10xTravel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. All values of Membership Rewards are assigned based on the assumption, experience and opinions of the 10xTravel team and represent an estimate and not an actual value of points. Estimated value is not a fixed value and may not be the typical value enjoyed by card members.
Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or may no longer be available. The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. You can view current offers here.
All information about the American Express® Classic Green Card has been collected independently by 10xTravel.
Editor’s Note: The Amex Classic Green Card is not currently accepting new applications as of late August 2026. This article compares their benefits should applications re-open or for those deciding which card to keep.
While many people automatically think of Platinum Card® from American Express when it comes to Amex cards with travel benefits, there are some other mid-tier Amex cards that offer solid benefits at a considerably lower annual fee.
The American Express® Gold Card and American Express® Classic Green Card are some of the best credit card options for consumers who want excellent benefits without paying an ultra-high annual fee. In this article, we’ll look at the benefits and other features offered by these cards.
Overview of Amex Green and Amex Gold Card Features
In the following sections, we’ll examine the Amex Green Card and Gold Card side by side, including their benefits and annual fees.
Annual Fees
One major difference between the Amex Gold Card and the Amex Green Card is their annual fees. While the Amex Gold has a relatively high annual fee of $325 (see rates and fees), the Amex Green charges a significantly lower annual fee of $150 (see rates and fees). These annual fees should be considered when determining which card is better for you.
You may be eligible for as high as 100,000
Membership Rewards® Points
after you spend $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer. Apply to know if you’re approved and find out your exact welcome offer amount – all with no credit score impact. If you’re approved and choose to accept the Card, your score may be impacted.
Annual Fee:
$325
Primary Earning Categories
Both the Amex Gold Card and Amex Green Card allow you to earn points on everyday purchases. The following table includes the everyday spending bonuses offered by both of these cards:
| Card name | American Express® Gold Card | American Express Green Card |
|---|---|---|
| Spending bonuses |
|
|
The Amex Gold Card offers more favorable spending bonuses on groceries and restaurants. In comparison, the Amex Green Card offers better spending bonuses on both local and long-distance travel.
Comparing Amex Green vs. Gold Benefits for Travelers
When comparing the benefits of the Amex Green Card vs. Gold Card, the spending bonuses aren’t the whole story. Both of these cards also offer statement credits and other benefits that provide even more value.
Travel Credits and How They Work
Both the Amex Gold and Amex Green cards offer travel-related statement credits. Generally, you can use your card as you normally would in an eligible category covered by a statement credit. Then, in most cases, the statement credit will be applied within a few days, and the charge will be removed from your credit balance.
The following table includes the travel-related statement credits offered by both of these credit cards:
| Card name | American Express® Gold Card | American Express Green Card |
|---|---|---|
| Travel-related statement credits |
|
|
*To receive this benefit you must have downloaded the latest version of the Uber App and your eligible Amex Gold Card must be a method of payment on your Uber account. The Amex Benefit may only be used in the United States.
Neither of these credit cards offers particularly valuable statement credits for travel. If you’re looking for an Amex card with impressive travel-related statement credits, then it’s worth looking into Platinum Card® from American Express.
Lounge Access and Airport Perks
One of the major benefits that frequent travelers look for from their credit cards is access to airport lounges, either through a credit card-branded lounge network like The Centurion® Lounge or through a lounge collection like Priority Pass™ Select. Unfortunately, neither the Amex Gold nor the Amex Green offers airport lounge access as part of their benefits suite.
Amex Gold Benefits Beyond Travel Rewards
If you’re unimpressed by the Amex Gold Card’s travel credits, that’s because this card is more focused on dining rewards. For that reason, the most impressive of the Amex Gold benefits are its statement credits for dining, including:
- Up to $84 in Dunkin credits annually (up to $7 monthly)
- Up to $100 in Resy credits annually (up to $50 semi-annually) when you dine at U.S. Resy restaurants
- Up to $120 in statement credits annually (up to $10 monthly) for eligible purchases with Grubhub (including Seamless), Buffalo Wild Wings, Five Guys, The Cheesecake Factory, and Wonder
If you use all of the American Express Gold Card benefits listed above to the fullest, they can provide a lot of value and go a long way toward offsetting this card’s $325 annual fee.
Dining and Uber Credits Breakdown
It’s also worth noting that in addition to rideshare, you can use the Uber Cash credits for food delivery through Uber Eats in the U.S. With the $10 in Uber Cash monthly offered by the Amex Gold Card, as well as the card’s other dining-related credits, you could potentially get up to $424 in dining-related benefits annually, which is enough to offset the card’s $325 annual fee.
However, you’ll need to be diligent about using each benefit to the fullest each month (or every six months in the case of the Resy Credit). Enrollment is required for select benefits.
Amex Green Benefits for Sustainable Travel
While the Amex Green isn’t an explicitly sustainability-focused credit card, some of its rewards can be useful for travelers who regularly use public transportation and other forms of transit.
Transit Rewards and City Travel
One of the American Express Green Card benefits is 3X Membership Rewards® points on eligible transit purchases. According to American Express, eligible transit purchases include trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses and subways.
