5 Causes I’m Nonetheless Holding My Amex Gold Card – Forbes Advisor – Melissas Meals Freedom

The welcome supply and bonus credit score assist offset the excessive annual charge, however the on a regular basis spending and annual credit maintain me a cardholder. Listed here are 5 causes I’m nonetheless hanging on to my Gold card—regardless of the elevated annual charge:

1. Eating Credit Galore

The Amex Gold card has extra eating credit than most different bank cards—providing over $300 in credit yearly at particular eating retailers. However you may earn an additional $120 eating credit score per yr by merely making use of the Uber credit score towards Uber Eats. Right here’s an inventory of Amex Gold eating credit that we use to offset the annual charge of this card utterly:

• $120 annual Uber credit score. The Uber credit score can be utilized for Uber rides—but in addition extends to Uber Eats. We use the $10 month-to-month credit score in the direction of last-minute meals or lunches once we run out of time to make meals at house.
• $120 annual eating credit score. The Amex Gold playing cards include as much as $10 month-to-month eating credit towards Grubhub, The Cheesecake Manufacturing facility, Goldbelly, Wine.com and 5 Guys. We use it for $10 month-to-month Goldbelly present playing cards that we’ll be redeeming for some Chicago-style deep-dish pizza quickly.
• $84 annual Dunkin’ credit score. With the latest addition of the $7 month-to-month Dunkin’ credit score, I’ll be grabbing a half-dozen donuts for the fam on a month-to-month foundation.
• $100 annual Resy credit score. The lately added Resy credit score gives $50 semiannually—crediting your accounts for purchases at Resy-listed eating places. That is going to assist us get pleasure from date night time a bit extra at some sought-after eating places domestically.

Phrases apply, enrollment is required for choose advantages.

Once we maximize these credit—we’ll find yourself with over $400 in whole eating credit—which is greater than the brand new $325 annual charge.

2. Huge Class Bonuses

Along with useful eating credit that I plan on persevering with to max out yearly—the Amex Gold has some nice spending class bonuses.

• 4 Membership Rewards per greenback on eating places. The Amex Gold is the proper card for foodies, and we get our cash’s value out of this bonus. You possibly can earn 4 factors per greenback on eating places (together with takeout). We spend not less than $500 per thirty days—netting us over 24,000 factors per yr. There’s a $50,000 annual cap on spending on this class beginning January 1, 2025, however I don’t assume we’ll hit that.
• 4 Membership Rewards per greenback on supermarkets. We spend some huge cash on meals—and the 4 factors per greenback rewards for normal grocery buying at choose supermarkets (as much as $25,000 per yr) is one thing we’d even max out this yr. That will internet us 100,000 factors simply from this class bonus alone. Superstores, comfort shops and warehouse golf equipment aren’t included, however we’ll nonetheless get a large return on this spending class.
• 3 Membership Rewards per greenback on flights. We use factors for many flights however nonetheless spend about $2,000 yearly on flight purchases. This nets us 6,000 factors when utilizing the 3X factors bonus for flights booked straight with airways or by means of American Categorical journey.

3. Amex Premium Automotive Insurance coverage Advantages

I hate renting automobiles. Largely due to the outrageous price.

However my Amex Gold card comes with automotive insurance coverage advantages¹ and that takes a lot of the sting out of the add-ons that almost all automotive rental businesses buy.

First, once I ebook a automotive rental with my Amex Gold card, I get computerized secondary protection that covers as much as $50,000 in injury or theft prices. This lets me waive any secondary insurance coverage supplied by the automotive rental place.

However I additionally choose so as to add on the American Categorical Premium Automotive Rental Safety plan which prices a flat charge ranging underneath $30 for as much as 42 consecutive days of major insurance coverage protection. This lets me keep away from costly day by day insurance coverage prices and have $100,000 of major protection from American Categorical.

These two advantages alone can save me a whole bunch of {dollars} on a single automotive rental.

4. Membership Reward Switch Companions

Membership Rewards are one in every of my favourite bank card versatile rewards—and the factors I earn from my Amex Gold card will be transferred to journey companions like Delta or Marriott—serving to me ebook free flights and lodge nights.

I take advantage of Delta for many transfers—reserving flights again to Washington State from Florida for a fantastic redemption. I often get 1 to 2 cents per level as a redemption and save myself a whole bunch on every ticket bought.

5. Reward Card Redemptions

Membership Rewards are greatest used for journey, however now we have additionally used extra Amex factors for present playing cards. To be trustworthy, most present playing cards supply horrible redemptions by means of the Membership Rewards portal. However there are just a few that supply 1 cent per level.

We now have cashed in over 200,000 Membership Rewards for over $2,000 in Dwelling Depot present playing cards. These present playing cards supply $0.01 per level in worth and helped us transform our house.