American Express® Business Gold Card – Review
The American Express® Business Gold Card is a small business charge card with a $295 annual fee.
Business Gold’s generous rewards program favors popular business spending categories, including:
As a charge card, Business Gold doesn’t incur regular interest charges; however, you’re required to pay your balance in full by each statement cycle’s due date. Failure to do so for 2 or more consecutive cycles may result in the closure of your account.
The Business Gold Card competes with a number of other business credit cards and charge cards, including American Expresses “color” charge card family (Business Platinum, Business Green, and Plum), Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express, and SimplyCash Plus Business Credit Card from American Express. Though American Express doesn’t get into specifics about how it screens card applicants, it definitely positions Business Gold as a high-end card for very well-qualified applicants. If you have any serious blemishes on your credit, you likely won’t qualify for this card.
Enjoy 1 year free of G Suite Basic for 3 users and up to 1 year free of ZipRecruiter Standard (via statement credits for card purchases) in your first 12 months of Card membership. This represents a total potential value of more than $3,000.
This card earns 4 Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on the first $150,000 in combined annual purchases made in 2 of the following categories: airfare purchased directly from airlines, U.S. advertising, U.S. gas stations (including fuel and non-fuel), U.S. restaurants, U.S. shipping (including UPS and FedEx), and computer technology (including hardware, software, and cloud computing services).
These categories apply to U.S.-based purchases only, with the exception being airfare, which does not need to be purchased in the U.S. The 4x categories are automatically chosen for you based on your spending patterns – they’re your 2 top-spending categories of the year.
All other purchases earn unlimited 1 point per $1 spent, including purchases in the 2 bonus categories above the $150,000 annual spending cap.
Travel purchases made through American Express Travel, the company’s travel portal, earn an unlimited 2 points per $1 spent.
All other purchases earn an unlimited 1 point per $1 spent.
Accumulated Membership Rewards can be redeemed for general merchandise, travel, transportation (including Uber rides), gift cards, and statement credits.
Redemption minimums start at 1,000 and vary by redemption method. Point values vary as well: Membership Rewards points are generally worth $0.01 apiece when redeemed for merchandise, but just $0.006 when redeemed for statement credits.
The annual fee is $295. There is no foreign transaction fee. Terms and conditions apply – see rates and fees.
After you use Pay With Points to cover all or part of a flight booked with American Express Travel, you’ll get 25% of your points back. To qualify, the flight must either on your selected qualifying airline or a first or business class reservation. This benefit is limited to 250,000 points back per calendar year.
Because the Business Gold Card is a charge card, cardholders are usually required to pay their balance in full at the end of each billing period. Those who fail to do so risk account closure after two consecutive periods of non-full payment.
However, American Express’s Pay Over Time feature allows longstanding cardmembers to circumvent this requirement on purchases over $100. Pay Over Time permits cardholders to carry balances indefinitely, with interest, from month to month. Like carried balances on regular credit cards, Pay Over Time balances accrue interest charges at variable rates, depending on prevailing interest rates.
Business Gold comes with a great lineup of business-friendly benefits, including adjustable employee spending limits on employee cards, expense tagging and tracking, and access to the content-rich OPEN Forum.
The Business Gold Card’s general value-added benefits include:
This card requires good to excellent credit.
The American Express® Business Gold Card is a member of American Express’s “color” business charge card family, which also includes the Plum Card, Business Green Rewards, and Business Platinum. Blue Business Plus is a credit card, though it does share the Membership Rewards program.
Since it belongs to a larger card family, it’s helpful to think of the Business Gold Card as part of a business charge card ladder. Each rung on this ladder offers progressively more generous rewards and benefits. If your credit or cash flow doesn’t qualify you to stand on a higher rung, you can start lower and try to work your way up.
Business Gold occupies a middle rung on this ladder. If your business is very small, just starting out, or both, set your sights on American Express’s Business Green Rewards Card, a less exclusive charge card option. If things go well, you have the opportunity to work up to Business Gold. And, if things really take off, there’s an even higher rung on the ladder: the generous (though costly, with a $450 annual fee) Business Platinum card.
The Business Gold Card is ideal for business owners with high spending needs in at least one of the favored spending categories, plus those with a preference for a generous rewards program with lots of versatile redemption options. It’s not suitable for business owners who can’t earn rewards fast enough to justify the $295 annual fee.
Generous and versatile rewards, good welcome offer, no foreign transaction fee, and value-added benefits are all advantages. A high annual fee, strict qualification requirements, pay-in-full requirement, and lack of payment processing are drawbacks.
Editorial Note: The editorial content on this page is not provided by any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Categories: American Express Business, Credit and Debt, Credit Cards, Reviews, Small Business
Brian Martucci writes about frugal living, entrepreneurship, and innovative ideas. When he’s not interviewing small business owners or investigating time- and money-saving strategies for Money Crashers readers, he’s probably out exploring a new trail or sampling a novel cuisine. Find him on Twitter @Brian_Martucci.
Comments Disclosure: The below responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
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