AMEX Gold Card Review: The Best Dining/Supermarket Card

Looking for a solid card for grocery shopping? Look no further!

Aside from mortgage/rent payments, food expenses such as dining out and grocery shopping are probably the most costly household expenses. The dining and supermarket credit card markets are competitive. Almost every issuer has a dedicated credit card for the category, and as millennials dine out more and indulge in meal delivery services, the market is becoming more and more saturated. However, American Express's (AMEX) Gold card stands out among competitors, and I think it is the best dining/supermarket card on the market right now. 

Current Welcome Bonus: Worth up to $1,000

The AMEX Gold Card is currently offering a sign-up bonus of 35,000 Membership Rewards (MR) points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of account opening. I personally value MR points at 2 cents per point, valuing the sign-up bonus at $700. However, if you use a referral link or search for the offer using Google’s Incognito Mode, you may be able to find the same spending threshold but with a bonus of either 40,000 or 50,000 MR points, elevating the value to $1,000. 

AMEX Gold is currently offering a great sign-up bonus. Follow my referral link below! Photo by AMEX.

If you’d like to apply for the AMEX Gold card, please consider using my referral link. It will continue to help fund my blog operations and help visitors make informed decisions to maximize their rewards. Thank you! Click HERE to access my referral link!

Annual Fee & Benefits

The AMEX Gold card is not a cheap card to have. It has an annual fee of $250 that is not waived during the first year. However, it does come with great benefits to offset this fee. Additionally, the card is equipped with standard benefits such as trip delay protection, ShopRunner perks, lost baggage protection, no foreign transaction fees, and a $100 credit at hotels under The Hotel Collection when booked for a minimum of two consecutive nights using AMEX Travel. 

These perks are great, but the main two benefits that will offset the annual fee are the $120 dining credit and $100 airline credit.

The $120 dining credit is broken into $10 per month that can be used at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, some Shake Shack locations, and Boxed. Though I appreciate the dining credit, I do not value it at 100%. Since most delivery services have additional surcharges such as delivery fees, it is almost impossible to get a meal for only $10. I realistically spend between $15 and $20 per head when using delivery services, which is why I much prefer Chase’s approach of giving out a lump sum of dining credits ($60 per year through DoorDash), which is enough to cover 2-3 people comfortably. If you cannot utilize the dining credits at the aforementioned restaurants or delivery carriers, you can use it at Boxed and contribute the credit towards grocery shopping. It is important to note that you need to go to your AMEX Gold’s benefits page and enroll in the dining credit benefit. After the enrollment, AMEX will reimburse you up to $10 per month on eligible dining expenses at the above-mentioned venues. 

The $120 dining credit is broken into $10 monthly credits. Photo credit: www.americanexpress.com

The other benefit is the $100 airline credit, which is given every calendar year. As a result, when you sign up for the AMEX Gold Card for the first time, you can and should be able to get $200 in your first year. The airline credit follows the same rules and policies as its older sibling, the Platinum Card: You choose an airline upon receiving the card and once every calendar year, and you can use the credit towards incidental fees such as checked baggage, in-flight amenities & entertainment (excluding airplane WiFi), ticket change fees, etc. 

Use your Gold Card’s $100 airline credit to travel the world!

Again, I appreciate there is something to offset the annual fee. However, AMEX’s airline credit does not include gift cards, airline tickets, upgrades, or award tickets, which makes it difficult for cardholders to use the credit. I much prefer to receive a lump sum that applies to almost all travel-related fees, which is what Citi Prestige or Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers get. You can still be strategic and utilize the airline credit towards your ticket, but it definitely requires more planning. I will write a separate blog post to go in-depth in regards to AMEX’s airline credit, so stay tuned!

If you value those two main benefits at 100%, the annual fee can be significantly reduced from $250 to $30. Even if you value the benefits at 50% or simply don’t take advantage of them, you can still easily offset the annual fee by earning lots of MR points, thanks to the card’s great earning multipliers.

The Earning Structure—Perfect for Anyone, even better for Families

The AMEX Gold Card earns 4X MR points at restaurants worldwide, 4X MR points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per year, 3X MR points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com, and 1X MR points on all other purchases. Continuing with the valuation of MR points at 2 cents per point each, you are looking at an 8% return on restaurant and U.S. supermarket purchases. Because of this lucrative earning structure, even if you value the $120 dining credit and $100 airline credit at 0%, you only need to spend $3,125 in dining and supermarket purchases to entirely offset the annual fee. Let’s break down how I got the number.

The calculator on AMEX’s website is very helpful. Photo credit: www.americanexpress.com

Spending $3,125 at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets would earn a cardmember 12.500 MR points, and assuming each MR point is worth 2 cents, this is the equivalent of $250. An annual spend of $3,125 means you are spending about $260.42 every month, which should be reasonably easy to achieve even if you are a single-person household. If you are using the AMEX Gold Card for your family, you would surpass this threshold in no time. If you wish to plug in numbers to project your own MR points journey, visit AMEX’s website and play around with your spending to see if the card makes sense for you.

AMEX’s Worldwide Acceptance

I know some people are concerned with AMEX’s international acceptance. Traditionally speaking, AMEX’s acceptance rate by small businesses, especially internationally, has been lower than that of Visa or Mastercard primarily due to high transaction processing fees. However, AMEX has been putting a lot of resources out there, and with a growing number of cardmembers, AMEX’s international presence has been rising every year. I just returned from Paris a week ago, and I did not have any problem using my Gold Card when dining out. All cafes and restaurants accepted my card, and if you are traveling to big metropolitan hubs or tourist-heavy cities, you should not have any trouble. Nonetheless, it is always a good idea to pack a backup Visa or Mastercard in case your AMEX is not accepted.

I did not have any problems using my AMEX Gold card in Paris, France.

Summary

The AMEX Gold Card is a great mid-tier card. Its annual fee is not cheap ($250), but it does come with $120 dining credits and a $100 airline credit to offset the annual fee. Though these benefits may not be the easiest to use, and you probably will spend more than you need to regarding the $10 monthly dining credits, the card earns 4X MR points at restaurants worldwide and at U.S. supermarkets. These two categories are very popular and competitive, and you can earn a lot of valuable MR points especially if you use the card for a family. All in all, I think it is the best dining/supermarket card on the market right now. 

If you’d like to apply for the AMEX Gold card, please consider using my referral link. It will continue to help fund my blog operations and help visitors make informed decisions to maximize their rewards. Thank you! Click HERE to access my referral link!