American Express Gold review: the restaurant-and-grocery card, audited

The American Express Gold Card pays 4x at restaurants worldwide and at U.S. supermarkets, two places many households spend every week. It charges $325 a year for that, and returns up to $240 of it through two $10 monthly credits that count only if you use them. The rate is not in question. What decides this review is whether your food budget is big enough, and your habits regular enough, to beat a card that costs nothing.

How the Amex Gold earns: 4x on food, 1x on the rest

The Gold has four earn rates. Restaurants anywhere in the world earn 4x, and our catalogue lists no cap on them. U.S. supermarkets earn 4x on up to $25,000 a year, then 1x. Flights booked direct earn 3x. Everything else earns 1x. At 1 cent a point, 4x is 4 cents per dollar, twice what a flat 2% card such as Citi Double Cash or Wells Fargo Active Cash pays.

Most households will not reach the supermarket cap; at 4x it limits supermarket earning to 100,000 points a year. The 1x matters far more. Put $24,000 a year of bills and shopping on the Gold instead of a 2% card and you give up $240, the full face value of both credits. The Gold is built to sit beside a flat-rate card, not to replace it. If you still need that partner card, our flat-rate cash back showdown compares four.

The Amex Gold welcome offer in real terms

Our catalogue lists 60,000 Membership Rewards points after $6,000 in purchases in the first 6 months. That averages $1,000 a month. The window matters as much as the number: it is twice the 3 months that the Chase Sapphire Preferred and SavorOne allow, so a household spending $1,300 a month at restaurants and supermarkets clears it in the fifth month without moving any other spending.

For scale, SavorOne lists $200 after $500 within 3 months, and the Sapphire Preferred lists 60,000 points after $5,000 in 3 months for a $95 fee. Our welcome bonus ranking puts every offer on the same per-dollar scale.

What the $325 fee buys: two monthly credits and an $85 net fee

The Gold lists two credits: up to $120 a year in Uber Cash and up to $120 a year in dining credit at select partners. Each is paid as $10 a month. Use every dollar of both and the fee falls to $85.

How the monthly credits work

A $120 annual credit sounds like one number. Here it is twelve separate $10 amounts, and monthly credits of this kind generally do not roll over: a month you do not use is typically gone. The credit rewards habit, not spending, and a busy month, a trip or a card left in a drawer costs you $10 each time. Before you count either credit, answer three questions.

1. Do you already spend $10 a month with Uber? Uber Cash is generally a balance you spend with Uber, not cash back. If you ride or order through Uber most months anyway, it is close to face value. If you do not, it is close to zero.
2. Is one of the dining partners somewhere you already buy from? The credit applies only at select partners, which the issuer chooses and can change. Check the current list before you count a dollar.
3. Will you remember, twelve times a year? Credits like these typically need a step from you, such as enrollment or adding the card to the partner’s account. The issuer’s terms say what.

A credit that changes what you buy is worth less than its face value. $10 off a $30 delivery you would not otherwise have ordered is not a $10 saving; it is $20 spent.

A monthly credit rewards habit, not spending. Skip a month and the $10 is typically gone.

Beyond the credits, the fee buys no foreign transaction fees, which pairs well with 4x at restaurants worldwide, and points that transfer to 20+ airline and hotel partners. Our catalogue lists no lounge access: the Gold is a spending card, not a premium travel card like The Platinum Card from American Express.

Amex Gold break-even: vs a free 2% card and vs SavorOne’s 3%

The fair test is not the Gold against nothing. It is the Gold against the card your restaurant and grocery spending would otherwise go on. Two benchmarks: a free flat 2% card, and SavorOne, which pays 3% on dining and grocery stores for no annual fee. At 1 cent a point, the Gold’s edge is 2 cents per dollar over the first and 1 cent over the second. Divide the net fee by that edge and you have the break-even.

Against the 2% card, the Gold clears the bar at ordinary food budgets, as long as the credits are real. Against SavorOne it needs a big food budget or disciplined use of both credits. Without the credits, it takes $32,500 a year at restaurants and supermarkets, about $2,708 a month, just to draw level.

