For a while now the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card has been mostly forgotten. The issue was that the old Premier Rewards Gold card was dated. The card has been around for many years now and has only had minor enhancements in past years. None of those enhancements have helped set the card apart from the now brutal competition in the “premium” credit card space.
On top of that, I personally believe the Platinum card has cannibalized the Premier Rewards Gold card a bit. That’s because the Platinum card carries an annual fee of $550, but now offers at least $500 back in annual credits. Those credits help drop the effective annual fee to just $50. For that, you get 5X points on airfare and hotels, priority pass membership, Delta Sky Club access, and Centurion Lounge access. Considering the PRG card carries a $195 annual fee and only offers $100 back in credits, I’d argue the Platinum card is the better option.
Overall, I’d say the Premier Rewards Gold card was still an excellent card. However, other cards have pushed the PRG card out of the picture. That’s a shame because the old PRG card was still quite good. It just wasn’t good enough to compete in today’s credit card market. So, with that, American Express has finally announced a complete refresh of the famed Gold card.
Old American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card Benefits
As I mentioned, the benefits offered by the legacy Premier Rewards Gold card were actually quite good. The card carried a $195/year annual fee, but returned a lot of value. For starters, each year, card members received a $100 airline of choice benefit similar to the credit offered by the much more expensive Amex Platinum card.
Additionally, card members could earn 3X Membership Rewards points on airfare booked directly with an airline, 2X MR points on gas station and US restaurant purchases, and 1X MR points on all other purchases. All of those benefits help make the PRG card a direct competitor of cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve/Preferred cards and the Citi ThankYou Premier card among others.
New American Express Gold Card Benefits
Earlier this week American Express announced a completely refreshed Gold card. With this refresh the card issuer dropped the “Premier Rewards” title and is simply calling the card the “Gold Card” once again. With the name change comes other significant changes to the card’s benefits and design.
We’ll start with the changes to the card’s design. The Amex Gold card is now metal (similar to the Platinum card) and comes in either gold or rose gold (limited time). Personally, I love the look of the newly designed cards.
With the new metal design the card came several other changes to the card’s benefits. I won’t do a deep dive into the card’s benefits now, but I’ll highlight a few of the more attractive benefits offered by the new card.
For starters, the newly refreshed metal American Express Gold Card offers 4X Membership Rewards points on dining at US restaurants and 4X points on supermarket purchases. American Express caps the latter benefit caps to the first $25,000 of spend annually. Card members will continue to earn 3X points on all airfare booked directly with an airline or booked with AmexTravel. Additionally, card members receive the same $100 airline of choice benefit ($100 airline incidental credit). New with this refresh is a $120 dining credit. Purchases made with select vendors qualify for the dining credit. Finally, the newly refreshed card carries a higher $250 annual fee. That higher fee, coupled with the annual credits, drops the effective annual fee to just $30/year!
Is The New American Express Gold Card Worth It?
It’s funny, as I now write a points/miles/travel blog I tend to read many blogs on similar topics. This week nearly every one of those blogs is saying how you absolutely can’t live without the card. It’s similar commentary to that offered on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card and more recently on the Bank of American Premium Rewards card. Personally, it seems these sites tend to push whatever card is paying them that week.
That aside, I actually do believe this card is worth carrying. However, it definitely isn’t for everyone. If you care about miles and point and try to maximize their value, then this card is great. If all you want is to use your points as travel statement credits then perhaps you should look at other cards. I say that because even those this card earns 4X points on dining, that doesn’t mean you’ll get more value with this card over the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
If you use Chase Ultimate Rewards points to pay for travel you get $0.015 per point of value. That means 3 points are essentially worth $0.045. However, if you use points to pay for travel with Amex you only get $0.01 per point of value. That means your 4 points are only worth about $0.04.
All of that being said, if you do transfer points to airline or hotel programs and look to maximize value then you can’t go wrong with this card. Likewise, if you are able to maximize the $10/month dining credit and $100/year airfare credit you can easily break even with this card each year.
Am I Going To Get The Card?
Yes. In fact, I’ve already applied and been approved for the card. In recent months I’ve lost interest in the Chase Sapphire Reserve card I once coveted. That’s because I’ve started getting more value from other cards as my spending habits have evolved. Likewise, I have so much overlap in benefits between the CSR and Platinum cards that I’ve been looking to close/downgrade at least one of those cards. More on that to come.
Final Thoughts
I’m quite impressed by the most recent refresh of the American Express Gold card. Sure the card now comes with a $250 annual fee, but if you maximize the annual credits the effective annual fee drops to just $30 a year. That means I only have to earn about 2,000 Membership Rewards points each year to break even. Given that I spend at least $500 on restaurant purchases a year that shouldn’t be a problem. Likewise I’ve been looking for a good card to carry which offers bonus points on supermarket purchases.
On top of the improved benefits I’m a bit confused by the new Rose Gold card option. I guess it’s cool/trending to have a limited edition card and I suspect Amex is trying to capture a certain market by offering the new color option. Also, I suspect by limiting the availability of the Rose Gold color Amex wants people to “look before they leap” and apply for the card now!
Featured image courtesy of American Express
