American Express Business Gold Card Review
Updated January 18, 2024. Please see our updated review here.
The Facts
The Math
If you redeem points with "Pay with Points" option to achieve a fixed 1.33 cents per point (cpp) value, the 4x categories return impressive 5.3% rewards. To beat the arguably the best cashback business card out there - Capital One Spark Cash (2% and $95 annual fee), you will need to spend at least $6,060 per year on 4x categories on Amex Business Gold, because $6,060 x 5.3% - $295 = $6,060 x 2% - $95. If you redeem points by transferring to frequent traveler miles/points, our current valuation for MR points is around 1.5 cpp and the 4x categories return even higher rewards at 6%. To beat the "King of Business Cards" Amex Blue Business Plus (2x MR points on everything, up to $50K annual spent, no annual fee), you will need to spend $9,833 per year on 4x categories on Amex Business Gold, because $9,833 x (4 - 2) points x 1.5 cent/point = $295. For many small business owners, Amex Business Gold has huge potentials for large 4x category purchases and thus could be very lucrative even with the seemly hefty annual fees. Lastly, Amex Business Gold and Amex Blue Business Plus make a great MR combo - you easily maximize your MR earning by using the former for 4x categories and the latter for everything else.
Amex Business Gold vs. Chase Ink Preferred: They are similar in that they both have powerful bonus categories and allow points to be either redeemed for fixed value airfare or transferred to frequent traveler programs. However, they do have major differences. First of all, Ink Preferred is $100 less expensive in effective annual fees. Secondly, they have different bonus structures: Ink Preferred offers 3x travel, advertising, shipping, and telecommunication, while Amex Business Gold offers 4x on two categories you spend most each month from: airfare, dining, gas, advertising, shipping, and computer. Lastly, even though their fixed value airfare redemptions are similar (1.25 cents for Chase vs. 1.33 cents for Amex), they have quite a few different transfer partners: Chase has United, Southwest, Hyatt, etc., while Amex has Air Canada, ANA, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Hawaiian, etc. (British, Singapore, Flying Blue, and Virgin Atlantic are the partners shared by both programs). So the bottom line is that each card has its own strength and it is up to your spending pattern as well as redemption need to decide which one to pick up.
The Conclusion
Amex Business Gold Card is one of the best business cards out there, especially paired with the incredible Amex Blue Business Plus.
© 2011-2024 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.
The Facts
- Annual Fee: $295
- Rewards: 4x on two of the six categories where you spend the most each month: airfare, U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, U.S. advertising, U.S. shipping, and U.S. computer purchases (select hardware, software, and cloud solutions), 3x travel through Amex Travel, and 1x everywhere else. 4x points apply to purchases up to $150,000 in combined each calendar year.
- Best Use of Membership Rewards (MR) Points: Normally, Amex Membership Rewards points can be redeemed at up to 1 cent per point (cpp) for the following categories: statement credit (0.6 cpp), gift cards (0.7~1 cpp), flights (1 cpp), other travel (0.7 cpp), shopping with partners at checkout (0.7 cpp), merchandise through Amex shopping portal (0.5 cpp), etc. However, Amex Business Gold has two premium redemption options: (1) 25% points rebate when using the "Pay with Points" option, essentially making MR points fixed value at 1.33 cents a piece, when buying First/Business Class tickets with any airline through amextravel.com, and Economy Class tickets with your selected airline also through amextravel.com (there is an annual cap on the points rebate of 250,000 points), and (2) frequent traveler miles/points transfer feature that allows points to be transferred to frequent flyer miles or frequent guest points. Please see our featured review on the major programs that have the transfer feature - Marriott vs. MR. vs. UR vs. TY vs. C1 vs. CR.
- Other Benefits: (1) Waived foreign transaction fees. (2) The Hotel Collection by Amex ($75 hotel credit and potential upgrades when you book a two-night stay). (3) Entertainment Access (a.k.a. Membership Experiences) including American Express Presale, American Express Preferred Seating, and Premium Access (Dining Access). (4) Premium Roadside Assistance - while most credit card's roadside assistance service only dispatches a provider and you have to pay for the actual charge, Amex Business Gold Rewards is among the very few cards that cover towing up to 10 miles and other incidental charges, up to 4 times in a calendar year, regardless of how far you are away from home.
- Other Facts: Over the years, Amex has gradually improved this product. The original Amex Business Rewards Gold Card had airfare as the 3x category and gas | advertising | shipping as the 2x categories. In September 2013, Amex added computer purchases to the 2x categories. In January 2015, Amex added flexibility by allowing cardmembers to select one of the five categories as 3x category each calendar year, while keeping the rest four as 2x categories. In November 2018, Amex introduced a major revamp to this card by renaming it to simply Amex Business Gold Card, increasing the annual fee from $175 to $295, removing the first year annual fee waiver, changing the bonus structure to 4x points on two categories you spend most each month (and adding dining as one of the six categories to choose from), and introducing the 25% points rebate for flight redemption.
The Math
If you redeem points with "Pay with Points" option to achieve a fixed 1.33 cents per point (cpp) value, the 4x categories return impressive 5.3% rewards. To beat the arguably the best cashback business card out there - Capital One Spark Cash (2% and $95 annual fee), you will need to spend at least $6,060 per year on 4x categories on Amex Business Gold, because $6,060 x 5.3% - $295 = $6,060 x 2% - $95. If you redeem points by transferring to frequent traveler miles/points, our current valuation for MR points is around 1.5 cpp and the 4x categories return even higher rewards at 6%. To beat the "King of Business Cards" Amex Blue Business Plus (2x MR points on everything, up to $50K annual spent, no annual fee), you will need to spend $9,833 per year on 4x categories on Amex Business Gold, because $9,833 x (4 - 2) points x 1.5 cent/point = $295. For many small business owners, Amex Business Gold has huge potentials for large 4x category purchases and thus could be very lucrative even with the seemly hefty annual fees. Lastly, Amex Business Gold and Amex Blue Business Plus make a great MR combo - you easily maximize your MR earning by using the former for 4x categories and the latter for everything else.
Amex Business Gold vs. Chase Ink Preferred: They are similar in that they both have powerful bonus categories and allow points to be either redeemed for fixed value airfare or transferred to frequent traveler programs. However, they do have major differences. First of all, Ink Preferred is $100 less expensive in effective annual fees. Secondly, they have different bonus structures: Ink Preferred offers 3x travel, advertising, shipping, and telecommunication, while Amex Business Gold offers 4x on two categories you spend most each month from: airfare, dining, gas, advertising, shipping, and computer. Lastly, even though their fixed value airfare redemptions are similar (1.25 cents for Chase vs. 1.33 cents for Amex), they have quite a few different transfer partners: Chase has United, Southwest, Hyatt, etc., while Amex has Air Canada, ANA, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Hawaiian, etc. (British, Singapore, Flying Blue, and Virgin Atlantic are the partners shared by both programs). So the bottom line is that each card has its own strength and it is up to your spending pattern as well as redemption need to decide which one to pick up.
The Conclusion
Amex Business Gold Card is one of the best business cards out there, especially paired with the incredible Amex Blue Business Plus.
© 2011-2024 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.