American Express Gold Rewards Card® Review

The American Express Gold Rewards Card is perfect for people who like to take trips a few times a year, and who want to take advantage of some luxurious travel perks along the way.

It's a great alternative to more expensive premium cards like the American Express Platinum Card, with an annual cost that complements the overall benefits.

To see whether this credit card is right for you, we’ve created this insightful review.

How You Earn Rewards With The American Express Gold Rewards Card

Here’s how you can earn rewards with the American Express Gold Rewards Card:

• 2x points per $1 spent on gas, groceries and drugstore purchases
• 2x points per $1 spent on travel (eligible flights, hotels, tours and more)
• 1x point per $1 spent on all other eligible purchases

As you can see, this card offers standard points on popular high-spend categories like gas and groceries, plus similar rates on travel expenses. Ultimately, the focus of this credit is not the rewards program, but the perks.

Redeeming Your Rewards With The American Express Gold Rewards Card

Now that we’ve covered how you earn rewards with the American Express Gold Rewards Card, let’s go over how you can redeem those rewards.

Here are the top redemption categories for your American Express Membership Rewards through this card, ranked from best to least value:

• Transfer to Airline Partners: for when you choose to transfer your points to a partnered airline to purchase plane tickets.
• Fixed Point Travel Program: when you use a fixed amount of points to cover the base ticket cost of eligible flights (applicable up to the maximum base ticket price).
• Transfer to Hotel Partners: refers to transfers made to hotel partners like Marriott Bonvoy for hotel bookings.
• Statements Credits: for when you want to turn your points into cash towards your credit card statement balance. 
• Gift Cards: when points become the perfect present, used to purchase eligible gift cards.
• Amazon: when you redeem your points towards Amazon.ca purchases.
• Merchandise: using your points to purchase everyday items. 

Since the top three redemption categories refer to airline partner transfers, a fixed point travel program, and transfers to hotel partners, it's safe to say that this card is its most valuable when used towards upcoming trips.

10 Benefits of The American Express Gold Rewards Card

Here are some of the standout perks of the American Express Gold Rewards Card:

A Beneficial Welcome Bonus

More than beneficial, this welcome bonus is one of the biggest you’ll see for average spenders. Offering extra American Express Membership Reward points on every monthly billing period when you spend $1000 in purchases in the first year.

No Income Requirements

Like many American Express cards, the American Express Gold Rewards Card comes with no income requirements. This makes the card more accessible to multiple applicants, as long as they meet the credit score recommendation and are able to front the annual fee.

Comprehensive Travel Insurance

Another aspect of this card that makes it travel-friendly is its extensive insurance. The card features 11 types of coverage, and most categories lean toward travel situations, with valuable inclusions like trip interruption, trip cancellation, and car rental damage and theft protections.

Everyday spenders will also appreciate the standard purchase protection and extended warranty insurance.

Plaza Premium Complimentary Visits

Some premium credit cards offer airport lounge perks. These perks typically include a specific airport lounge pass, or a pass with complimentary visits (meaning you don't have to pay for lounge entry when applicable). While the American Express Gold Rewards Card boasts the airport lounge Priority Pass, this perk only offers the pass and doesn’t include any complimentary visits. That’s where the airport lounge Plaza Premium access comes in, offering 4 free complimentary visits, so you can kickback before takeoff at no extra cost.

The Annual Travel Credit

Each year, use this card’s travel credit towards an eligible trip booked through American Express Travel Online. Applicable towards flights, hotels, vacation bundles, and car services.

The Nexus Program Rebate

Another notable perk is this card’s Nexus Program Rebate, where you’ll receive a $50 statement credit when you charge a Nexus application or renewal expense to your American Express Gold Rewards Card. This credit comes along every 4 years, starting from the initial card anniversary date until the day before the fourth card anniversary date.

The Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Loyalty Program

What’s more, when you enrol in the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards loyalty program, you’ll get special privileges on select standard vehicles at participating locations. These privileges might include one car class update on rentals of 5 or more consecutive days (depending on availability), and a waived fee for one additional driver if that driver is included on the rental agreement.