Two things the table leaves out cut in opposite directions. The Gold earns transferable points, which can be worth more than 1 cent if you redeem well. SavorOne adds $200 after $500 within 3 months, 3% on entertainment and popular streaming, and no fee to regret in a quiet year. The Amex Gold vs SavorOne head-to-head goes round by round, or you can put the Gold, SavorOne and Double Cash side by side.

Year-one math for a hypothetical household

Take a hypothetical two-adult household. It spends $800 a month at U.S. supermarkets, $500 a month at restaurants and $1,200 a year on flights booked direct: $16,800 a year that the Gold earns bonus points on. Everything else stays on the free 2% card it already carries. It uses Uber most months and claims the Uber Cash in 10 of 12. Only one dining partner is a place it already buys from, so the dining credit gets used in 6 of 12. Points are valued at 1 cent.

Year one is not close: the Gold finishes $759 ahead of the 2% card and $415 ahead of SavorOne, mostly on the bonus. The ongoing picture is thinner. From year two the Gold leads the 2% card by $159 and SavorOne by $15, and the household’s $160 of credits is the entire margin. Without them, the Gold would be $1 behind the 2% card and $145 behind SavorOne.

The other lever is what a point is worth. A transfer to one of the 20+ partners can return more than 1 cent a point, or less. Assume 1.5 cents, an assumption and not a promise, and the household’s 66,000 points a year are worth $990. Its ongoing result rises to $825: $489 a year ahead of the 2% card and $345 ahead of SavorOne. If you will not put in the work to redeem well, stay at 1 cent.

At the default settings, which are the household above, the Gold returns $495 a year, SavorOne $480 and the 2% card $336. Drag the credits slider to zero and the Gold drops to third, a dollar behind the 2% card.

Where the Amex Gold falls short

• 1x on everything else. Half what a free 2% card pays, so the Gold needs a partner card for bills, gas, shopping and any travel that is not a flight booked direct.
• Small, monthly, restricted credits. $240 of face value arrives as 24 separate $10 pieces, usable only with Uber and at select dining partners. The fee is certain; the credits depend on your habits.
• A narrow supermarket rate. U.S. only, capped at $25,000 a year, and defined by the issuer rather than by what you call a grocery store.
• No APR to quote. Our catalogue lists only "See Pay Over Time APR." If you might carry a balance, check the rate first; interest generally outweighs every figure in this review.
• Acceptance. American Express is generally reported to be accepted at fewer merchants than Visa or Mastercard, particularly abroad. One more reason to carry a second card.

Who should get the Amex Gold

• You spend about $854 a month or more at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets combined and would use one credit every month. That is where the Gold overtakes a free 2% card.
• You would use both credits every month without changing what you buy. The net fee is then $85, and about $354 a month of food spending covers it against a 2% card.
• You eat out when you travel. 4x at restaurants worldwide, with no foreign transaction fees, is the highest standing restaurant rate on our list.
• You want transferable points and will take the time to redeem them for more than 1 cent each.
• You keep a 2% card beside it for everything that is not food or a flight.

Who should skip the Amex Gold

• You do not eat out or shop at U.S. supermarkets much. Below about $354 a month of food spending, the Gold loses to a free 2% card even with every credit used.
• You will not bother with monthly credits. Then the break-even against a 2% card is $16,250 a year of food spending, about $1,354 a month, and $32,500 against SavorOne.
• Your grocery bill is large but you rarely eat out. On $6,000 a year at U.S. supermarkets, the Blue Cash Preferred from American Express pays 6% for $95, netting $265. The Gold nets $155 on the same spending, and only with both credits used in full. Our Blue Cash Preferred break-even runs the grocery math.
• You shop mostly at superstores or warehouse clubs. If those purchases code outside the supermarket category, as they commonly do, they earn 1x.
• You carry a balance. No rewards rate survives interest charges.
• You want one card for everything. At 1x on the rest of your budget, the Gold cannot be that card.