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The American Express® Business Gold Card is one of the most attractive Amex business cards you can hold as a small business owner.
It offers exceptional benefits, particularly in bonus spending categories where you can really accelerate how many points you earn.
In fact, if you’re a big spender on your business, it can arguably be the best card to use for lots of transactions. In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the frequently asked questions about the Amex Business Gold card.
We’ll be parsing out the questions into a few categories, including general information, rates and fees, card benefits, and points and rewards.
The Amex Business Gold card might be one of the cards you hear a lot about all of the time. If your friends or family have this card and you’d like to get to know some of the most introductory information about this card, this is the section for you!
Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a huge welcome bonus offer of up to 110,000 points with the Amex Business Gold card! The current public offer is 70,000 points. (This targeted offer was independently researched and may not be available to all applicants.)
The Amex Business Gold card is a premium rewards card that Amex created for more mature businesses with a significant amount of spending every month.
In particular, this card is for those who care about racking up a ton of points quickly rather than incredible travel benefits like lounge access.
The Amex Business Gold card is a card that you use for business transactions. All you need to do is activate it and start spending on it to earn points.
You’ll pay off the balance every month to avoid late fees unless you have Pay Over Time, and you can keep this useful card as a tool for managing your business expenses.
The Amex Business Gold card was first introduced in late 2018 when American Express closed new applications for the Amex Business Gold Rewards card and unveiled the new Amex Business Gold card, which received a benefits and rewards facelift!
To this day, the Amex Business Gold card enjoys more bonus categories, better accrual structures, and a number of extra perks that make it much more desirable than the older card.
Yes! The Amex Business Gold card is a metal card and weighs 15 grams. It’s one of the heaviest cards out there, and certainly one of Amex’s heaviest cards.
It’s similar in weight to its personal card cousin, the American Express® Gold Card, and just 4 grams lighter than The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
The Amex Business Gold card was formerly referred to as a charge card. However, this is a term of the past, as Amex now refers to them as cards.
We’ve actually written a complete guide on the requirements for the Amex Business Gold card, but the main thing you’ll want to pay attention to is having a credit score of higher than 700 across the major personal credit bureaus like Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
Of course, having an excellent (or ideally, perfect) payment history, low credit utilization, and high business revenue is vital, too.
If you’re just starting out as a small business and foresee a huge amount of spending, you might get tremendous utility out of this card because the main way it rewards you is when you spend and earn points.
That being said, you don’t need to have a gigantic corporation or spend millions of dollars to open a business card. You can qualify as a freelancer, an independent contractor, a sole proprietor, and as a small LLC, too.
Be sure to follow the bank’s application rules and have an idea of what your credit score is before applying. If you are a responsible user of credit and are running a business, you have a great shot at getting approved for this card.
In general, having a FICO credit score of at least 700 is a recipe for success with rewards cards. Past that, though, it’s all about the individual factors in your credit report.
For example, it’s very difficult to get approved for an Amex card if you have a previous delinquency or collections item with Amex, no matter how much time has passed.
There actually have been reports of high-income individuals getting approved for the Amex Business Gold card with lower credit scores, but they were typically on the 700 score borderline and never had any negative records with Amex.
Don’t forget that if you’re applying with an EIN, you’ll need to pay attention to your business credit score too.
The Amex Business Gold card doesn’t have a preset spending limit.
If Amex predicts that you’re going to be a large spender and you have robust credit repayment habits, then the bank will extend you more credit and help your business succeed.
So the short answer is that your spending limit always changes.
In general, however, Amex doesn’t extend a crazy amount of credit at the beginning of your relationship. So if this is your first Amex card, it’s not realistic to expect to spend a million dollars in the first couple of months.
Yes, you can! Downgrading your cards is usually as easy as picking up the phone and calling Amex’s award-winning customer service.
Just be cognizant that you’ll lose all the perks of the Amex Business Platinum card, including the best lounge access in the world from a card and a ton of unique travel benefits.
Hot Tip: Before you downgrade your card, call Amex’s retention hotline to see if you can get a retention offer that makes it worthwhile to keep your card open!
To switch from the Amex Business Platinum card to the Amex Business Gold card, all you need to do is call the number on the back of your card and let a live analyst know that you’d like to downgrade your card.
The analyst will read you some disclosures and confirm your downgrade, and you’ll receive your new card in the mail 1 to 2 weeks after that!
