In October 2018, American Express made some rather drastic changes to its flagship Gold card. With those changes, the Gold card became a real contender in the premium credit card arena. With the re-launch, Amex made changes to help the card compete directly with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, but at a much lower price.
However, from the start, the card wasn’t perfect. There were just always things about the card that I didn’t love. Sure the bonus categories were compelling, but they weren’t exactly unique. Essentially, the Gold card wasn’t a great all-round credit card, but it also wasn’t a great niche card either. Overall, the Gold card just feels a little lost.
Perhaps thats the reason why over the years I’ve had difficulty recommending the card to friends and family. Every time I try to recommend the Gold card I realize that it might not be the best card for them. However, since I picked up the card back in 2018 it’s been a great card for me. Except, I’m starting to realize that maybe it isn’t…
American Express Gold Card Benefits
I’m not going to go into a ton of detail about the American Express Gold card’s benefits, but at a high level, the card is great for travel, dining, and grocery store purchases. As noted below, per American Express’ website, the card offers 4x Membership Rewards points at restaurants globally, 4x points at grocery stores, 3x points on flights, and 1x points on all other purchases.
The card offers several other benefits such as discounts on hotels when booking through AmexTravel, etc., but I don’t think most people get a ton of value from those.
For those benefits, the American Express Gold card comes with a $250.00 Annual Fee. Sure, that’s a bit steep, but keep in mind that the card also offers up to $220.00 in annual statement credits that offset the fee. Card members get $100.00 back from their Airline of Choice benefit and $120.00 back when dining at select restaurants or ordering from select meal delivery services. So all in all, the card could only cost you about $30.00 a year to carry. If you spend $750 on groceries in a year, you’ll offset that fee in Membership Rewards points.
Are The Credits Really Worth $220?
Now, this is why I’m starting to question the value of the American Express Gold card. In years past, I could buy American Airlines gift cards in a certain way to trigger the Airline of Choice benefit. In doing this, I would easily recoup my full $100.00 Airline of Choice credit. However, American Express recently started blocking gift cards entirely which makes using the $100 credit a bit harder. So, I’m really not so sure that the Airline of Choice benefit is really worth $100 anymore.
However, that’s the the credit I’m worried about. Instead, I’m worried about the silly $10/month dining credits offered by the Gold card. See, the $120/year dining credits are actually broken into $10/month credits. So, you have to make sure to use the credit each month to maximize the benefit. That means, if you miss a month, the card becomes more expensive to carry!
Still, worse than that is that these credits are only valid for purchases at the following merchants:
Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Boxed, and participating Shake Shack locations. Excludes Shake Shack locations in ballparks, stadiums, airports and racetracks.
Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t frequent Ruth’s Criss, The Cheesecake Factory, or Shake Shack. Likewise, I don’t really use Boxed. So, I’m left using my Gold card on Seemless and Grubhub orders which creates an issue.
Delivery Fees Are Outrageous
The other day I wanted to order takeout Chinese food from a local restaurant nearby. The place is only a 5 minute drive from my house, but pickup wasn’t an option. So, I went on Grubhub and started my order. When it was time to check-out I looked down at the price and the total, with fees, was $75.39. Keep in mind, the cost of the food was only $48.85. That means, I was going to pay an extra $26.54 to order through Grubhub. Instead, I ordered over the phone and picked up at the restaurant for $43.97.
Essentially, even with the Amex Gold’s $10/month credit, I would have still spent an extra $21.42. Or in other words, the Amex Gold card would have costed me an extra $21.42 a month to carry!
Is The American Express Gold Card Worth Keeping?
This is obviously a personal question and all I can base this decision on is my personal experience. So, for me, the American Express Gold card is essentially a grocery store card. I earn 5x points on dining and travel with my Citi Prestige card, so the only valuable category, for me, is grocery stores. Therefor, for this analysis, I’m going to assume that I’m only using my Gold card at supermarkets.
I’m also going to assume that I am not getting any value from the monthly statement credits as I’ve shown above that sometimes, using those credits actually costs you more. That means that in order to make the card worth keeping I need to spend at least $4,166 a year or $347 a month on groceries.
- $250 (annual fee) / $0.015 (MR points value) = 16,667 MR points.
- 16,665 (MR points) / 4x (grocery bonus) = $4,166
In my particular case, I spend about $150/week on groceries (rough estimate), or about $8,000 a year. Therefore, as it stands, the American Express Gold card could be worth keeping.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the only way I could ever recommend opening the American Express Gold card is if you are specifically looking for a grocery store credit card. If you’re looking for another travel credit card, I still think their are better options available (Amex Platinum / Citi Prestige).
Now, it’s worth noting that the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card offers up to 6% Cash Back on grocery store purchases. That card only offers 6% cash back on the first $6,000 of annual grocery store spend. Everything after that only earns 1% cash back. So, in my $8,000/year example, you’d earn a total of $380 of cash back annually, but still have to pay a $95 annual fee (net $285). If you instead put that same spend on the Gold card, you’d earn 32,000 MR points (worth ~$480), less the $250 annual fee (net $230). Keep in mind, that assumes you’d get $0 value from the $220 of statement credits offered from the Gold card.
I hope all of that made sense, but essentially, if you’re looking for a Grocery Store card, I personally think the American Express Gold card is the best option. If you’re looking for a “travel card” (remember travel?) then you’re better off with something else instead.
