Amex Business Gold Card review

Jason Stauffer

5 years ago

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If you qualify for business credit cards, the American Express® Business Gold Card has a bonus offer of 70,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership. This is a better public offer than we’ve seen in the past, but not as high as what has been available via referrals from time to time.

You can apply for the American Express Business Gold Card here.

The Amex Business Gold isn’t a great travel credit card because it comes with very few perks. But it can be the perfect card for maximizing your business expenses because of it’s generous 4x bonus categories.

The Amex Business Gold card has a wide range of 4x bonus categories to take advantage of. (Photo by Jacob Lund/Shutterstock.com.)

Current bonus

The Amex Business Gold Card currently has a bonus offer of 70,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.

Benefits of the Amex Business Gold Card

The Amex Business Gold comes with other valuable perks to help business owners save money and earn rewards. For starters, you’ll earn 4x Amex points on the two categories where you spend the most each month (capped at the first $150,000 in combined purchases each calendar year, then one point per dollar) (terms apply):

Airfare purchased directly from airlines
U.S. purchases for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio)
U.S. purchases made directly from select technology providers of computer hardware, software and cloud solutions
U.S. purchases at gas stations
U.S. purchases at restaurants
U.S. purchases for shipping

This is a nice change because you won’t have to choose your bonus categories beforehand. Instead, you’ll automatically earn 4x Amex Membership Rewards points per dollar on whatever two categories you spend the most on each month and you will earn one Amex Membership Rewards point per dollar for everything else. The Amex Business Gold does have a $295 annual fee (see rates and fees) and no foreign transaction fees (see rates and fees).

Baggage insurance

When you pay for your ticket with the Amex Business Gold, you’re covered up to $1,250 for carry-on luggage and $500 for checked luggage if your bags are lost, damaged or stolen.

Rental car insurance

Use your Amex Business Gold to pay for your car rental and you’ll receive secondary car rental insurance coverage up to $50,000 if your car is damaged or stolen.

Trip delay coverage

For travel that was paid for with your Amex Business Gold you can be reimbursed for up to $300 in necessary expenses you incur from an eligible delay of 12 or more hours.

Extended warranty

When you make an eligible purchase with the Amex Business Gold, the original manufacturer’s warranty can be extended up to one additional year on eligible warranties of five years or less. This can save you money if you would have otherwise paid for an expensive extended warranty.

Purchase protection

The Amex Business Gold has you covered if an eligible item you’ve bought with the card is accidentally damaged or stolen within 90 days of purchase. You’ll be covered up to $1,000 per purchase and up to $50,000 per card.

Amex Offers

Amex Offers are targeted discounts or bonus miles on everyday purchases. Just add the deal to your card and make an eligible purchase to earn a statement credit or bonus miles.

How to redeem Amex Points

Amex Membership Rewards points get you lots of travel flexibility, because if you don’t have set travel plans for a future trip, these transferable points give you the option to choose from multiple direct airline and hotel partners when the time comes. Plus, you’ll get access to other indirect partners thanks to airline alliances and partnerships.

Transferring points to partners will usually get you the most value for your Amex points. However, you can also redeem points at a rate of one cent each using Amex Pay With Points for flights through the Amex Membership Rewards portal without having to worry about blackout dates.

Plus, you’ll receive a 25% points rebate if you use your Amex points for flights booked with Amex Travel (up to 250,000 points back each calendar year). The rebate will kick in for first and business-class tickets, as well as coach tickets on your selected airline.

Here are a few excellent ways to make the most of your Amex points

Cheap award flights to Hawaii

Alaska Airlines and Singapore Airlines are partners. This means you can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Singapore Airlines, then book coach award flights on Alaska Airlines to Hawaii from West Coast cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle for only 12,000 Singapore Airlines miles.

That means by opening the Amex Business Gold, you’ll have enough points for two round-trip flights from the West Coast to Hawaii with points left over.

Transfer 24,000 Amex points to Singapore Airlines for cheap awards between Hawaii and the West Coast on Alaska Airlines. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Airlines)

For tips on redeeming Singapore Airlines miles for Alaska Airlines award flights to Hawaii check out this post.

