® Card Benefits Overview
- Welcome Offer: bonus_miles_full
- Earn 4x points per dollar spent at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the U.S. (up to $50,000 per year, then 1x)
- Earn 4x points per dollar spent at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year, then 1x)
- Earn 3x points per dollar spent directly with airlines or American Express Travel®
- Earn 2x points per dollar spent on prepaid hotels, car rentals, and cruises through American Express Travel®
- Earn 1x point per dollar spent on other eligible purchases
- $120 Dining Credit: Enroll and earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly (up to $120 annually) when you pay with the Gold Card at Five Guys, Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory®, wine.com, and Goldbelly
- $120 Uber Cash: Add the U.S. Consumer Gold Card to your Uber account to receive $10 in monthly Uber Cash (up to $120 annually) to use towards Uber Eats or Uber Rides
- $100 Resy Credit: Get up to $50 in semi-annual statement credits ($100 per year) after you enroll and pay with the Gold Card at U.S. Resy restaurants or on other eligible Resy purchases
- $84 Dunkin’ Credit: Get up to $7 per month ($84 per year) in statement credits after you enroll and pay with the Gold Card
- No foreign transaction fees
- Annual fee: $325 (see rates and fees).
Learn more about the *amex gold*
Is the American Express Gold® Card Worth It ?
It’s the $325 question on the mind of many travelers since Amex debuted a (potentially) bigger welcome offer late last month.
Since I currently hold the card, I go through this same thought exercise every time my card is set to renew – and you should, too. Here’s how I do the math to decide.
Read More: Amex Gold vs Chase Sapphire Preferred: Which Card is Right for You?
Welcome Offer
While I’m not eligible for this new offer, it is worth factoring into your own calculations if you’re considering picking up the card for the first time. With as high as 100,000 points up for grabs, that’s an offer far too valuable to ignore.
At a bare minimum, American Express Membership Rewards points are worth at least one cent each towards flights. So if you earned a 100,000-point welcome offer, it would be worth at least $1,000 of airfare booked through American Express Travel®.
But thanks to Amex’s stable of transfer partners, you can often do much, much better than that. In fact, some of the best transfer partners will allow you to get two cents – or much more – for each of your points without a ton of effort.
If you’re eligible for a big welcome offer, that alone makes the Amex Gold worth it for a year or two at least.
Read more: A Complete Guide to American Express Membership Rewards Points
$120 Annual Dining Credit
Beyond that big bonus, one of the first benefits you should consider when weighing the Amex Gold’s $325 annual fee has been around for years: A $120 annual dining credit.
The credits are split up into $10 monthly increments – use it up each and every month, and it’s an easy way to knock the annual fee down to a more manageable amount. But this is a use it or lose it credit: If you don’t use the full amount in a given month, it won’t roll over to the next month.
Here are all the eligible merchants: GrubHub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys.
I value this benefit at pretty close to face value as GrubHub has several restaurants in my area from which I would otherwise be getting food on a monthly basis. Sometimes, I’ll even order food for pickup to save on the pesky delivery fees.
Regardless, ordering lunch or dinner once a month through GrubHub hasn’t been an issue for me and I’ve made it a point to use the $10 credit most months.
Total Benefit Value: $100
$120 Annual Uber Cash
As long as you have your Amex Gold Card added to your Uber account, you’ll get $10 in Uber Cash loaded to your account on the first of every month.
Much like the others, this credit is another use-it-or-lose-it benefit that doesn’t roll over from month-to-month. While I don’t take a ride with Uber each and every month, I do make sure to order food from Uber Eats. What can I say? I like to eat.
Similar to ordering a meal on GrubHub, there are several participating restaurants in my area. The prices on Uber Eats are more or less in line with what I’d pay by going into the restaurant.
Furthermore, Uber Eats often emails me promo codes to save a certain percentage on my order. This means I oftentimes come out ahead by ordering lunch or dinner via the app instead of directly from the restaurant.
Total Benefit Value: $120
$100 Resy Credit
Amex first introduced Resy statement credits when it refreshed the suite of Delta SkyMiles cards last year. Thankfully, the new credit that now comes with the Amex Gold will be far easier to use.
Each year, cardholders can get up to $100 in statement credits when dining at U.S. Resy participating restaurants. The statement credit is broken up twice a year: You have $50 to use from January through June and another $50 from July through December.
Read more: How to Use Amex Resy Credits
I find this credit to be more or less worth face value and far easier to use than the $10 or $20 per month drips and drabs you get on the Delta cards. I ordinarily spend $50 every six months at Resy participating restaurants and since the Amex Gold card is already my go-to for dining, I don’t even have to think about what card I’m going to use.
That said, this new benefit could be harder to use – if not a total dud – for travelers who don’t have a Resy-participating restaurant nearby. While Resy has a big (and growing) presence in cities across the country, it still skews toward upscale restaurants in big cities like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles and some midsize locations like Austin, Minneapolis, and Portland.
