Amex Business Gold Card
From Travel Strategies
American Express Credit Cards
Amex Webpage
Business Card Only
Membership Rewards Guide
Send comments or suggestions to editor@travelstrategies.com or leave a comment below.
Annual Fee
$295
Current Offer
The basic current offer is 70,000 Membership Rewards points with $10,000 spend, valued at $730. 85,000 - 100,000 point offers, worth $800 - $1,100 may also be available, check the box in the intro section.Typical Signup Offer
Varies
Signup Bonus ChartBonus Categories
4x in the two business categories where you spend the most each month. (≈6%)
1x Everywhere Else (≈1.5%)
No Foreign Transaction Fee
The Business Gold Rewards card is one of the best credit cards for earning bonus rewards on online advertising expenses, shipping and/or computer expenses. Otherwise, it is primarily interesting for its signup bonus (especially when a good promotional offer is available and it is coupled with an Amex referral bonus).
Great Signup Offer Available
The basic current offer is 70,000 Membership Rewards points with $10,000 spend, valued at $730. This iis already very good and significantly better than the more typical 50,000 point offer.
But it is also possible to get offers ranging from 85-100,000 points. Some people can access a 90,000 point offer (with an an additional 10,000 points with $1,000 spend on an employee card) through this link, a 90,000 point offer when browsing in private mode or through this link, or an 85,000 offer. These are worth from $800 to $1,100.
Jump to
Jump to:
Amex Gold Card Options
Amex has a personal Amex Gold Card, but the features and benefits of the two cards are different enough that each is covered in their own guide.
Introduction to Membership Rewards Points
Membership Rewards is the name of Amex's own rewards program. Membership Rewards Guide
- Membership Rewards points can be transferred to many different frequent flyer programs. This gives you the flexibility to take advantage of award space on over a hundred different airlines. In many cases, you can choose to book a flight through one of several different partner programs, allowing you to take advantage of whichever program requires the fewest miles and fees for your trip.
- Membership Rewards has many more airline partners than the other big credit card reward programs, such as Chase's Ultimate Rewards and Citi's ThankYou Rewards. They also have many more credit cards with Membership Rewards bonuses. If you are willing and able to use your points to book frequent flyer tickets, especially premium cabin award tickets, Membership Rewards is the most valuable reward program.
- Amex frequently offers promotional transfer bonuses. When the promotion is active, you'll get extra airline miles when you transfer your Membership Rewards points to a specific airline. For example, if American Express is offering a 40% bonus for British Airways, you'll receive 14,000 British Airways points for every 10,000 Membership Rewards points you transfer. See Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points for more information or visit Frequent Miler’s Current Transfer Bonuses page for a list of current (and past) promotions.
- Unlike Ultimate Rewards points, frequent flyer tickets are usually the only good option for redeeming your Membership Reward points. Membership Rewards' transfer rates for hotel programs aren't very attractive, it doesn't partner with any fixed-value airline programs (like Southwest), and you'll only get 1 cent per point when you use them to purchase travel through Amex.
- The only exceptions are for certain Amex Platinum cardholders:
- Amex BUSINESS Platinum Cardholders get a 35% rebate on some airfare purchases made through Amex. This works out to a value of 1.54 cents per point. While this isn't as much as we hope to get by using our Membership Reward points for frequent flyer tickets, you'll always get decent value from your points and don't have to worry about finding available award space. It is a lot better than purchasing travel at only 1 cent per point.
- Amex SCHWAB Platinum Cardholders get an option to cash out their points at 1.1 cents per point (1.25 cents through September).
- We value Membership Reward points at 1.5 cents each. Because you can take advantage of award space and "sweet spots" from many different frequent flyer programs and the occasional transfer bonus, Membership Reward points are worth more than any single type of airline miles. If you highly valuable premium-cabin award tickets, Membership Reward points are worth even more. But if you want to avoid the hassles associated with frequent flyer tickets, they are worth significantly less. How Much are Points Worth?
Collecting the Signup Bonus
- It is worth signing up for this card just to collect the signup bonus. The typical signup bonus is 50,000 Membership Rewards points, valued at $750 (at 1.5 cents per point). After subtracting the annual fee and the opportunity cost of using the card for $5,000 of spending, the calculated net value for the initial year is $400 (8 cents per dollar spent). Your value may be higher or lower, depending on how much you value Membership Rewards points. How Much are Points Worth?.
