2021 American Express Gold Card Review

The best Amex Gold benefits are annual dinning 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:

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 and Uber Cash

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. Plus, up to $120 in Uber Cash per year ($10 per month) for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S.

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.

To get the Rose Gold card, you have to apply for the American Express® Gold Card and request a Rose Gold version. If you are already a Gold cardholder, you just have to request a new card be sent to you in the Rose Gold shade. Requesting the color is quick and easy— you just have to use the online chat function of the American Express credit cards website and ask the agent assigned to you.

No matter what shade you choose, you can get all of American Express® Gold Card's incredible benefits, from high earning rates to a huge signup bonus of 60,000 points once you spend $4,000 in the first 6 months. You also receive up to $120 in Uber Cash 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.

Amex Rose Gold was released in October 2018 as a limited-edition, which ended on January 9, 2019. But now it is back for good.

The American Express Gold dining credit gives Amex Gold cardholders $10 in statement credits each month that they spend $10 or more at select food-related merchants. That adds up to $120 each year on purchases with eligible merchants. These Amex Gold dining credit partners include:

• Grubhub
• Seamless
• The Cheesecake Factory
• Ruth's Chris Steak House
• Boxed
• Some Shake Shack locations

Keep in mind that you need to enroll in this benefit to get the statement credits. You can do this through the “Benefits” tab in your online Amex account.

The American Express Gold Card limit is determined on a month-to-month basis, depending on the cardholder's previous spending habits, income, credit standing, payment history and other factors. That is because Amex Gold has a feature called no preset spending limit, or “NPSL,” and it results in the monthly spending cap not being disclosed to the cardholder.

While no pre-set spending limit can offer you some flexibility, it can be difficult in emergency situations. You can know roughly what you're able to spend based on past months, but you never know exactly when a future purchase will be declined. There are reports of cardholders getting messages from Amex telling them that they are approaching the amount they can spend, though.

If you'd rather get a card with a set credit limit, some good rewards card options from Amex include the Cash Magnet, Blue Cash Preferred and Blue Cash Everyday cards.

The Amex Gold card annual fee is $250. Amex Gold card's annual fee is much higher than the average credit card fee, but it's neither the most expensive annual fee on the market nor the most expensive fee charged by Amex. Several American Express cards, such as the Centurion® Card from American Express, the The Platinum Card® from American Express and the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, cost more.

Still, the Amex Gold card is only worth getting for people who will spend enough and take advantage of enough of the perks to at least break even on the $250 fee. The card offers plenty of rewards, with 1 - 4 points per $1 on purchases, plus a bonus of 60,000 points for spending $4,000 in the first 6 months. There are also credits on airline fees and dining to take advantage of, which together could cover most of the annual fee.

In addition to the Amex Gold card's annual fee of $250, the card has a cash advance fee of 5% (min $10) and a maximum late fee of $40. The foreign transaction fee is 0%.

New applicants can no longer get the Amex Gold airline credit as of February 2021. However, if you are a current cardholder, you can still use the $100 for incidental charges on your chosen airline through the end of 2021. Charges eligible for the Amex Gold airline credit are in-flight purchases, checked baggage fees, and pet travel, among others. The airline credit does not apply to plane tickets, gift cards or points transfers.

When this benefit was still available, you had to choose a qualifying airline in order for the Amex Gold airline credit to apply. To view the list of qualifying airlines, you had to log in to the airline fee credit enrollment page from your online account and made your selection from the dropdown menu. You could choose an airline any time during the first year your account was open. After that, you could only select or change airlines each January. If you didn't change airlines by January 31st, Amex automatically applied the airline fee credit to the previously chosen airline.

The first $100 in eligible charges each year were automatically credited to your account within 2-4 weeks of qualifying purchases being made. Authorized users were eligible for the airline credit, but the entire account was limited to a single $100 credit every year. Credits used to appear on the primary cardholder's monthly statement as “AMEX Airline Fee Reimbursement.” The Amex Gold airline credit used to reset every calendar year, but unused credits did not roll over from year to year.

No. The American Express Gold Card does not offer lounge access. 

Unlike Amex Gold, the higher-tier Amex Platinum card has airport lounge benefit as one of its standard perks. With Amex Platinum, cardholders get unlimited access to the Global Lounge Collection, which is made up of 7 lounge brands: The Centurion Lounge, Delta Sky Club, Priority Pass Select, Escape Lounges, Air Space, Plaza Premium, and The International American Express Lounges. In total, cardholders have access to over 1,200 lounges in 130 countries.

Though the American Express Gold Card does not have the lounge access benefit, it's also a lot cheaper than the American Express Platinum Card. Amex Gold's annual fee is $250 while Amex Platinum's is $550. That said, if you're an extremely frequent traveler and use airport lounges on a regular basis, the Global Lounge Collection benefit from Amex Platinum can make the card worth it by itself. It would cost thousands of dollars to buy unlimited access to all of those lounge brands individually.

The Amex Gold card credit score requirement is at least 700; this means that you need good credit or better to get this card. Amex Gold card's credit score requirement is also just one factor Amex considers during the approval process, along with income, existing debt load, the number of credit accounts you have open, the number of recent inquiries you have on your credit report, and more.

If you know that you meet the Amex Gold card credit score threshold but want a better estimate of whether you'd qualify in general, you can use Amex's pre-qualification tool. You just need to put in your name, your address, the last 4 digits of your SSN and your income. Then, you'll see all the Amex cards you have a high chance of approval for, which may include the Amex Gold card.

Just bear in mind that Amex Gold card's required credit score is higher than the average person's credit score. It's still low for a premium rewards card, though, seeing as many comparable cards require excellent credit (score of 750+) for approval.

Yes. Amex Gold is a metal card. The American Express Gold Card has been made of metal ever since Amex rebranded it from Premier Rewards Gold (PRG) in 2018. New Amex Gold applicants don't need to specify that they want a metal card, either – it's standard.

It's worth noting that regardless of the name “Amex Gold,” the Amex Gold card is not made of gold. But it is worth quite a bit in ongoing rewards. Cardholders get 4 points per $1 spent at restaurants (including takeout and delivery), plus 4 points per $1 on the first $25,000 spent annually at U.S. grocery stores. That's in addition to 3 points per $1 spent at airlines or on bookings through Amex Travel, and 1 point per $1 spent on everything else. There are also annual credits for dining and Uber charges, which, together, nearly pay for Amex Gold's $250 annual fee.

The American Express Gold Card customer service number is 1-800-528-4800. The number on the back of an Amex Gold Card works, too.

Another way to get in touch with a customer service rep is by logging in to your Amex Gold account online. Once logged in, look for the “Chat” button in the bottom corner of your home screen to start a live chat with a customer service rep.