American Express Gold Card

And as we are heading into just we've gotten lots of new cards over the last two years and it's kind of time to stop and look at some of these cards and consider what to do.

So my husband just got his annual fee for his Amex Gold.

The Amex Gold fee is $325 a year.

Ultimately, it does pay for itself.

However, you do have to be incredibly diligent and make sure that you are getting your $7 Dunkin Donuts, your $10 Grubhub, your $10 Uber over and over and over and over very consistently.

So he had a three month free trial, which we have canceled.

But now he is able to get the clear billet and everybody in our family will have clear the next time we travel through an airport that has it.

Now, my Amex gold fee will hit next month.

For a while I didn't, but now I've figured out a way to use those in a reasonable way.

But the $5 credit for restaurants, I didn't use because if I was going to do a mobile delivery, I would use my Uber Eats credit for my Amex Gold or my Grubhub credit for my Amex Gold.

So the $5, why would I use that? That's basically a $5 coupon, but it doesn't feel like enough to actually order a meal.

But now that it's going to be $15 a month, I mean, that is huge.

They're collecting the little bite-sized donut holes called munchkins, if anybody is not aware of that.

But the real thing is about exclusivity, right? It's like the event's technically open to anybody that walks up, but there's a whole campaign that's just about becoming an Amex Gold member, obviously.

And so, you know, they've taken the concept of Amex Gold exclusivity and they've just manifested it as a separate FastPass queue.

So if you're an Amex Gold member...

You can rock up, show them your card or however you authenticate, and then you can just kind of be a step above the rest.

That's like the whole thing.

On this episode, we continue our deep dive into specific credit cards.

Coming up today, the American Express Gold.

Welcome to The Points Podcast.

I'm your host, Jared, and this is episode number 19.

Alright, let's get into it.

Back in our last episode, which again I acknowledge was a few months ago, we started a series of episodes where we would take a deep dive into specific credit cards.

In June, we discussed the Chase Sapphire Reserve, and today we will discuss the American Express Gold.

Now it seems to me that the American Express Gold, or I call it the Amex Gold, does not get the attention that it truly deserves.

So there are other options.

And if you have cards that earn transferable points like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the American Express Gold, the City Press, Strata Premier, et cetera, then this Eagle Adapt card is even worse than all three of those cards in nearly every aspect because those cards are earning the same amount or more but with transferable points, which are worth a lot more than cashback or can be worth a lot more than cashback.

But maybe you're not active duty anymore and you're aiming for like a completely no annual fee cashback strategy, then maybe this card can make sense if you spend about $3,000 a year on health and wellness, live entertainment, streaming services, or home improvement and home furnishing stores.

These are all the categories that you probably wouldn't be able to get anything better than one and a half to 2% with other cash back cards.

Okay.

So I mean, the one that comes to mind immediately for most people is probably the American Express Gold card.

That one has a $325 annual fee, but it is so well known for how many points it earns on dining out and groceries.

It's up to $50,000 a year on groceries.

What it means is that you have to start with these cards in the right order and kind of climb the ladder up to better, more expensive credit cards and not start at the top and work your way down.

Because if you, for example, open the top tier American Express Platinum card, which clocks in at almost $900 a year, and earn a bonus on that, because of these family restrictions, you won't be eligible to earn a bonus on the American Express Gold card.

which is much cheaper, is a great card for dining, but also offers a pretty significant welcome bonus.

So you'd be missing out on as much as 100,000 points by not going in the reverse order, starting with the American Express Gold card and then eventually moving up to the Platinum card.

Yeah.

Okay.

So as millennials, you and I are probably spending most of our money either on grocery or restaurants or both.

That's certainly where I spend the most money.

... for our first draft last year of airline programs, and so if I were a smart person, I would've picked someone other than our resident credit card expert who has been studying this landscape for more than a decade, but apparently I just really like losing, and I don't know that the number one pick is gonna help me.

That said, for my number one pick, I am going to fill my everyday earner slot with the Amex Gold card This is, to me, this is the single most recommended card that I give to people in my life, especially to people, say, between the ages of, you know, 25 to 45, because we all gotta eat, whether you're spending a ton of money in restaurants or at grocery stores, and definitely both.

Earning 4X points on all of those transactions makes this probably the single best card to rack up a ton of points on an annual basis.

My wife and I probably earn at least 50,000 points a year just on restaurant and grocery store spend between our two Amex Gold cards, and this is maybe one of the few cards in my wallet that has an annual fee north of $100.

The annual fee on this card is 325.

This is probably the only card where I can make sense of that annual fee just on earning points alone.

Yep.

And then the other things, like $10 a month for both Uber and dining, and a handful of other things just make it even easier to come out ahead on the annual fee on this one, but I've got the Amex Gold on everyday earner.

So the takeaway here is that you must be strategic with your credit card choices.

For most people, I recommend having one or more rewards cards with transferable points, like Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Gold or Platinum, or Capital One Venture.

If you regularly use one airline or hotel, you can certainly add branded cards to your wallet for specific perks, like those free checked bags on family flights or a hotel card for its annual free night certificate.

The third travel hacking concept is you need to know how to maximize your points.