It’s easy to upgrade your cards — all you have to do is call the number on the back of your card and explain that you’d like to upgrade your card to the Amex Business Platinum card.
There are a few things to remember, however. You won’t be able to receive the welcome bonus on either Amex card again if you upgrade. Also, annual fees are not waived; instead, they are prorated depending on your account anniversary and your upgrade date.
You might also be able to qualify for an upgrade bonus, so be sure to log into your online account to see if there’s any information about an upgrade offer by navigating to the card you’d like to upgrade to.
Because the Amex Business Gold card isn’t an ultra-premium card like the Amex Business Platinum card, it is usually not sent via UPS Next Day Air. Instead, it may take around 7 to 10 days to receive your card in the mail.
In many cases, it’s significantly shorter if you’re in a major urban area.
In the meantime, though, you might be able to get an instant card number with American Express so that you can transact without a physical card.
You can downgrade your Amex Business Gold card to the Business Green Rewards Card from American Express.
However, there aren’t currently any annual fee-free options. So if you want to avoid an annual fee entirely, you’ll want to close your card.
Now that we’ve provided a primer on the Amex Business Gold card in general, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty! Let’s first touch on the most frequently asked questions about its rates and fees.
The Amex Business Gold card’s annual fee is $295.
The annual fee is billed to your account on your first billing statement after card opening. Any and all annual fees after that will be charged on the first billing statement after each cardmember anniversary.
Past due is a concept most applicable to credit cards. However, because this Amex Business Gold card is a card (formerly a charge card), you are expected to pay your bills in full and on time. You should be able to pay off all your bills in full every single month with your cash flow and/or business savings if you want to hold this card.
However, Amex offers a feature called Pay Over Time that allows you to decide whether you want to pay eligible purchases in full each month—or pay over time with interest
The first additional employee Amex Business Gold card is $50, but there are no annual fees assessed for each additional employee Amex Business Gold card after that.
The maximum number of additional employee cards is 99.
It’s a hugely valuable card for the right person.
If you are a big spender for your business and you’re looking for a way to earn incredibly valuable Amex points quicker than most people would while enjoying the convenience of automatically selected bonus categories every month, then the Amex Business Gold card would be worth it for you.
With this card, you’d get the ability to earn 4x points on up to $150,000 in combined purchases from 2 select categories where your business spends the most each month.
There are tons of benefits with the Amex Business Gold card. At the top of the list, however, is the ability to earn 4x points on the first $150,000 in combined purchases from 2 select categories each calendar year. These categories are:
One of the biggest benefits, though, is that Amex will automatically choose which categories to award you the 4x points based on where you spent the most at the closing of each statement, so it’s like earning points on autopilot!
In addition, you can also earn an unlimited 2x points per dollar spent on qualifying purchases made on Amex Travel.
This card allows you to transfer your Membership Rewards points to Amex travel partners, which represents the best ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards points.
You’ll also get access to Amex Offers, which could help you save thousands of dollars every year.
Another very popular benefit you’ll enjoy is access to Amex’s Hotel Collection, which affords you a $100 hotel credit and a room upgrade (based on availability) on all prepaid hotel stays of 2 nights or more booked through Amex Travel.
The last major perk we’ll discuss is Amex’s business expense management tools, which allow you to properly expense your transactions, manage employee expenses, set up account alerts, and even connect to QuickBooks!
Unfortunately, the Amex Business Gold card doesn’t offer lounge access.
The big-picture difference between the Amex Business Gold card and the Amex Business Platinum card is that the Amex Business Gold card focuses on rewards for business expenses, while the Amex Business Platinum card focuses on rewards for travel expenses and benefits for travelers like lounge access.
The Amex Gold card is the personal version of the Amex Business Gold card. Both of these cards are incredible, but the Amex Gold card focuses on rewarding common expenses for consumers like restaurants and supermarkets.
The Amex Gold card offers a slightly lower annual fee of $250 (see rates and fees), a number of the same perks like access to Membership Rewards and The Hotel Collection, as well as some unique benefits like up to $120 in annual dining credits.
Overall, these are very different cards, but it’s clear that the Amex Business Gold card offers clutch bonus categories for business expenses like advertising and technology.
The Amex Business Gold card doesn’t have an airline fee credit — this is a benefit exclusively for the Amex Gold card and was discontinued in 2021 for new cardmembers.