Membership Rewards: Earning and Redemption
One common benefit of the Amex Green Card and Amex Gold Card is the ability to transfer Membership Rewards® points to participating hotel and airline loyalty programs. This can be a major advantage because, through these transfer partners, you may be able to find travel redemptions that offer greater value for your Membership Rewards points.
Transfer Partners and Redemption Values
Regardless of whether you have the Amex Gold Card or Amex Green Card, eligible Card Members can currently transfer Membership Rewards points to numerous participating hotel and airline loyalty programs. The following table includes these transfer partners and their respective transfer ratios.
| Transfer partner | Transfer ratio |
|---|---|
| Aer Lingus AerClub | 1:1 |
| Aeromexico Rewards | 1:1.6 |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1:1 |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | 1:1 |
| ANA Mileage Club | 1:1 |
| Avianca Lifemiles | 1:1 |
| British Airways Club | 1:1 |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1:0.8 |
| Choice Privileges | 1:1 |
| Delta SkyMiles | 1:1 |
| Emirates Skywards | 1:0.8 |
| Hilton Honors | 1:2 |
| Iberia Club | 1:1 |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1.25:1 |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1:1 |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1:1 |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | 1:1 |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1:1 |
| The Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club | 1:0.25 |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1:1 |
Among these transfer partners, some of these loyalty programs tend to offer more value on average than others.
Generally, some of the transfer partners that offer the best value on average include Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, ANA Mileage Club, Avianca Lifemiles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and any of the programs that use the Avios currency (including Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways).
Protection and Insurance Coverage
In addition to the benefits already mentioned, both Amex Gold and Amex Green offer other purchase protection and travel insurance benefits that can be valuable in certain scenarios. Here’s a list of these purchase protection and travel insurance benefits:
| Benefit | Coverage details |
|---|---|
| Trip delay insurance | If a round-trip ticket is paid for entirely with your card and your trip is delayed for more than 12 hours for a covered reason, you can be reimbursed for additional expenses purchased on the same card, up to $300 per trip (maximum of two claims per card per consecutive 12-month period). |
| Baggage insurance plan | If you purchase the entire fare for a common carrier vehicle ticket (i.e., plane, train, ship or bus) on your card, you can be reimbursed up to $1,250 for carry-on baggage or up to $500 for checked baggage that‘s been lost, damaged or stolen. This insurance kicks in only after the coverage provided by the common carrier. For New York residents, there is a $10,000 aggregate maximum limit per trip. |
| Car rental loss and damage insurance | If you use your card to pay for an entire car rental and decline the collision damage waiver at the rental company counter, you can be covered for damage to or theft of a rental vehicle up to $50,000 per rental agreement. This is secondary coverage and does not include liability coverage. Coverage is not available for vehicles rented in Australia, Italy or New Zealand. |
| Purchase protection | When you use your American Express® Gold Card for covered purchases, you’ll be protected for up to 90 days from the covered purchase date, with coverage of up to $10,000 per covered purchase (up to $50,000 per calendar year). Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. |
| Extended warranty | When you use your card for covered purchases, you can get up to one year added to the original manufacturer’s warranty (applies to warranties of 5 years or less on covered purchases in the U.S. or its territories or possessions). |
While these benefits are easy to overlook, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with how they work. In some scenarios, they could save you a lot of money. For example, a collision damage waiver from a car rental company can cost hundreds per rental. With Amex’s car rental loss and damage insurance, you can decline that waiver and instantly save on every covered car rental.
Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
Deciding Between Amex Green Card vs. Gold Card
Deciding which card to keep comes down to more than looking at the Amex Green benefits, annual fees and other features and comparing them to those offered by the Amex Gold. You also have to consider how the features of each of these credit cards align with your preferences and spending habits.
We recommend looking through your expense breakdown for the previous year (or past several years) to identify which spending categories were the highest. Most bank apps offer this feature.
If your top spending categories were dining and groceries, then the Amex Gold is probably the better choice for your wallet. This card offers stellar spending bonuses in both categories, as well as some valuable dining statement credits. While this card has a relatively high annual fee of $325, you can still get a lot of value out of the Amex Gold as long as you use its benefits and spending bonuses wisely.
If you tend to spend the most on local and long-distance travel (for instance, if you take trains and subways daily and also take several international trips per year), then the Amex Green Card is probably the better option. This card offers better spending bonuses in these categories and also offers a significantly lower annual fee of $150.
New to the world of points and miles? The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is the best card to start with.
Current offer: Limited Time Offer: Enjoy a $300 stays credit, plus earn 75K bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening.
Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel; 2X miles on all purchases.
Card is no longer available to new applications
Annual Fee:
$150
after you spend $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer. Apply to know if you’re approved and find out your exact welcome offer amount – all with no credit score impact. If you’re approved and choose to accept the Card, your score may be impacted.
Annual Fee:
$325
Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
10xTravel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. All values of Membership Rewards are assigned based on the assumption, experience and opinions of the 10xTravel team and represent an estimate and not an actual value of points. Estimated value is not a fixed value and may not be the typical value enjoyed by card members.
Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
bonus cash back
after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
earn 75K bonus miles
once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening.
bonus points
after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Membership Rewards® Points
after you spend $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer. Apply to know if you’re approved and find out your exact welcome offer amount – all with no credit score impact. If you’re approved and choose to accept the Card, your score may be impacted.
