AmEx has relaunched its popular Business Gold Card with a new earning structure, but it may not be the best option for everyone

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The Points Guy

• American Express has relaunched the gold version of its business card with new benefits, perks, and even a new name.
• The new American Express® Business Gold Card does not, however, have a new member bonus.
• Instead of bonus points, though, the new card offers a year of several services for free which can be worth as much as $3,188 to business holders.

Following a relaunch of the personal version of its Gold Card last month, American Express has implemented changes to its popular Business Gold Rewards card.

The revamped card, renamed the American Express Business Gold Card, features a number of improvements. Previously, the card earned 3x points per dollar spent in your choice of one out of five possible categories and 2x points on the remaining four categories, on up to $100,000 per year. You'd also earn 1x point on everything else.

The new card offers a new earning structure, awarding 4x points on your choice of two categories instead of one, on up to $150,000 per year. You can also get 25% of your points back when you redeem them for a flight through American Express Travel, for up to 250,000 points back per year.

However, unlike the previous Business Gold Rewards card, the new Business Gold Card does not offer a new member bonus. Previously, the card offered 50,000 points when you spent $5,000 in the first three months.

Instead of a bonus, new card members can get up to one year of free subscriptions to Google GSuite Basic services for up to three users, as well as ZipRecruiter Standard. For some business owners, this could be much more valuable than the old welcome bonus; the year of free services is valued by AmEx at $3,188.

Of course, the value of the free year only applies to business owners who would otherwise be paying for those services; if you get access to them through another benefit, if a parent company pays for them, or if you typically invoice them to clients, then this will clearly be less valuable than the bonus points would be.

The new Business Gold Card is also raising its annual fee to $295. Previously it was $175, waived the first year. Depending on your business' spending, and the value you can get from the free services, this could be easy to justify.

If you're looking for an AmEx business card card that does come with a sizable welcome bonus, you'll be better off considering the Business Platinum® Card from American Express. That card offers up to 75,000 AmEx points - 50,000-points after spending $10,000 in the first three months after opening a new account. You'll earn 25,000 more points after spending an additional $10,000 on purchases in the same period. You can read our full review of the card here.

If that's too hefty of a minimum spending requirement, you may want to look to Chase instead. The Chase Ink Business Preferred offers a tremendous 80,000 point sign-up bonus when you spend $5,000 in the first three months. That's worth at least $800 as cash, $1,000 when used to book travel through Chase, and potentially much more when transferred to frequent flyer partners. You can read our full review of the card here.

Click here to learn more about the AmEx Business Gold Card from Insider Picks' partner: The Points Guy.

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