Which Amex Gold Card is Better? The Personal or Business?

by Daniel | Last Updated November 27th, 2022

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So is the Amex Business Gold card actually any better than the Amex Personal Gold card?
Well in this article I’ll go over all of the benefits and perks of each card and then give you my opinion of which card I prefer at the end.

Who are these cards good for?

So both of these cards offer quite a bit of value in terms of benefits, user perks, and insurance coverage.
With the Amex Gold personal card, there is a focus on food-related benefits which comes in the way of statement credits, and the two benefits that are on offer almost cover the entire annual fee.
The personal card also offers quite a wide range of points earning potential from everyday spending.

Now with the business Amex Gold card, there is more of a focus on travel, specifically as it offers an Airline Bonus benefit.
And this is specifically good if you do happen to travel a fair bit each year.
The Amex Business gold card is also a great card for mid to large-sized businesses that have access to a decent amount of capital and multiple employees.

Annual Fee

So both of these cards have similar annual fees, with the personal card it will cost $250 on an annual basis, and then for the Business Gold card, it will cost $295 each year.
Now, this is not exactly cheap, but it is a lot less than the more exclusive Amex Platinum Card which costs $400 more each year at $695.

So if you’re worried about the $250 or $295 annual fee that comes with these cards, I’ll show you how easy it is to make up for this cost with some of the benefits that come with each card.

Sign-up Bonus

Now when it comes to the sign-up bonus of these cards it is possible to receive a fair bit of value if you manage to meet the card’s spending requirement to actually receive the sign-up bonus.

So currently with the Amex Gold personal card, it is possible to earn 60,000 Membership Rewards Points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first 6 months of opening the account.
And with the Membership rewards points being worth at least 1 cent per point if redeemed through American Express Travel for flights, this sign-up bonus is worth at least $600.

Now with the American Express Gold Business card, it is currently possible to earn 70,000 Membership Reward Points after spending $10,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of card ownership.
And based on points being worth 1 cent per point, this sign-up bonus is worth $700.

So your looking at an additional $100 in value for the Amex Gold Business card which is ok but not amazing.
Another thing to take note of is that it will require you to spend 2 and a half times more money in half the amount of time to receive the sign-up bonus compared to the Personal card.

Points Earning Potential

So in terms of points-earning potential both of these cards have the ability to earn a reasonable amount of points from a few different categories.

Starting first with the Amex Gold personal card it is possible to earn 4x points at restaurants worldwide and this includes take out and delivery from within the US.
It is also possible to earn 4x points for purchases made at US supermarkets up to a total spend of $25,000 each calendar year.

Flights that are booked directly with an airline or through amextravel.com will earn 3x points.

And then all other purchases that are made on the card will earn 1 point per dollar spent.

Now with the Amex Gold Business card, there aren’t quite as many options for earning points as the Personal card, but it does have a nice little extra benefit that isn’t available with the personal card.
So basically it is possible to earn 4x points on the top 2 categories where your business spends the most for each billing cycle.

And the list of eligible categories includes the following:

Any airfare purchased directly from airlines
Purchases for advertising within the US through select media which includes (online, TV, and radio)
Purchases made directly at US technology providers of computer hardware, software, and cloud solutions
Purchases made at US gas stations
Purchases made at restaurants, including takeout and delivery within the US
Purchases for shipping from within the US

Now it’s worth noting that the 4x points earning is available up to a total spend of $150,000 each calendar year.
After the $150k spend limit has been met, all purchases made on the card will earn 1 point per dollar spent.
Also, any other purchases that are made on the card outside of this list will earn 1 point per dollar spent.

Benefits and User Perks

Now each of these cards comes with slightly different benefits and user perks, and depending on where you spend your money will affect which card makes more sense for you.

With the personal Amex Gold card, there is a $120 dining credit that is distributed to your account in $10 allotments each month and this can be used at the following locations:

Grubhub
The Cheesecake Factory
Goldbelly
Wine.com
Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations.

Then there is $120 in Uber cash that is also credited in $10 allotments each month, and this can be used for either Uber Rides or Uber eats.

