American Express® Gold Card review (2026)

The American Express® Gold Card is a key card in the Amex Membership Rewards ecosystem as it offers the best earning rates out of any American Express card in select major spending categories. It’s a card that offers valuable benefits that help cardholders offset the annual fee and as it earns a currency that’s transferable to an impressive variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs, it’s a card that can help cardholders make significant savings on aspirational travel bookings.

The American Express® Gold Card

In brief

The American Express® Gold Card was completely overhauled a few years ago and then refreshed a couple of times since then and the result is a card that offers the best earnings rate for spending at US supermarkets and the best earnings rate on dining out of any American Express Membership Rewards card.

It also offers credits for dining and Uber spending in the US as well as a trip delay coverage that most cards of this level do not offer.

In detail

Here’s what you need to know about the American Express® Gold Card:

Annual fee:

• $325

Cost of authorized user cards:

• $0

Current welcome bonus:

At the time of writing, this is the public offer that we can see in our accounts, but you may have been targeted for a better deal. Check you online account to find out.

60,000 points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.

Note: The terms and conditions of this offer state that the welcome bonus is not available to applicants who hold or have previously held this card or the Premier Rewards Gold Card, the Platinum Card®, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards. .

Earnings (terms apply):

• 5 points/dollar on prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel
• 4 points/dollar on spending at U.S Supermarkets (up to $25,000 in spending/year)*
• 4 points/dollar on dining and takeout worldwide (up to $50,000 in spending/year)*
• 4 points/dollar on Uber Eats purchases in the US.
• 3 points/dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel.
• 2 points/dollar on prepaid car rentals booked through Amex Travel
• 2 points/dollar on cruises booked through Amex Travel
• 1 point/dollar on all other eligible purchases. 

*Any spending made above the cap will only earn 1 point/dollar

Key benefits (terms apply and enrollment may be required):

• Earn valuable points that can be transferred over to a variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs (more details)
• Up to $120/year in dining credits at select eateries (comes as a $10/month credit)
• Up to $100/year in U.S. Resy credits (comes as a $50 credit valid for the first 6 months of the year and a $50 credit valid for the second 6 months of the year)
• $100/year Hotel Collection credit (a 2 night minimum stay is required to trigger this credit)
• $10/month Uber Cash Credit useable in the US for Uber rides or Uber Eats (the American Express® Gold Card must be added to the Uber App)
• $7/month Dunkin’ credit useable at Dunkin’ locations in the U.S.
• Trip delay protection*
• No foreign transaction fees

*Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

Thoughts on the American Express® Gold Card

The card earns valuable Membership Rewards Points

Membership Rewards Points are Amex’s flexible rewards currency and they can be transferred across to a wide variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs at a ratio of 1:1 (terms apply).

With the option to transfer the points that the American Express® Gold Card earns to programs like Delta SkyMiles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, the British Airways Executive Club, Flying Blue, and Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles, cardholders can use their earnings to save a significant amount of money while flying in some of the more aspirational First and Business Class cabins around.

I’m a big fan of Membership rewards because cards like this one make points relatively easy to earn and because the points are relatively easy to use. Add to that the fact that Amex frequently offers bonuses for transfers to its loyalty program partners, and it’s easy to see why the Membership Rewards program is so popular.

The welcome bonus is ok

The current public welcome bonus is ok, but not particularly attractive, so it’s a good idea to check to see if you’ve been targeted by Amex for something a little better (login to your online Amex account and you should see).

At TFM, we value Amex Membership Rewards Points at 1.5 cents each (that’s a conservative valuation based on the value we know we can get out of each point without much effort) so that values this welcome offer at $900.

The card offers excellent earnings rates (terms apply)

The 4 points/dollar that the American Express® Gold Card earns on up to $50,000 of restaurant spending per year (1 point/dollar thereafter) is one of the better rates of return we see offered in that category, and the 4 points/dollar that it earns on up to $25,000 of purchases made at US supermarkets (1 point/dollar thereafter) makes this one of the more rewarding cards in a category that attracts a significant level of spending for most people.

Note: Purchases at big box stores like Costco and Sam’s Club will only earn 1 point/dollar.

The American Express® Gold Card also earns cardholders 3 points/dollar on spending made directly with airlines and it’s worth noting that this is a rate that can only be beaten by one other consumer credit card that’s open to new applicants – the Platinum Card® from American Express – and that card comes with a considerably higher annual fee than the American Express® Gold Card.

Based on our valuation of Membership Rewards Points, this card effectively offers cardholders …

• A 6% rebate on restaurant spending (on up to $50,000 of spending/year)
• A 6% rebate spending at US supermarkets (on up to $25,000 of spending/year)
• A 4.5% rebate on purchases made directly with airlines.

These are rebates that most cards struggle to beat.

Up to $120/year dining credits

Terms apply & enrollment may be required.

The American Express® Gold Card offers cardholders a credit of $10 per month which can be triggered by spending made with the following Amex partners (enrollment required):

• Grubhub (including Seamless)
• Buffalo Wild Wings
• Five Guys
• The Cheesecake Factory
• Wonder.

Only spending made in the United States will trigger the statement credit and while authorized users are eligible for these credits, it should be noted that only one $10 credit is available per account per month.