One of the most exciting aspects of the Amex Business Gold card is that it gives you access to the award-winning and tremendously lucrative Membership Rewards program.
The points you earn are commonly referred to as Amex Membership Rewards points, Membership Rewards points, Amex MR points, or Amex points.
In this next section, we’ll be focusing on the points and rewards information for the Amex Business Gold card.
When you’re applying for a new card, it’s a must to get the highest bonus you have access to. The best way to get the highest welcome bonus is to wait for those limited-time offers that come around only once or twice a year.
You can also enable targeted offers from American Express that will either be delivered via email or snail mail. You may also see a high welcome bonus in a private browser window, but this is highly dependent on geography.
You can earn 4 Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on the 2 select categories where your business spends the most each month and 1 point per $1 spent for other purchases.
The 4x points structure applies for your first $150,000 in combined purchases every calendar year across these 2 categories. The bonus categories are:
As you can see, this covers a ton of bases for business expenses! You will also earn 2 points per $1 spent on eligible travel purchases made through Amex Travel, including air, prepaid hotels, prepaid car rentals, vacation packages (flight + hotel packages), and cruise reservations, minus returns and other credits.
The points you earn are Membership Rewards points, which are worth around 2 cents per point according to our travel points and miles valuations.
Yes, it is. However, it’s far from guaranteed. Whether or not you’ll get a retention offer and how much your retention offer is will depend on a slew of factors, including the amount of spending you put on your card, your payment history, and more.
To get a retention offer, you’ll need to call Amex’s retention hotline at 800-452-3945. You can also check for retention offers by starting a chat with an Amex representative after logging into your online Amex account.
Your Amex Business Gold card’s bonus categories are automatically selected for you every month!
Amex automatically calculates which 2 categories out of the 6 total will earn you the most points at the end of every billing statement so that you can maximize the points you earn and focus on running your business.
Of course, Amex will automatically adjust these 4x earnings depending on where you spend the most each month. One month it could be advertising and restaurants and the next it could be software and shipping!
Currently, Amex allows you to earn 4x points on these computer hardware, software, and cloud computing companies:
Also, purchases through a third-party including resellers and online marketplaces will not count.
You can learn more about which merchants qualify for different business categories by clicking here.
There are tons of ways to use your Amex points, but our favorite is by taking advantage of Amex’s transfer partners.
By transferring your points to airline and hotel partners, you can get access to some of the world’s best first and business class flights without using massive amounts of points.
You can transfer your points by either calling the number on the back of your card or submitting a points transfer request online. In many cases, transfers happen almost instantaneously.
Once these points are transferred to an airline partner like Delta, you can book your travel directly on the airline’s frequent flyer website.
It’s easy to refer someone to the Amex Business Gold card.
All you have to do is visit this referral site and choose the method you’ll be sending the referral link, whether it’s a copy-paste link, an email, or on social media.
The Amex Business Gold card is known to have some very attractive referral bonuses, so it’s easy to earn some more Amex points through referrals!
Well, there you have it! All the most frequently asked questions have been compiled into a simple, straightforward resource you can always refer to and keep in your Favorites or Bookmarks!
Broadly speaking, the Amex Business Gold card has incredible spending categories that’ll reward you and your business handsomely. In addition, it offers some under-the-radar perks like access to The Hotel Collection.
This card won’t offer you intrinsic travel benefits like the Amex Business Platinum card does with its lounge access — rather, it’s focused on those business owners who can make transactions that earn up to 4x points!
It’s easy to see a world where you hold both the Amex Business Gold card and the Amex Business Platinum card. The latter is instrumental in conferring travel benefits and the former will really accelerate the number of points you can earn every year.
The information regarding the Business Green Rewards Card from American Express was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
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Stephen is an established voice in the credit card space, with over 70 to his name. His work has been in publications like The Washington Post, and his Au Points and Awards Consulting Services is used by hundreds of clients.
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2 comments
Cherie
May 03, 2022
What about the 1.5x points spent at hardware/construction stores? We have a construction business so I came to this link to find out what stores are included for that.?
Jarrod West
May 03, 2022
Hi Cherie,
The Amex Business Gold card does not earn 1.5x on hardware purchases, it earns 4x points on 2 select categories where your business spent the most each month. Do you have the Amex Business Platinum instead?
Any thoughts or questions? Comment below!
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