Finally, there is access to The Hotel Collection which basically gives you a $100 credit that can be used at the hotel during your stay, and this credit is usually good for dining, spa, or certain resort activities.
And to make use of this benefit all you need to do is make the original booking through American Express Travel and book a minimum of 2 nights.

Now with the Amex Business Gold card, there are only 2 benefits to choose from.
The first is the 25% Airline Bonus, and how this works is quite simple.
For flights that are booked using just your points through the Pay with Points option, it is possible to receive up to 25% of those points back up to a total of 250,000 points each year.

Now, this is only available for any First Class or Business class booking, and if you would prefer to travel on economy or premium economy, you can only use your selected qualifying airline that is offered to use through your Amex account.

And then finally you get the same $100 credit through The Hotel Collection for eligible bookings that are made through American Express Travel.

So like I mentioned before, depending on what your situation is, each card offers slightly different benefits.

Now if you do happen to travel a fair amount each year, the Amex Gold Business card would make the most sense as it offers up to 250,000 Membership Reward Points back each year which is worth at least $2,500.
But if you don’t travel much at all the Personal Amex Gold card would be the best card to choose, as using the $120 dining credit and $120 Uber cash credit shouldn’t be too difficult.

Insurance Coverage

Now both cards offer the same insurance coverage and if you do ever need to use any of the following coverage it can potentially save you quite a bit of money.

So first of all there is a Baggage Insurance Plan that covers lost or damaged luggage.Basically it covers $1,250 for carry-on Baggage and up to $500 for checked Baggage.

Then with Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance, you will be covered for up to$50k if you accidentally damage a rental car, and this is secondary coverage.

There is Trip Delay Insurance that comes into effect if your trip happens to be delayed for more than 12 hours.
And this covers up to $300 per trip and allows for no more than 2 claims per 12 months.

With Purchase Protection there is up to 90 days of coverage provided for new purchases that are stolen or accidentally damaged, and this covers up to $1,000 per occurrence and a total of $50k per year.

Finally, there is Extended Warranty protection that provides 1 extra year of coverage on warranties that 5 years or less.

APR

Now for the final section of this review, I just wanted to go over what the current APR is for each card and what the associated fees are if you happen to make a late payment.

So starting with the Personal Amex Gold card there is actually a 0% introductory APR for the first 6 months.
And if you choose to take advantage of this, it must be done when the account is first opened.
Once the Intro APR is up the APR will then revert to between 19.74% to 26.74%.

The APR for a Cash advance is 28.99% and will also incur a fee of either Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, basically whichever amount ends up being more.

Any late payments or payments that get returned by your bank will put you on a Penalty APR of 29.99%.
Also, either of these penalties will incur a fee of up to $40 each.

Now with the Business Amex Gold card interestingly enough there is no option for a 0% intro APR which is a little unusual.
However, the APR for purchases is between 17.99% to 25.99%.
The Penalty APR is the same rate which is 29.99%.
Any late payments will incur a fee of either $39 or 2.99% of any past due payment, which evert amount is more.
And then any returned payments will incur a fee of up to $39

Final Thoughts

So that pretty much covers everything there is to know about both these cards, and in my opinion, they are equally quite valuable cards and definitely worth considering.

If you don’t run a business or travel much throughout the year I would recommend the personal Amex Gold card over the Business card, as it has more variety with its points-earning potential, which is quite easy to take advantage of.

Its $120 dining credit and $120 Uber cash credit are also very easy to utilize and almost cover the entire cost of the annual fee.

Now if you do run a business and travel by plane a reasonable amount each year, the business Amex gold card is a great card.

its ability to earn 4x points from a wide variety of your top 2 spending categories each billing cycle makes it relatively easy to earn points.
And even though this is limited to a spend amount of $150,000 each year, it is still the equivalent of 600,000 Membership Reward points, which is quite valuable, and if used correctly can easily cover the cost of the annual fee and leave you with a ton of value.

So it is possible to have both of these cards at once and to receive a sign-up bonus from each card.
This would give you even points earning potential from an even larger variety of categories.
And at $545 for both cards, I think this is still good value.

Now if you like the Amex Gold card and the benefits that come with it, I recommend that you check out this article here where I review and compare both Amex Platinum, Personal, and Business Credit cards.