Why The Amex Gold Card Should Be In Your Wallet

Many people recommend starting with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, likely due to the Chase 5/24 rule. I did not begin with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Despite thinking of myself as good enough at this stuff to teach others, I broke the number one rule that you’ll often hear when entering the world of intentionally earning points and miles for travel. 

When I discovered the benefits of points and miles, I immediately got the card being talked about by the points bloggers because it had an increased sign-up bonus. My advice is don’t be like me; continue reading this post, do your research, and make sure the card you apply for is right for you.

The Amex Gold Card For Beginners

I thought long and hard about this decision. While I would love to say that I created a pros and cons list and examined extensive research. The truth is that it ultimately came down to identifying which card has consistently earned me the most points over the years. Once you experience the joy of using points and miles to reduce travel costs, you’ll find yourself committed to this hobby long-term. A solid, consistently used card with excellent benefits is a great way to start.

My recommendation for your first card is the Amex Gold.

The Amex Gold earns you Membership Reward Points and these points can be transferred to airlines or hotels and used to book flights or rooms. The more Amex Membership Rewards points you have the more you can save on travel. I have an entire article dedicated to Membership Rewards that you should read but stay focused and finish this article first. Please and thank you.

How To Earn Membership Rewards

Buy food. More specifically if you eat food the Amex Gold should be in your wallet. Amex Gold offers one of the largest multipliers of any card when you use it at grocery stores.

It’s important to clarify where groceries are purchased. Many people shop at Walmart or Target, and if you’re one of them, the Amex Gold card may not be the best choice for your first credit card. The reason for this is that purchases made at Walmart and Target do not code as grocery expenses.

Additionally, if you typically buy most of your groceries at Sam’s Club or Costco, the Amex Gold is also not the ideal first card for you. Both Sam’s Club and Costco do not categorize purchases as grocery, and it’s worth noting that Costco only accepts Visa.

If you spend a considerable amount at Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, or Costco, please finish reading this post, as I’ve put a lot of effort into writing it and think it is very educational. After that, feel free to check out my post about the card that was the runner-up.

Grocery Multiplier

Back to discussing the Amex Gold. To ensure maximum benefit of using the Amex Gold card, it’s important to shop at traditional grocery stores. This includes retailers like Tom Thumb, Shaw’s, Brookshire’s, H-E-B, Piggly Wiggly, Food Lion, and others. If you’re unsure whether your store qualifies, the easiest way to check is to make a small purchase with a credit card and look at your statement to ensure the (merchant category code) says grocery.

I recommend the Amex Gold card as your first travel points card because you earn 4x Amex Membership Rewards for every dollar spent at grocery stores.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual cost of groceries is $6,053, which translates to about $504 each month (extremely low in my opinion).

Time for some math:

In addition to 4x on groceries, the Amex gold also gives you 4X membership reward points per dollar spent on dining (up to $50,000 per year but if you’re spending more than $50,000 per year at restaurants well you might not need travel points because you have a bankroll much larger than mine). But I digress.

Dining Multiplier

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American spent $3,786 on food away from home in 2023.

Time for more math:

Let’s recap where we are so far. If we only use the AMEX card on annual grocery and dining spend each year we have a total of:

Slightly underwhelming, don’t worry, we aren’t done yet.

I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly certain that most households purchase more than just food. If you’re someone who only buys food and nothing else, I’d love to hear your secrets.

Other Ways to Earn Membership Rewards

When it comes to spending beyond groceries and dining out, the Amex Gold card earns a modest 1 Membership Reward point per dollar spent. While that may seem underwhelming, it’s perfectly fine. Remember, this is just your first card. If you continue on your journey of earning points and miles, you’ll likely end up using a different card for your “other” spending that offers a better points return.

For this article, we will use a conservative value of $20k “other” spend over an entire year bringing our total earned membership rewards to: 59,356.

Technically, the Amex Gold card does earn 3x Membership Rewards per dollar on flights and hotels. However, the main goal here is to use points rather than cash for those expenses, so I don’t think it’s worth elaborating further on this category.

Earning Membership Rewards From A Sign-up Bonus

Before we move on to examples of how you can use your Amex Membership reward points we need to discuss the Welcome Offer more informally known as the Sign Up Bonus or SUB. The SUB is the key to amassing points for amazing vacations.

When you sign up for a new credit card and meet a minimum spend within a set amount of time, you will be awarded the SUB. The SUB changes every few months, and for the Amex Gold, it has been as low as 35,000 and as high as 100,000. For this article, I will use the SUB I earned on my first Amex Gold in July 2021. (I know what the SUB was because I am organized.)