One other important detail: You’ll need to enroll in this benefit online in your Amex account before dining at one of these restaurants. And like most Amex credits, this is a use-it-or-lose-it benefit. If you don’t spend the full $50 in the first half of the year, it won’t roll over to the next six months.
For me, though, this is an easy $100 in value.
Total Benefit Value: $100
$84 Dunkin’ Credit
Gold cardholders now get up to $84 per year at Dunkin’ – the artist formerly known as Dunkin Donuts. But that’s split into $7 a month installments.
Much like the Resy credit, you’ll need to enroll your card in this benefit before taking advantage of it. Once you do, simply swipe your Gold Card when purchasing your morning coffee at Dunkin’, and you’re all set. Amex will automatically reimburse you up to $7 per month.
To be honest, I’m not quite sure how to value this credit. I don’t regularly stop at Dunkin’ for coffee, but now that I have a few bucks to spend there every month, I make sure to add $7 to my Dunkin’ mobile app each and every month. I’ve slowly but surely been chipping away at this balance, but even still, I have money left over.
If it weren’t for the ability to preload my Dunkin’ account, I think I’d end up using this benefit a handful of times per year – but wouldn’t get anywhere close to full value out of it.
Total Benefit Value: $28
4x Membership Rewards at Restaurants
One of my favorite benefits of the *amex gold card* is that it earns 4x Membership Rewards points at restaurants worldwide on up to $50,000 spent each calendar year.
Like many Americans, this is a category I spend a fair amount of money in each year, so it has a lot of appeal to me. There isn’t another card out there that regularly provides this kind of return on restaurant spending.
I like my Membership Rewards points and value them quite highly. For the sake of this analysis, let’s say each point that I earn is worth 1 cent each – and that’s an incredibly conservative valuation. Let’s also assume that I spend $100 a week at restaurants, on average – again, fairly conservative (for me).
- Weekly restaurant spend: $100
- X 52 Weeks in a year = $5,200
- X 4 Membership Rewards Points = 20,800
- X .01 (Membership Rewards Point Valuation) = $208
Total Benefit Value: $208
4x Membership Rewards at U.S. Supermarkets
Another key benefit of the Amex Gold Card is that it earns 4x Membership Rewards points at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 annually, then 1x). This 4x earning is what makes it our choice for the best card for grocery shopping.
Again, I spend a decent amount on groceries each month, so the 4x multiplier in this category yields me quite a few points.
As mentioned above, I’m assigning a value of 1 cent each to my Membership Rewards for the sake of this analysis. To figure out just how lucrative the Amex Gold Card is for my supermarket spending, I’m going to estimate that on average I spend $150 a week at the grocery store.
- Weekly supermarket spend: $150
- X 52 Weeks in a year = $7,800
- X 4 Membership Rewards Points = 31,200
- X .01 (Membership Rewards Point Valuation) = $312
Total Benefit Value: $312
Amex Offers & Referral Bonuses
It’s impossible to assign a dollar amount to this category, but it’s still worth thinking about when considering whether to get (or keep) this card.
Amex Offers are money-saving digital coupons or rebates that you’ll get access to with just about any Amex Card – even the no-annual fee ones. The reason I’m taking these offers into consideration for whether or not to keep the Amex Gold is because this card typically gets better offers than any of my other Amex Cards. Yes, even better than the offers I get on Amex’s top-tier *amex platinum card*.
Since I don’t typically go out of my way to use an Amex offer, the savings that I get from these offers is real money back in my pocket (or bank account).
Along those same lines, I also get better referral offers – bonuses that I can share with friends and family members who apply – with my Gold Card than any other Amex card that’s in my wallet.
Yet again, it’s tough to assign a dollar value to this benefit. But it simply adds to the increasingly lopsided math when I decide whether or not to keep the card each year. As the resident “credit card guy” among my family and friends I’m often asked what travel card to get – and they’re usually more than happy to apply using my referral link.
That means I’m earning more bonus points each year with this card, adding to my stash of points and taking an extra vacation that I might otherwise have been unable to afford. That’s worth something to me … even if I can’t assign it a dollar amount.
Doing the Final Math
Is the American Express Gold Card annual fee worth $325? For me, the answer is a resounding yes – though that will be different for everybody.
From my analysis, I think that I can squeeze over $800 of value out of the card each year. That’s more than double the card’s annual fee and means the card is a keeper for the next year – and likely several years beyond that.
For others who spend less on food and don’t live near a Resy-participating restaurant, Dunkin’ coffee shop, or Five Guys, the math may work out far differently. You have to do the math for yourself.
If you don’t yet have the card, the math could tilt even further in your favor with a big welcome bonus. Being able to earn as high as 100,000 points should make this card a no brainer for most travelers … at least for the first year or two.
Bottom Line
While it’s never fun paying big annual fees, the key is figuring out whether you can get more out of it than what you’re paying. Even though the Amex Gold Card costs a substantial $325 per year, I can fairly easily come out ahead when factoring in the statement credits and my usual spending habits. Maybe you can, too.
And if you’re eligible to earn a big welcome offer in your first year, the math is even more in your favor.
Learn more about the *amex gold*
