The American Express® Business Gold Card is a mid-level card for small-business owners. Because the card earns American Express Membership Rewards points, you may be wondering whether you should open this card. Let’s explore the cost and benefits of this card to see if it’s worth a spot in your wallet.

Welcome Offer

The American Express Business Gold Card offers 70,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $10,000 on the card in the first three months of opening the account. Applicants for this card will need to make sure they can meet the high minimum-spending requirement to earn the welcome offer. Even if you can spend the minimum amount, assess whether you have better options (i.e. opening two cards with lower minimum-spending requirements instead).

Annual Fee

The Amex Business Gold Card charges an annual fee of $295 (see rates & fees).

Earning Rates

Cardmembers earn 4X points per dollar spent on the two top categories where your business spends the most each billing cycle. Here are the categories:

• Airfare purchased directly from airlines
• Purchases made in the U.S. on:
  – Online, TV and radio advertising
  – Computer hardware, software and cloud systems from select technology providers
  – Gas stations
  – Restaurants, including takeout and delivery
  – Shipping

Find more details about the categories on American Express’ site.

Keep in mind that quadruple points per dollar applies to the first $150,000 in combined purchases in these categories annually. You’ll earn 1X point per dollar after meeting that threshold.

You also earn 1X point per dollar on all other purchases outside of the above categories.

Card Benefits

Besides earning Membership Rewards points, the card offers several benefits for small business owners.

Spending and Payment Options

• Pay Over Time option: Eligible purchases can be paid over time (with interest).
• No preset spending limit: Some cards have limits on the amount that can be charged. However, with this card, the amount you can spend adjusts based on factors, such as purchase, payment and purchase history.

Business Services

• Employee cards: Businesses can add employee cards to the account.
• Connect to QuickBooks: Transaction details can be downloaded into Quicken software for easy recordkeeping.
• Vendor Pay by Bill.com

Travel Benefits

• No foreign transaction fees: Save on fees on purchases made abroad.
• Access to The Hotel Collection: Book a room with The Hotel Collection through American Express Travel and get a $100 hotel credit and a room upgrade (when available).
• Global Assist Hotline: Access 24/7 emergency assistance when you’re away from home.
• Baggage insurance plan: Get reimbursed for lost, damaged or stolen baggage.
• Car rental loss and damage insurance: You’re covered for damage to or theft of a rental vehicle (coverage is secondary and does not include liability coverage).
• Trip delay insurance: Coverage is provided for delays more than 12 hours.

Consumer Protections and Other Benefits

• Amex Offers: Amex has rotating offers and incentives for various merchants to help save businesses and individuals money.
• Extended warranty: Amex offers extensions on manufacturers’ warranties of one additional year.
• Purchase protection: Covered purchases are protected 90 days from the purchase date for theft or accidental damage.

Redemption Options

The Amex Business Gold card earns Membership Rewards points, one of the most valuable flexible currencies. There are many great ways to redeem Membership Rewards points.

• You can redeem points on amextravel.com, which will generally get you a value of about 1 cent per point for flights and 0.7 cent per point for prepaid hotels. While this is a convenient option, it’s generally not going to be the best way to get the most value for your points (with a potential exception being the 25% Airline Point Rebate described below).
• Save 25% airline bonus. You can get 25% Membership Rewards points back after you use Pay with Points for business- or first-class flights on any airline and economy flights on your selected airline( up to 250,000 points back per calendar year).
• You can transfer points to one of 21 airline and hotel transfer partners, including Etihad, Iberia, British Airways, All Nippon Airways (ANA), Delta Air Lines and many more. Occasionally, American Express offers transfer bonuses, when for a brief time period they offer 10% to 40% more miles upon transferring to an airline or hotel partner. You can get tons of value when transferring points to partners, whether it be an economy deal (Delta runs Flash Deals all the time) or long-haul business class round-trip flights on some of the world’s most luxurious airlines.

Alternative Business Card Options

Let’s take a look at some other business cards that compete with the Amex Business Gold card.

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has an annual fee of $595 (see rates and fees), which will increase to $695 starting with new applications on Jan. 13, 2022).

You can earn 5X Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on flights and prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel. You can also earn 1.5X points per dollar spent on purchases totaling $5,000 or more and purchases of any amount in these categories (on the first $2 million in purchases per year):

• Electronics goods retailers, software and cloud service providers
• Construction materials and hardware supplies
• Shipping providers

The card boasts many luxury travel benefits, including an annual airline credit of up to $200 for incidental fees (enrollment required) and access to The Centurion Lounges. Additionally, there are many benefits for small-business owners, such as a up to $400 in annual Dell credits (issued as $200 every six months, enrollment required) and up to $120 in annual wireless phone credits (issued as $10 every month, enrollment required), among others.

The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express

The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express has a $0 annual fee (see rates and fees). The card is great for everyday purchases, as it earns 2X Membership Rewards points per dollar on the first $50,000 spent per year (1X point per dollar spent after that).

Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has a $95 annual fee. You can earn 3X Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent in the following categories on the first $150,000 in combined purchases per year:

• Travel
• Shipping purchases
• Internet, cable and phone services
• Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines

All other purchases earn 1X point per dollar.

Earn a 100,000-point welcome bonus after spending $15,000 in the first three months of card membership.

Is It Worth It?

The Amex Business Gold card has a lucrative welcome offer, so it’s definitely worth a spot in most small-business owners’ wallets, at least for the first year. Plus, this card doesn’t count against your 5/24 status with Chase, so it could be a wise choice if you’re trying to stay under 5/24 or get there soon.

After the one-year mark, you need to see if the benefits and earning rates from the card make the $295 annual fee worth it. Many of the card benefits are also found on other cards, so they may be redundant, depending on which other cards you hold.

The 25% airline bonus may be valuable for people who don’t also hold The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (see rates & fees), which has a similar but higher airline bonus of 35%. If your business spends significant amounts of money on the 4X earning categories, this card may be a keeper for you if the additional points earned outweigh the annual fee.