Complimentary Hotel Benefits

This exclusive perk provides complimentary hotel benefits when you book your room through American Express Travel. Available at participating hotels in The Hotel Collection, when you stay two or more nights at an eligible property, you'll earn:

• A hotel credit to put towards amenities like dining, spa, and other facilities when charged to your room.
• A one-category room upgrade upon checking in, depending on availability.
• Late check-in, when available.
• Late check-out, when available.

A Custom Metal Card

There’s something so luxurious about a metal credit card, especially when it’s customizable. That’s right – with the American Express Gold Rewards Card, you can choose to have your card plated in a stainless steel gold or rose gold finish.

Flexible Airline Point Redemptions

What’s particularly nice about this card’s airline partner redemptions, is that you’re not locked into one participating airline, giving you the flexibility to switch things up each time you fly.

Participating partners include:

• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France KLM Flying Blue
• British Airways Executive Club
• Cathay Pacific
• Delta SkyMiles
• Ethiad Guest

2 Downsides of The American Express Gold Rewards Card

There are only a couple of downsides to the American Express Gold Rewards Card. Nevertheless, the drawbacks are as follows:

Low American Express Acceptance

Compared to other networks like Visa and Mastercard, American Express cards have a lower global acceptance rate, particularly in places within Europe. 

The Annual Fee

Some applicants won’t be impressed by the American Express Gold Rewards Card’s annual fee, and we understand that. However, it’s worth mentioning that cardholders that take advantage of the card’s perks and rewards can offset this cost in overall annual value. It's also a more affordable alternative to other premium cards, with good benefits relative to its annual fee.

Comparison to Other Premium Amex Credit Cards

To highlight both the American Express Gold Rewards Card’s benefits and shortcomings, we’re going to compare it against other premium Amex credit cards on the Canadian market. 

Ultimately, these competitors offer similar reward structures and perks, although some may cater to your needs more than others.

Here’s a quick glance at all the cards we’ll be comparing:

American Express Gold Rewards Card vs American Express Cobalt Card

We can’t end this review without comparing the American Express Gold Rewards Card to the American Express Cobalt Card, which is considered to be the best credit card in Canada.

In terms of welcome bonuses, the American Express Gold Rewards Card beats out the American Express Cobalt Card substantially. However, the potential overall annual value of the American Express Cobalt Card is higher than the American Express Gold Rewards Card, making it the better option for the long term. Plus, the American Express Cobalt Card has a slightly lower annual fee, something that might appeal to the budget-conscious.

Moving on to reward programs, the grocery category is far more optimized with the American Express Cobalt Card than it is with the American Express Gold Rewards Card, yet the two cards offer similar rates on gas. As for unique specialized categories, the American Express Cobalt card caters largely to eligible dining purchases, plus it has its own category for Canadian streaming subscriptions, and elevated points on transit. Alternatively, the American Express Gold Rewards Card has a specific rewards category for travel, and adds extra points to drugstore purchases.

The American Express Gold Rewards Card has more comprehensive coverage, including added value to insurance categories like travel accident coverage. Not to mention, this card offers important protections like trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance, both of which the American Express Cobalt Card lacks.

Now on to benefits, you’ll quickly notice the American Express Gold Rewards Card quadruples the perks of the American Express Cobalt Card, which only offers a hotel travel credit, and American Express’s standard Amex Experiences.

Overall, if you’re looking to optimize your dining out expenses (one of the highest spending categories for average spenders), your streaming subscriptions, pay less in annual fees, and earn a higher annual value in the long run (calculated here), then the American Express Cobalt card is for you. Otherwise, if you’re more concerned about travel perks, travel-specific rewards, and travel coverage, then the American Express Gold Rewards Card should still be your top choice.

American Express Gold Rewards Card vs Scotiabank Gold American Express Card

It’s always a good idea to compare one gold to another, which is why we’re making a side-by-side comparison between the American Express Gold Rewards Card and the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card.

Beginning with the first year bonus, as usual, the American Express Gold Rewards Card comes out on top, with over double the potential value. That said, the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card is estimated to be slightly more valuable annually overall because it has a good balance between its rewards earned through spending, and its signup bonus. 