- You can only earn the signup bonus once per lifetime. With Amex cards, you are normally not entitled to earn the signup bonus, if you've ever had the card before. However, you may eventually receive a targeted offer that bypasses this limitation, allowing you to earn the bonus an additional time.
- You may want to wait until you receive a better than normal offer. Since Amex will normally only let you receive the signup bonus once per lifetime, and frequently offers promotional signup offers, it can be worthwhile to postpone signing up, so you don't waste your bonus on a less valuable offer.
Notable Benefits
- 25% rebate when you use your Membership Rewards points to buy certain airline tickets. Like the Amex Platinum card, you'll receive a rebate when you use the Amex website to purchase tickets on your preferred airline (and business and first class tickets on any airline). For example, if the ticket costs $300, you'll need to spend 30,000 points. After the purchase, you'll receive a rebate of 7,500 points (25%). Your net cost is 22,500 points, giving you a value per point of 1.33 cents each.
- Amex Hotel Collection. When you use this luxury hotel program program to book a two night stay at one of the participating hotels, you'll get a room upgrade (upon availability) and a $100 credit to spend on dining, spa, and resort activities. Hotel Collection Website.
- Access to Amex Offers. Amex continuously provides discount offers to their cardholders. Most of the offers are in the form of "Spend $x, get $y back", but other offers are in the form of "x% off your entire order" or "Earn an extra Membership Reward point on your purchases". To take advantage of the offers, you need to go to the Amex website, find the ones you are interested in, and "add them" to your card. Each offer will then be automatically applied when you use your card to make the corresponding purchase. Amex Offers Website.
- Free ShopRunner membership. As with all Amex cards, you are entitled to a complimentary ShopRunner membership, which provides free two-day and return shipping from around 150 of the largest online retailers. ShopRunner Website
- Exclusive access to entertainment events. Amex sponsors cardmember-only events around the country and also provides early ticket access for some other shows.
Bonus Categories
- The Business Gold Rewards card can earn bonus rewards on six different "business related" categories: Advertising (in selected media), shipping, airfare, gas, restaurants, and computer-related purchases.
- You'll earn 4x Membership Rewards points on whatever two categories you spend the most on (during each billing cycle). For example, if during the last statement, you spent the most on computers and advertising, you'll receive the bonus on those categories. Then in the next statement, when your computer expenses drop, you might earn the bonus for restaurants and advertising. Bonus points are limited to the first $150,000 of spending per year (in the bonus categories).
- This is the highest reward rate available on several business categories, including online advertising, shipping, and computer purchases. If you spend a lot in these categories (and many businesses do), you can easily justify the $295 annual fee.
- There are probably better options for earning points on your restaurant spending. 4x Membership Rewards points is very good, but you can get the same reward rate from the personal version of the card. If you have already have it, the Citi Prestige Card provides 5x points on dining purchases and without worrying about whether the restaurant takes American Express.
- It is probably better if you plan to use the card for specific categories. If you spread your spending across more than two categories in any billing cycle, you'll wind up only earning 1x points in the categories where you spend the least.
- You don't want to use this card for your everyday spending. You'll earn higher rewards from a good general-purpose reward card. Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending.
However, if you don't want to mess around with frequent flyer tickets, earning 3x Ultimate Rewards points with the Ink Preferred card might be a better option.
Getting Rid of the Card
- You need to be careful or you could lose your Membership Rewards points when you cancel your card. To keep your points, you need to hold onto at least one card that earns Membership Rewards points. If you don't have one, you either need to hold onto the card, downgrade it to the Business Green Card, open up a new Membership Rewards card (like the no-annual-fee Business Blue Plus Card), or transfer all your points to your favorite airline program. Before cancelling, make sure to check that the card you're cancelling is linked to the same Membership Rewards account as your other cards (as it should be).
- We usually recommend cancelling your card, rather than doing a product change. If you change to a card that you haven't had before, you won't be able to earn the signup bonus for that card in the future. In addition, signing up directly for the new card would earn a referral bonus for your Amex referral partner. And it usually isn't hard to get approved for a new Amex card when you need it.
- You can wait to cancel the card until after the annual fee shows up on your statement. As long as you cancel within 30 days of the statement closing date, Amex will refund the fee. After 30 days, you can receive a pro-rated refund by downgrading to the lower-priced Business Green Card.
- You might be able to receive a retention offer to keep your card. It could be enough to make it worthwhile to keep the card.
You can product change between the business Platinum ($595), Business Gold ($295), Business Green ($95), and Plum ($250) cards.