The Amex Gold card is an absolute workhorse of a card when it comes to earning Amex Membership Rewards points, especially for those that have a large level of annual spending on dining or U.S supermarket purchases. In fact, you'll be hard-pressed to find many better cards for these purchases.
For those who can take advantage of its rich credits, the American Express® Gold Card, which carries an annual fee of $250, generally comes out ahead (see rates and fees). But if you can't use those side perks, it's usually a good idea to go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which has an annual fee of $95.
The American Express® Gold Card can be well worth it even though it doesn't offer as many travel benefits as The Platinum Card® from American Express. In fact, some would argue that the long-term rewards rate is significantly more generous on the Amex Gold Card, or that the lower annual fee makes it a better deal.
If the approved applicant then accepts the Card, a hard inquiry will be made on their credit report, which may impact their credit score.
The American Express Gold is an incredible option for earning travel rewards on dining and U.S. supermarket purchases, and it's ideal for foodies that can take advantage of the dining-related bonus perks. Although it has a $250 annual fee, cardholders can easily offset it with moderate spending and its annual credits.
If you consider yourself a foodie, the American Express® Gold Card could be the ideal luxury card for you. This card earns a competitive 4X points per dollar spent at restaurants and 4X points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year in purchases, then 1X).
The Gold card is geared toward people who are big shoppers, eat out a lot, and do a lot of everyday spending. A Gold card costs $250 per year, and a Platinum card costs $695 annually. Platinum cards must be paid off in full every month. Gold card owners can carry over certain balances with interest.
Another major requirement is a steady income. American Express does not disclose a specific income requirement, but it will need to be enough to make payments on the card and to afford the $250 annual fee.
The hardest Amex card to get is the Centurion® Card from American Express. Also known as the “Black Card,” this Amex card is hard to get because it is available by invitation only, and potential candidates are rumored to need an annual income of at least $1 million.
American Express limits customers to have a total of 5 Amex credit cards open at any one time. This includes both personal credit cards and business credit cards but does not apply to their charge cards.
The American Express® Gold Card is our top-rated travel card. The card is made out of stainless steel and weighs 15 grams. Cardholders will have the ability to pay with a tap of their card at select merchants thanks to the card's contactless feature.
This requires more work and even more spending — approximately $6,250 to $25,000 in purchases is required to offset the annual fee, depending on the categories you spend in.
Call the retention line and ask your card's issuer to waive or lower its annual fee. Long-time customers and high-spenders with great credit who always pay in full likely have the best chance. It's a common credit card promotion to waive the annual fee for the first year your account is open.
Amex Platinum ultimately offers more value, though. For example, its benefits include airport lounge access, while the Amex Gold Card's perks do not. When it comes to ongoing rewards on purchases, Amex Platinum has a higher maximum earning rate and better travel rewards. But Amex Gold provides more everyday value.
If you have a Consumer or Business Green, Gold or Platinum Card, your Card does not have a credit limit. Instead, your Card has no preset spending limit unless you have been previously notified otherwise. No preset spending limit means the spending limit is flexible.
If you're spending more than $500 per month at U.S. supermarkets and spend a lot on travel, the Amex Gold card delivers better value. If you subscribe to select streaming services and spend a lot on transit or gas, consider the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card.
Currently, you can have up to five American Express consumer credit cards at one time. It is important to note that American Express offers multiple types of cards — business cards and consumer cards — and that the rule only applies to consumer cards where you are the primary cardholder.
Why It's One of the Most Exclusive Credit Cards: The most exclusive, prestigious credit card is without a doubt the American Express Centurion Card, otherwise known as the Amex Black Card. That's because it's the most famous.
It has an initiation fee of $10,000 and an annual fee of $5,000. It's also invite-only; you can't apply without permission from Amex. The card offers some incredible benefits, like complimentary elite status across four hotel chains and with Delta, airport arrival services, and access to a concierge.
What is AmEx's once-per-lifetime rule? American Express restricts each card's welcome bonus so that it can only be earned by one per person, per lifetime. In other words, if you apply for and earn the welcome bonus on the American Express® Gold Card, that's it. You can't earn that bonus again.
The Amex Gold card does not offer any complimentary airport lounge access. Bottom Line: If you value worldwide lounge access, the Amex Platinum card is a clear winner as the Amex Gold card does not offer any form of airport lounge access.
Choose how you pay.
When it's time to pay your bill, you can pay your balance in full, the minimum due, or any amount in between.
According to Weiss, one of the most recommended cards for high-net-worth individuals is The Platinum Card® from American Express . While this card comes with a wide range of perks that make it seem too good to be true, it also comes with an annual fee of $695, which is higher than most other credit cards.
The Platinum Card® from American Express is another exclusive credit card that millionaires tend to prefer. Also, this card isn't invitation-only.
If you want to use an American Express card to purchase a car, Amex's Auto Purchasing Program may be the way to go. All of the dealers affiliated with this program allow you to charge at least $2,000 on an Amex card, and some dealers will allow you to charge the entire purchase price.