If you happen to frequent one or more of the eateries listed above, or if you order through Grubhub and Seamless, the $10/month could be classed as a genuine saving and one that’s well worth having.

If, however, because the American Express® Gold Card offers these credits you end up spending money you may not otherwise have spent, the credits are not a genuine saving and should be discounted from your calculation when you weigh up the value of this card to you.

Up to $120/year Uber Cash credits

Terms apply & enrollment may be required.

Holders of the American Express® Gold Card receive up to $120 in Uber Cash credits/year and these appear as $10 monthly credits in the Uber app (the American Express® Gold Card must be added to the Uber App for these credits to appear).

Just like the credit that’s offered with the Platinum Card® from American Express, this Uber Cash credit can be used on Uber rides and Uber Eats orders within the United States and, just like the credits on the Platinum Card, these are credits that do not roll over from month to month – if you fail to use your $10 credit in any given month, it’s gone forever.

For anyone who uses Uber or Uber Eats at least once a month, this is a very useful benefit and a genuine cash saver and it can help offset some of this card’s annual fee.

Up to $100/year U.S. Resy credits

Terms apply & enrollment may be required.

Following a refresh two years ago this card now offers cardholders the opportunity to save up to $100 on spending at restaurants that are part of the Resy network in the United States.

The $100 comes in the form of two $50 statement credits with one credit valid for the first six months of the year and the other valid for the second six months of the year.

As these credits cannot be rolled over, they should be viewed as a ‘use it or lose it’ benefit.

For people living in an area/city with a good number of restaurants that are attached to the Resy network, these credits should be relatively easy to use and should reduce the effective cost of holding this card by $100.

For others, however, this benefit may not be so useful, so make sure you check what Resy’s coverage is like in your area before you decide how valuable (or not) this benefit will be to you.

$100 Hotel Collection credit

Terms apply & enrollment may be required.

The Hotel Collection is a hotel booking portal run by Amex Travel and holders of the American Express® Gold Card who book a stay of 2 nights or longer through the portal, are given a $100 onsite credit. This credit can be used to offset spending on dining, at the spa, and on activities charged to the room during a stay.

If you’re likely to need to book a stay of 2 nights or longer during your cardmember year this could be a nice benefit to have – $100 will go a long way some way towards buying 2 people a nice meal at a good hotel – but some caution is required.

Firstly, if you wouldn’t have made the hotel booking if the American Express® Gold Card wasn’t offering you an on-site credit, this isn’t a genuine saving for you.

Secondly, be aware that bookings made through the Hotel Collection are considered 3rd party bookings by most hotel chains, so any elite benefits you may have with that hotel’s loyalty program are unlikely to be honored.

Essentially, the $100 credit is best used at properties where the cardholder doesn’t have elite status and where the $100 would have been spent whether or not the credit was being offered (this works particularly well at boutique hotels which, for the most part, don’t have loyalty programs).

Up to $84/year U.S. Dunkin’ credits

Terms apply & enrollment may be required.

Another benefit that was added to the American Express® Gold Card as part of the last refresh was a credit for spending at U.S. Dunkin’ locations.

Like the dining credits discussed earlier, these Dunkin’ credits appear monthly (as $7 credits) and if you’re a fan of Dunkin’, the $7/month could be classed as a good genuine saving.

If, however, you would not ordinarily venture into one of Dunkin’s US locations at least once a month, this credit will be worth a lot less to you and that needs to be considered when weighing up the cost/benefits of this card.

The American Express® Gold Card offers trip delay coverage

Terms apply.

Way back in 2020, American Express improved the travel benefits on a number of its cards and one of those improvements was the addition of Trip Delay coverage to the American Express® Gold Card.

This coverage isn’t as good as the coverage offered by the Platinum Card® from American Express or by the Chase Sapphire Reserve® as your trip needs to be delayed by over 12 hours before the card will come to your rescue, but in the event that this happens, cardholders are entitled to up to $300 per trip for expenses, like overnight accommodation, meals, and other key essentials.

The coverage is limited to two claims per 12 consecutive month period.

Per Amex: Up to $300 per Covered Trip that is delayed for more than 12 hours; and 2 claims per Eligible Card per 12 consecutive month period. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

Final thoughts

The American Express® Gold Card is a card you hold for its great earning rates and not its benefits. Some of the benefits that the card offers can be very useful, but its primary function for most cardholders is as a points earning machine.

If you’re a fan of Membership Rewards and spend significant sums on dining and at US supermarkets, this is almost certainly a card you should be considering – there isn’t another American Express card that can match what this card earns in those categories.

Just as importantly, it’s good to remember that no other card on the market offers excellent returns on both dining and US supermarket spending – there are cards that offer great returns in one category or the other, but not in both – and that’s a key strength of the American Express® Gold Card.

If you’re just looking for strong earnings on dining, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is probably the card to go for as it comes with a considerably lower annual fee.

If it’s just a great return at US supermarkets that you’re after and you don’t mind earning cash back, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is probably the card to consider.

Overall, however, the American Express® Gold Card is a key component in most people’s Membership Rewards strategy as it offers strong earnings in categories where a lot of people put a significant amount of spending.

Put simply, if you’re looking for a card to help you boost your Membership Rewards Points balance through the spending you make every day, this is probably the card for you.