My First Amex Gold SUB: Earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening.

Time for more math: We have our points from grocery, dining, and “other” spending combined with the SUB for a total of 119,356 Membership Reward points.

Ways To Use Membership Rewards

Are you asking yourself “What the heck can I do with 120k Membership Rewards?” Well, I am glad you asked.  Let me show you a few examples of how I have used my Membership Rewards because they are transferable currency.  

Example 1. Air France Business Class flight from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to Paris (CDG) 50k points per person one way (instead of $3500 cash price)

Example 2: American Airlines (Booked through British Airways) Economy flight from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to Orlando (MCO) 12k points per person one way (instead of $300 cash price)

Example 3: American Airlines (Booked through British Airways) Economy flight from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to Los Cabos International (SJD) 9k points per person one way (instead of $250 cash price)

Pretty amazing vacation destinations, wouldn’t you agree?

Amex Gold Annual Fee

You may have already discovered that the annual fee for the Amex Gold card is $325. I remember being shocked by this amount when I first started using credit cards, and I think it’s completely normal to feel this way. Honestly, I still experience “annual fee shock” with some premium cards, and I probably always will. If you’re curious about why anyone would pay to have a credit card, I’ll do my best to explain.

Reasons Why The Amex Gold Annual Fee Is Not That Bad

First and absolutely least important, the Amex Gold card is not a junky piece of plastic; it’s a metal card and if you like to be fancy you can even opt for the rose gold version. Oh la la!

If the cool factor of a metal card hasn’t convinced you, let’s dive into the other benefits the Amex Gold offers in exchange for the $395 annual fee.

More Proof that if you eat food the Amex Gold should be in your wallet

In total Amex Gold comes with $424 in annual dining credits broken into four different types. Amex wants you to eat!

The first and least impressive to me is the monthly $7 credit at Dunkin’ Donuts. I love donuts, especially frosted sprinkle donuts. While I won’t debate the merits of sprinkles, they bring me joy, and that’s what matters.

With a $7 credit per month at Dunkin’ Donuts, you can buy about three donuts a month, which isn’t particularly exciting. However, we shouldn’t be indulging in donuts that frequently anyway. Instead, I use the $7 monthly credit to add to a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card on their app. After a few months, I earn some “parent of the year” points when I treat my kids to donuts. They’re happy, and over the year, I effectively get an $84 rebate just for having the Amex Gold card.

If You Don’t Love To Cook

The next credit is a monthly $10 Uber credit. Yes, you can use it on rides but all of my credits always go to Uber Eats so I can’t say much about using it in other ways. PSA: To maximize your credits don’t get your Uber Eats delivered, If you’re not going to make your meal at least leave the house to pick up your meal.

Another credit that makes my belly happy is a monthly $10 dining credit with a random set of 5 “partners” including: Grub hub, The Cheesecake Factory, Gold Belly, Wine.com and Five Guys. All of my credit in this category goes to Grub hub and again, I offer the same PSA to maximize your credits don’t get the food delivered.

This last credit might be my new favorite. Each year Amex Gold card holders get $100 in Resy restaurants. The credit is broken into two parts, $50 in statement credits from January through June and up to $50 in statement credits from July through December. To find out what Resy restaurants are in your area you can look on their website. Remember, you will be traveling now so if there are no Resy locations near you there might be one you can dine at on your next vacation.

Summary of the Refund

Are you still with me? Are you hungry? It’s time for math again!

I’m not that great at math but I believe $424 is greater than $325 so you’re at least getting your money back each year in credits.

If Food Is Not Enough

In the interest of being thorough, I want to at least mention the other benefits of the Amex Gold card. Most are pretty self-explanatory (translation boring) so I won’t go into much detail.

Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance – I hope I never need to use this benefit but just in case, it is nice to have

Trip Delay Insurance – I would still be very pissed that my travel was delayed over 12 hours but this insurance lessens the sting a little bit.

No Foreign Transaction Fees – PSA: don’t be an idiot like me and rack up foreign transaction fees when shopping in Paris (or anywhere abroad)

Final Thoughts About The Amex Gold

When navigating the vast world of credit cards, making the right choice can feel like trying to find a unicorn in a field full of horses. The Amex Gold is an excellent starter card due to its generous rewards program and perks. It provides a solid foundation for anyone eager to start building up Membership Rewards by using it for common everyday purchases.

Remember, if you eat food the Amex Gold should be in your wallet. Amex Gold is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to dip their toes into the travel rewards credit card waters.

Thanks for reading, friends! Happy Travels!