Business gold rewards card
From Travel Strategies
American Express Credit Cards
Amex Webpage
Business Card Only
Membership Rewards Guide
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Annual Fee
$295
Current Offer
50,000 Membership Reward points ($5,000 initial spend) available via a referral link (instead of the free years of services).
If you have significant shipping expenses, current promotional offer gives you up to $500 off Fed Ex services during the first 3 months. But, 50,000 points is generally better.
You might be able to call and get approved for 75,000 point offer.Typical Signup Offer
Varies
Signup Bonus ChartBonus Categories
4x in the two business categories where you spend the most each month. (≈6%)
1x Everywhere Else (≈1.5%)
No Foreign Transaction Fee
The Business Gold Rewards card is one of the best credit cards for earning bonus rewards for online advertising expenses, shipping and/or computer expenses.
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Introduction to Membership Reward Points
Membership Rewards is the name of Amex's own rewards program. Membership Rewards Guide
- Membership Rewards points can be transferred to many different frequent flyer programs. This gives you the flexibility to take advantage of award space on over a hundred different airlines. In many cases, you can choose to book a flight through one of several different partner programs, allowing you to take advantage of whichever program requires the fewest miles and fees for your trip.
- Membership Rewards has many more airline partners than the other big credit card reward programs, such as Chase's Ultimate Rewards and Citi's ThankYou Rewards. They also have many more credit cards with Membership Rewards bonuses. If you are willing and able to use your points to book frequent flyer tickets, especially premium cabin award tickets, Membership Rewards is the most valuable reward program.
- Amex frequently offers promotional transfer bonuses. When the promotion is active, you'll get extra airline miles when you transfer your Membership Rewards points to a specific airline. For example, if American Express is offering a 40% bonus for British Airways, you'll receive 14,000 British Airways points for every 10,000 Membership Rewards points you transfer. See Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points for more information or visit Frequent Miler’s Current Transfer Bonuses page for a list of current (and past) promotions.
- Unlike Ultimate Rewards points, frequent flyer tickets are usually the only good option for redeeming your Membership Reward points. Membership Rewards' transfer rates for hotel programs aren't very attractive, it doesn't partner with any fixed-value airline programs (like Southwest), and you'll only get 1 cent per point when you use them to purchase travel through Amex.
- The only exceptions are for certain Amex Platinum cardholders:
- Amex BUSINESS Platinum Cardholders get a 35% rebate on some airfare purchases made through Amex. This works out to a value of 1.54 cents per point. While this isn't as much as we hope to get by using our Membership Reward points for frequent flyer tickets, you'll always get decent value from your points and don't have to worry about finding available award space. It is a lot better than purchasing travel at only 1 cent per point.
- Amex SCHWAB Platinum Cardholders get an option to cash out their points at 1.1 cents per point (1.25 cents through September).
- We value Membership Reward points at 1.5 cents each. Because you can take advantage of award space and "sweet spots" from many different frequent flyer programs and the occasional transfer bonus, Membership Reward points are worth more than any single type of airline miles. If you highly valuable premium-cabin award tickets, Membership Reward points are worth even more. But if you want to avoid the hassles associated with frequent flyer tickets, they are worth significantly less. How Much are Points Worth?
Collecting the Signup Bonus
The current signup bonus on the card is a 1 year subscription to Google's G Suite and Zip Recruiter. If you can receive value from these services, this is a very valuable signup offer.
But, if your business is very small, these subscriptions can provide little or no value. Fortunately, you can a more standard 50,000 Membership Rewards bonus offer by using a referral link. The option to get a cash refund of the business services is no longer available.
Other Notable Benefits
- 25% rebate when you use your Membership Reward points to buy certain airline tickets. Like the Amex Platinum card, you'll receive a rebate when you use the Amex website to purchase tickets on your preferred airline (and business and first class tickets on any airline). For example, if the ticket costs $300, you'll need to spend 30,000 points. After the purchase, you'll receive a rebate of 7,500 points (25%). Your net cost is 22,500 points, giving you a value per point of 1.33 cents each.
- Free roadside assistance. The roadside assistance benefit that comes with most credit cards simply connects you a to nearby service provider. But this card actual pays for your roadside assistance services, including towing, lockout assistance, spare tire installation, jump starts, or emergency fuel. Free towing only includes the first 10 miles. Get Free or Discounted Roadside Assistance with these Credit Cards.
- Amex Hotel Collection. When you use this luxury hotel program program to book a two night stay at one of the participating hotels, you'll get a room upgrade (upon availability) and a $100 credit to spend on dining, spa, and resort activities. Hotel Collection Website.
- Access to Amex Offers. Amex continuously provides discount offers to their cardholders. Most of the offers are in the form of "Spend $x, get $y back", but other offers are in the form of "x% off your entire order" or "Earn an extra Membership Reward point on your purchases". To take advantage of the offers, you need to go to the Amex website, find the ones you are interested in, and "add them" to your card. Each offer will then be automatically applied when you use your card to make the corresponding purchase. Amex Offers Website.
- Free ShopRunner membership. As with all Amex cards, you are entitled to a complimentary ShopRunner membership, which provides free two-day and return shipping from around 150 of the largest online retailers. ShopRunner Website
- Exclusive access to entertainment events. Amex sponsors cardmember-only events around the country and also provides early ticket access for some other shows.
Bonus Categories
- The Business Gold Rewards card can earn bonus rewards on six different "business-related" categories: Advertising (in selected media), shipping, airfare, gas, restaurants, and computer-related purchases.
- You'll earn 4x Membership Reward points in whichever 2 categories you spend the most on (during each billing quarter. For example, if during last billing cycle, you spend the most on computers and advertising, you'll receive the bonus on those categories. Then, in the current cycle, your computer expenses drop, you might earn the bonus for restaurants and advertising. Bonus points are limited to the first $150,000 of spending per year (in the bonus categories).
- This is the highest reward rate available on a set of business categories, including online advertising, shipping, and computer purchases. If you spend a lot in these categories, and many businesses do, you can easily justify the $295 annual fee.
- There are probably better options for earning points on your restaurant spending. 4x Membership Reward points is very good, but you can get the same reward rate from the personal version of the card, which is often the better option. Furthermore, the Citi Prestige card provides 5x points on dining purchases and without worrying about whether the restaurant takes American Express.
- It is easier if you plan to use the card for specific categories. If you spread your spending across more than two categories, in any billing cycle, you'll wind up only earning 1x points in the categories where you spend the least.
- You don't want to use this card for your everyday spending. You'll earn higher rewards from a good general-purpose reward card. Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending.
However, if you don't want to mess around with frequent flyer tickets, earning 3x Ultimate Reward points with the Ink Preferred card, or 5% with one of several other business cards, is a better option.