American Express Credit Card Reviews

The best Amex Gold benefits are annual airline fee credits, rental car insurance, baggage insurance, purchase protection, and extended warranties on purchases. The card also offers exclusive access to event tickets, dining credits, special perks at select hotels and more.

These benefits help soften the blow of the Gold Card's $250 annual fee, so make sure to get to know them well. Top Amex Gold Benefits:

Airline fee credit

Up to $100 per year in reimbursement for fees charged by an airline of your choice (does not include airfare).

Rental car insurance

Up to $50,000 in insurance for vehicles rented with the Gold card when you decline the rental agency's own insurance. Covers collision damage and theft on eligible vehicles.

Baggage insurance

Reimburses damage to or theft of luggage while traveling on a common carrier, such as a plane, train or bus. The coverage is up to $1,250 per person per trip for carry-on baggage and up to $500 for checked baggage. There's a $10,000 maximum total per trip.

Purchase protection

Offers $10,000 per item and $50,000 per calendar year in coverage for items you buy with the card that are damaged or stolen within 90 days.

Extended warranty

Adds one additional year to the existing manufacturer's warranty on items you buy with the card. The original warranty must be 5 years or fewer.

Entertainment access

Cardholders get access to exclusive presale tickets for concerts, sporting events, theater, etc. There are also special cardmember-only events.

Dining credit

Up to $120 back annually ($10 per month) on purchases with Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Boxed, and participating Shake Shack locations.

The Hotel Collection

Credit of $100 per room per stay at select hotels each time you stay 2+ consecutive nights. Plus, perks like a free room upgrade when available.

In all, there are a lot of Amex Gold benefits. And the card offers plenty of other great features in addition to these perks, such as ample rewards and a 0% foreign transaction fee.

It's possible to get an Amex Platinum 100k bonus, but only if Amex sends you a personalized offer by mail or email. Amex may send you this offer if your credit profile is a good fit for the card. If you receive an offer and are approved for the Platinum card, you must spend $5,000 within 3 months from the date the account is approved in order to earn the 100k bonus.

Even though the Amex Platinum 100k bonus isn't available to everyone, the Platinum card's regular bonus of 75,000 points is still a pretty good deal if you qualify. The points are worth enough to offset the cost of the Platinum card's hefty $550 annual fee, at least for the first year.

Once you've met the spending requirement for Amex Platinum's bonus, which is $5,000 in the first 6 months, the points will post to your account within 8-12 weeks.

The American Express foreign transaction fee is 2.7% of all international transactions or $0, depending on the Amex card. There are plenty of American Express cards with no foreign transaction fee. Those cards tend to be the best options for travel.

If you're unfamiliar with foreign transaction fees, they're a surcharge for using a credit card with a foreign merchant. Credit cards with foreign fees usually charge 1%-3% of the purchase price. That can really add up, especially since Amex's 2.7% foreign fee is on the higher end of the spectrum.

Here are the American Express foreign transaction fees:

• American Express cards with a foreign transaction fee charge 2.7%.
• Many American Express credit cards have no foreign transaction fees.
• Amex foreign transaction fees apply when you buy things abroad OR shop at foreign merchants online.
• Some of the best American Express cards with no foreign fees include Amex Platinum and Premier Rewards Gold as well as the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards card and the Amex cards affiliated with Starwood, Hilton and Delta.

If you're looking for an international credit card, it's best to get one with no foreign transaction fee, and American Express does have a good selection. But American Express cards aren't accepted by nearly as many foreign merchants as Visa and Mastercard. So you may find yourself somewhere your Amex won't work. And that's why it's probably better to have a Visa or Mastercard for travel.

The American Express Concierge is an exclusive benefit for Amex Platinum and Centurion cardholders. The Amex concierge acts as a virtual assistant, helping cardholders secure concert tickets, deliver flowers, make reservations, and much more. You can contact the concierge service by phone (1-800-525-3355) or email: [email protected].

There are no service charges for using the Amex concierge, as it's a complimentary benefit. Any purchases required to complete your request are charged to your Platinum or Centurion card. Most cardholders report getting their requests completed within a couple of hours or days.

Types of Requests You Can Make:

• Restaurant reservations
• Concert tickets
• Travel and tour bookings
• Gift shopping and delivery
• Help planning an event
• Research for special requests
• Help finding a doctor, lawyer, plumber, handyman, etc.
• And so on

You'll likely have more success with some types of requests than others. According to cardholders, if you make a travel booking request, you'll generally just be referred to Amex Travel. On the other hand, cardholders have found great success when submitting requests for things like concert and event tickets. If given enough notice, the concierge can get tickets the second they go on sale. Even better, when the concierge secures tickets, you don't have to pay any Ticketmaster service fees.

American Express also states the concierge can be used for personalized gift-shopping. You can provide some basic information about the person you need a gift for, and they'll do the gifting for you. Requests you make through the concierge will never be shared with anyone, including any authorized users on your card, so you can rest assured no surprises will be ruined.

While there's not much information regarding the parameters of what requests you can and can't make, many cardholders said that it mostly depends on who your assigned concierge is from one request to the next. In general, the American Express concierge can be a valuable benefit for those who don't want to spend time making reservations or gift-shopping.

You cannot get the Amex Rose Gold card at this time. Amex Rose Gold was released in October 2018 as a limited-edition version of the American Express® Gold Card. It had all the benefits of the American Express® Gold Card but came in a metallic rose gold color. The last day to apply for the Amex Rose Gold card was January 9, 2019.

To get the Rose Gold card, you had to apply for the American Express® Gold Card and request a Rose Gold version. If you were already a Gold cardholder, you just had to request a new card be sent to you in the Rose Gold shade. Requesting the color was quick and easy— you just had to use the online chat function of the American Express credit cards website and ask the agent assigned to you. American Express has no plans at this time to re-release the Amex Rose Gold card.

Fortunately, you can still get the American Express® Gold Card and all of its incredible benefits, from high cash back rates to a huge signup bonus of 60,000 points once you spend $4,000 in the first 6 months. You also receive a $100 airline fee credit per year, as well as monthly statement credits when you dine at certain restaurants.

All of those excellent rewards do come at the cost of a $250 annual fee, so it's important to weigh the worth of those rewards against the cost of the card.

If American Express does bring back the Amex Rose Gold card at some point, having an American Express® Gold Card will be the easiest and fastest way to get a Rose Gold version.