Plus, the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card’s annual fee is much cheaper and completely waived in the first year.

There is an income requirement for the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card (unlike the American Express Gold Rewards Card), but it’s very minimal.

Next, let’s look at points. The Scotiabank Gold American Express Card has higher rates on partnered grocers (like Sobeys and Foodland), other grocery stores, dining, entertainment, transit, and streaming; categories that the American Express Gold Rewards Card doesn’t even specialize in. Regardless, the American Express Gold Rewards Card has its own earning category for travel (something the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card lacks), and it uses American Express Membership Reward points rather than Scene+ points, which are typically more valuable across most redemption categories.

The coverage is comparable, although there are many insurance categories on the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card that have higher values, plus the card adds mobile device insurance, and emergency medical over 65 coverage to the list (which is rare).

The American Express Gold Rewards Card wins in terms of travel benefits, but the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card features the no foreign transaction fees perk, which is also rare and extremely valuable to international shoppers.

In conclusion, the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card is the better gold alternative if you prefer to collect Scene+ points, if you want to save on annual fees, if you want more annual value (earned through groceries, dining out, entertainment, streaming, and transit), more comprehensive coverage, and no foreign transaction fees. For a closer look at the comparison between the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card and the American Express Gold Rewards Card, see full details here.

American Express Platinum Card

Yet another contender from the American Express network, the American Express Platinum Card is sometimes considered an upgraded version of the American Express Gold Rewards Card. That is, if you optimize all of its perks, and there are plenty.

Starting again with the welcome bonus, for the first time in this comparison, the American Express Platinum Card is superior to the American Express Gold Rewards Card. However, this is only accurate if you meet the American Express Platinum Card’s minimum spending requirement. If you do, you can earn the highest intro offer in Canada.

As for annual fees, unfortunately, the American Express Platinum Card is quite pricey, which will only be worth it if you optimize all the perks to offset the annual cost.

For rewards, the American Express Platinum Card prioritizes dining purchases (which is often one of the most expensive spending categories) and travel purchases, while the American Express Gold Rewards Card prioritizes travel purchases, plus gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases. So, while the Platinum Card caters to travellers who like to dine out, the American Express Gold Rewards card caters to travellers who are also everyday shoppers. 

Between the two cards, the insurance lists feature the same categories, but the Platinum Card’s categories tend to have a higher coverage amount. Likewise, the Platinum Card’s benefits are also consistently better than the American Express Gold Rewards Card, with more status lifts, a bigger travel credit and bigger Nexus Program Rebate, plus unlimited access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection – rather than a few complimentary visits at one lounge. With the Platinum Card, you’ll also get an added dining credit, Priority Travel at Pearson Airport, and top-notch concierge services.

In the end, the American Express Platinum Card is the better option if you take advantage of all its perks and plan on spending a lot during each billing cycle and want to travel alot in a year. It also has improved coverage and benefits – so it might come down to whether you’re willing to spend more to earn more. Overall, you'll want to consider the large annual fee associated with this card when making your final decision. If you’d rather save more money annually, don’t dine out much, and are happy with the offers on the American Express Gold Rewards Card, then you’re still choosing an exceptional option.

Final Verdict

The American Express Gold Rewards Card is a great choice for average everyday spenders who also like to partake in some premium travel benefits on their yearly trips. While you could tack on more perks at a higher annual cost, the premium travel benefits for this card are extremely promising relative to its annual fee.

So, if you're not looking to spend a ton of money on a top-tier card like the Platinum Card, you'll still find plenty of value in the less expensive American Express Gold Rewards Card.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the American Express Gold Rewards Card worth it?

If you plan to optimize your grocery, gas, drugstore and travel purchases, the American Express Gold Rewards card is absolutely worth the annual investment. Plus, you can also take advantage of travel-oriented perks, coverage, and redemption options to help fund your trips.

Is the American Express Gold Rewards Card hard to get?

Without any income requirements and a recommended “good” credit score, the American Express Gold Rewards Card should be accessible to most applicants. However, keep in mind that there's a steep annual fee associated with this card, which will only be worth it if you take advantage of all the perks.