Delta domestic award flights

Anyone who wants to travel within the U.S. can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points from the Amex Business Gold welcome bonus to Delta, then book award flights to anywhere Delta flies.

Delta no longer publishes an award chart, but it’s possible to find cheap one-way coach award flights at the following prices if you’re flexible with your travel dates:

5,000 Delta miles for short-haul flights (i.e. Los Angeles to San Francisco)
10,000 Delta miles for medium-haul flights (i.e. New York to Atlanta)
12,500 Delta miles for long-haul flights (i.e. New York to Los Angeles)

And Delta frequently has fabulous sales, both domestic and internationally. We always tell you about Delta SkyMiles award sales here. Keep in mind, you’ll have to pay a small excise fee to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Delta because it’s a U.S. airline.

One-way business-class award flight to Europe

If you’re looking to travel to Europe in style, you can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Air Canada Aeroplan and book a business-class award flight. Air Canada is part of Star Alliance, which means you can redeem miles for award flights on partner airlines like Lufthansa, SWISS and United Airlines.

A one-way business-class award seat from the U.S. to countries in Western Europe (like Germany, Italy and Switzerland) costs 55,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles. A similar one-way business-class flight could cost several thousand dollars if you paid cash, so the points you earn with your Amex Business Gold can save you lots of money.

Is the Amex Business Gold worth the annual fee?

The Amex Business Gold comes with an annual fee of $295 (see rates and fees). That’s no small amount of money, but if you can make the most of the welcome bonus you’ll come out ahead in the first year. But aside from that, this card is lacking the benefits and perks you can get with other top business credit cards. It doesn’t come with airport lounge access or valuable statement credits.

This could be a winner for small business owners who generate a lot of spending in the bonus categories or makes use of the 25% points rebate. I have a friend who loves this card and gladly pays the annual fee each year because he is able to max out the card’s 4x bonus categories. That’s an extra 600,000 Amex points he can earn each year by keeping this card.

Who is the Amex Business Gold card for?

You’ll need some sort of business or side hustle to qualify for a business credit card. That could be a start-up, full-time business or even freelance/independent contractor work, including driver for Uber or doing food delivery. And if you’re a sole proprietor, you can complete an Amex business card application using just your social security number as your business tax ID. You’re not required to have an EIN (Employer Identification Number) to apply.

Insider tips

If you’re trying to stay under the Chase 5/24 rule this card is a great option. The reason for this is that Amex business cards don’t appear on your personal credit report, so they won’t add to your Chase 5/24 count.

Alternatives to the Amex Business Gold card

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is a souped-up version of the Amex Business Gold. Some benefits are similar, but improved, like a 35% points rebate when you purchase airfare with points through the Amex Travel portal on your selected airline (or any first or business-class flight; up to 500,000 additional points per calendar year). It’s got a heftier welcome offer of 120,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with your Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.

The card also has benefits that are way better than the Amex Business Gold card, but it’s also got a bigger $595 annual fee ($695 if application is received on or after 01/13/2022) (see rates and fees). Here are some of the things you’ll get:

5x Amex Membership Rewards points per dollar when you book airfare and hotels through the Amex travel portal
Up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year for airline incidentals with your selected airline (luggage fees, in-flight food and drink, etc.)
Up to $400 in annual Dell credits for U.S. purchases ($200 from January-June and $200 from July-December)
Access to airport lounges (Delta, Priority Pass, Airspace and American Express Centurion Lounges) (enrollment required).
Elite car rental status with Avis, Executive status with National Car Rental and Gold Plus Rewards with Hertz
Gold Hilton status (free breakfast and upgrades when available)
Gold Marriott Bonvoy status
Statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
Terms apply

Bottom line

The Amex Business Gold Card has a new public offer for 70,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership. If your goal is earning miles and points for travel, this is a solid travel credit card bonus, but there are reward credit cards with better ongoing perks.

Don’t forget, Amex small business credit cards do not appear on your personal credit report, so opening this card won’t hurt your chances of being approved for any Chase cards because of the 5/24 rule.

You can apply for the Amex Business Gold Card here.

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For rates and fees of the Amex Business Gold Card, please click here.

For rates and fees of the Amex Business Platinum Card, please click here.

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)