Crystal Cox/Business Insider
- The American Express® Gold Card comes with a $250 annual fee, but travel and dining credits from the card are worth up to $220 per year.
- This card rewards users with 4 points per dollar on most restaurant purchases, which can quickly add up to award flights or hotel nights.
- American Express points are very valuable. You can transfer them to a group of airline and hotel partners for award bookings.
- See Business Insider's list of the best rewards credit cards »
Groceries and dining are a big budget category for most households. As a father of three young kids, I'm expecting my food budget to crawl upwards for the next decade. But as my kids' appetites grow, I can get rewarded big on every purchase.
If you spend a good chunk of your income on food and love to travel, the Amex Gold card is one of the most rewarding options around. Here's a look at the reasons I decided it was worth signing up myself.
Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these credit cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which will far outweigh the value of any points or miles. It's important to practice financial discipline when using credit cards by paying your balances in full each month, making payments on time, and only spending what you can afford to pay back.
Excellent rewards on supermarket and dining purchases
New cardholders can earn a 35,000-point welcome bonus after spending $4,000 in the first three months after opening a new account. While working on that $4,000 milestone and beyond, you'll earn an impressive 4 points per dollar on dining worldwide, and the same 4x points at US supermarkets up to $25,000 in annual purchases (then 1 point per dollar).
Even with a family of five, I don't ever see myself spending $25,000 per year on groceries at US supermarkets. That means I always get 4x Membership Rewards points when feeding myself and my family. The Amex Gold card also features 3 points per dollar for flights booked with airlines or at amextravel.com, and 1 point per dollar everywhere else.
$100 back per year for airline fees and in-flight purchases
If I'm spending money on a credit card annual fee, I want to get something in return. Just this week, I used my Gold card for a $10 meal on a flight home. That's $10 I'll get back from American Express thanks to up to $100 in annual airline travel credit.
This credit covers incidental charges with major airlines. Those include things like checked bag fees, early boarding and upgrade fees, and in-flight purchases like meals. If you get the full $100 statement credit every year, that's like getting $100 off of your $250 annual fee.
Up to $10 back per month at GrubHub and other partner restaurants
The credits keep on rolling with this card when you use it with dining partners. You can get up to $10 in credits per month at GrubHub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Boxed, and participating Shake Shack locations. I'm not a regular at most of those restaurants, but I definitely use GrubHub once or twice per month. That makes this credit worth the full $120 per year to me.
A $10 credit once per month for GrubHub usually covers the delivery fees and tip for one order. Because that's money I would have spent anyway, the credit here also effectively lowers my annual fee. When I take out the $120 dining credit and $100 airline fee credit, my annual fee is essentially just $30 per year.
A good choice anywhere in the world
My biggest complaint about American Express used to be that I couldn't use it in as many places as my Visa or Mastercard-branded cards, but that has become less of an issue over time as the number of merchants that accept American Express steadily increases.
With no foreign transaction fees to worry about, I can use the Amex Gold card anywhere in the world and feel confident that my purchase is covered by the great benefits and customer service at American Express. My Membership Rewards points balance adds up fast. That means free and discounted flights, hotels, and more.
Now that I'm buying four plane tickets (soon to be five) every time my family travels, I'm thrilled to have so many points in the bank - and the Amex Gold card has made it possible to stockpile so many rewards. As of now, I have enough points to take my family virtually anywhere in the world. Thanks to our points balance, our biggest worry isn't the cost, it's where to go next.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
Business Insider may receive a commission from The Points Guy Affiliate Network, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.
Next Story
Global stocks rally even as Sensex, Nifty fall sharply on Friday
In second consecutive week of decline, forex kitty drops $2.28 bn to $640.33 bn
SBI Life Q4 profit rises 4% to ₹811 crore
IMD predicts severe heatwave conditions over East, South Peninsular India for next five days
COVID lockdown-related school disruptions will continue to worsen students’ exam results into the 2030s: study
