The American Express® Business Gold Card has been a popular choice for business owners for many years. Cardholders love earning bonus rewards that automatically apply to their top two spending categories and the ability to add up to 99 employee cards for no additional cost.
And now, Amex has announced a refresh to the card, with new bonus categories, available statement credits and a higher annual fee. All changes are effective immediately, except for the increased annual fee, which goes into effect in February 2024.
Here's what you need to know about the Amex Business Gold Card to determine whether these changes are positive or negative for your small business.
As we've come to expect with a card refresh, one of the card's changes is a higher annual fee. As of Feb. 1, 2024, the Amex Business Gold's annual fee will be $375 — an $80 increase from its current $295 annual fee (see rates and fees).
The Amex Business Gold bonus category structure remains the same: You'll earn 4 points per dollar spent on your top two spending categories each billing cycle (on up to $150,000 in combined spending). However, there are some changes to the available bonus categories.
The refreshed card has two new bonus category options:
The two new categories are in addition to these four continuing categories:
However, the new categories do come with a trade-off. Cardholders are no longer able to earn bonus rewards on spending in these two categories:
Whether these bonus category changes are good, bad or neutral will depend on your unique business spending.
Related: Best business credit cards
The Amex Business Gold will now earn 3 points per dollar spent on flights, prepaid hotels and prepaid flight and hotel packages booked through Amex Travel or AmexTravel.com.
On the surface, this seems like a positive change since the card previously earned 2 points per dollar spent on travel booked through Amex Travel. However, cardholders no longer receive a 25% rebate when they Pay with Points, and most won't earn enough with these increased rates to make up for the loss of this rebate value.
Additionally, booking through Amex Travel is often more expensive than booking directly with an airline or hotel, so this change still doesn't make up for the loss of the option to earn bonus points on airfare purchased directly from an airline.
Also, keep in mind that there are some cons to booking through a travel portal, including more difficulty changing travel plans and forfeiting elite status perks, that make this change far less exciting than it initially appears.
Related: 9 things to consider when choosing to book via a portal vs. booking directly
Until now, a common critique of the Amex Business Gold was that, unlike its personal
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