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Note: As of October 7, 2023 Amex changed the terms on the Gold Card. You won’t be eligible for a welcome bonus offer on the Gold Card if you have already received a welcome bonus offer on the Platinum card. We now recommend you open the Gold card first THEN the Platinum based on this recent change.

Military Money Manual Podcast Episode #97 Links

• Free 5-day course to maximize your travel benefits and learn all about military travel hacking
• The Military Money Manual book
• Amex Gold + Amex Green Cards for Military Travel Hackers | Military Money Manual Podcast Episode 35
• Amex Gold card
• Amex Platinum
• Chase Sapphire Reserve

Outline of Episode:

Jamie discusses the Amex Gold card’s current welcome offer, earning categories, other benefits, and how you can get this card for free

Military Money Manual Podcast Episode #97 Transcript

[00:00:05] This card is my daily driver and probably the card I spend the most on month to month. The Amex Gold card earns four membership reward points per dollar spent at restaurants in the U.S. and four points per dollar at supermarkets and even overseas commissaries. Most families have food as a top spending category in their budget.

So why not maximize your earning by using this card? It's free for military service members and their spouses too. It's a no brainer. 

Our second most popular Amex card on MilitaryMoneyManual.com is the Amex Gold for a reason. Today, I'll discuss the current welcome offer, the earning categories, other benefits, and how you can get this card for free.

[00:01:05] All of these offers and benefits are current as of the time of this recording and are subject to change. So check out MilitaryMoneyManual.com for the latest and the best offers and the current benefits list. 

Thank you as always for sharing the podcast and for your reviews and ratings. And if you do enjoy this and learn something from our podcast and want to help others find resources like this, please leave a quick rating or review wherever you're listening to this. It would really mean a lot to us and we truly appreciate it. 

Okay, so the Amex Gold, as of the time of this recording, the Amex Gold is offering 60,000 membership reward points when you spend $6,000 in the first six months. We value Amex membership reward points at two cents per point. So the minimum 64,000 points that you'll earn, that's assuming none of your spending is on food, is worth almost $1,300.

[00:01:52] That's pretty good for a free card. Once you get it, you'll earn even more because you'll earn four points per dollar on groceries and eating out in the U.S. You'll even get four times membership reward points per dollar at overseas commissaries. You'll also get 3x on flights booked directly with the airline or on Amex travel.

And while that's not as good as the 5x on the platinum card that you would earn, It's better than a lot of other options. So if you have a platinum card as well, use that first, but if not, the Gold's not bad, 3X on flights with the Amex gold card, not terrible, but primarily because of the earning potential on food and groceries and eating out, which are our big expense categories in my family, at least.

[00:02:33] It's one of the reasons I have, this is one of the two cards that are almost always in my wallet. It's a much better daily driver than the Amex Platinum, which is so popular with military friends. And as Spencer mentioned a couple weeks ago about how taking the Amex Platinum card out at a bar and everyone has the card and people are saying why would you use the Gold card?

I have to explain this a lot because really the Gold card is. Four times better than 1x, right? Isn't that the math? I don't know. I'm a history major. 1x versus 4x sounds four times better to me, at least. But if you're open to expanding to three or more credit cards, in my opinion, this should probably be in your wallet.

[00:03:08] If we're talking Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum, and then maybe Amex Gold right behind there. If you're going to stop at three, at least give it some thought and consider the Amex Gold being in your wallet. And if you're really expanding past three, five, or ten, you should have a gold card or maybe multiple of them as you go.

The gold card also offers no foreign transaction fees. So on your TDYs or if you're stationed overseas, it's no big deal. You don't have to worry about it. An additional $10 a month on your Uber or Uber Eats credit, as well as $10 per month on Grubhub, Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, or a couple other dining options.

[00:03:43] That's another $20 a month of free food or Uber rides on the $10 of Uber credit. And most importantly, for military service members, the $250 annual fee is waived under the Military Lending Act or the MLA. We've talked about this a bunch of times, but if you've never heard of that, Amex and Chase waive all the personal card annual fees under the Military Lending Act.

This is also true for military spouses and dependents that are in the DEERS database. So check the MLA database to be sure. Make sure you're a covered borrower. But if you are and you appear in DEERS, once you apply, Amex will cross check your social security number against the database and usually automatically waive the annual fee, especially if it's not your first card with them.

[00:04:24] We've talked more about the Amex Gold card in episode 35 and so you can find that full episode and full review on militarymoneymanual.com/ep35. Also remember you can get the Rose Gold card. It has the same benefits as the regular Amex gold, but it's just rose gold colored. So you might like it. It might be cuter for you or whatever. I think Spencer likes rose gold. I stuck with the classic traditional. They're both kind of heavy duty, hefty metal cards. They feel great and get complimented a lot on this one as well. So the bottom line, the Amex gold card is perfect for traveling military service members and spouses who eat out at restaurants, which is everyone, who eats at home, yes, got it, or on the road or does grocery shopping. Yep, that's everyone in the military. 

The gold card should be your go to card for all food purchases, whether it's making food at home or letting someone else do the cooking and the cleanup. And also, remember, after a year, you can always upgrade your gold card to another platinum card and get double the benefits that the platinum card offers. More Uber credits, more Saks credit, more airline credit, etc. 

To recap, top three reasons that you should have the gold card and it should be one of your daily drivers in your wallet. Number one, it's free for you and your spouse under the Military Lending Act. Number two, it gives 4x earning on basically all food purchases. Four membership reward points per dollar at grocery stores and eating out, including commissaries overseas. And number three, you're going to earn more membership rewards. And your points will pool together in your account, so all of your points earned from your platinum, your gold, your green cards are all under one account.

[00:06:00] That allows for big redemptions or transferring points to travel partners where you can get, instead of two cents per point, which is what we normally value membership reward points at, you can get some things like 11 cents per point or sometimes better redemptions on travel partners. And that's really where you make more bang for your buck is if you have a large pool of Amex membership reward points.

You travel them to an airline like ANA and Spencer's talked about his redemption for 11 cents per point from Honolulu to Tokyo. So that's a great way to make a really big impact on your travel hacking goals. 

So thanks for joining me today for this quick episode. I hope you enjoyed the recap of the Amex Gold card.

[00:06:38] If you don't have this card yet, feel free to get it from a referral from a friend and let them get some points too. If you don't have a friend referral or want to support our show, go to militarymoneymanual.com and click on the Amex gold application button or search Amex gold military. And we should be in the top two or three results on Google.

The post Why the Amex Gold Card is One of My Most Used Cards – Welcome Offer, Earning Categories, Benefits, and How to Get This Card Free | Military Money Manual Podcast Episode 97 appeared first on Military Money Manual.