Table of Content
What Is The Amex Gold Card?
The American Express® Gold Card is great for those with good to excellent credit. Although the card has an annual fee, it provides great rewards and perks.
The Amex Gold is also a good choice for those who enjoy traveling, as the benefits package includes additional rewards for travel purchases and travel insurance.
However, if you’re looking to move a card balance to a new card, Amex Gold is not the right choice, as balance transfers are not permitted.
What is the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is also a great card for travelers, offering various travel perks and one of the best credit cards for travel.
The annual fee is lower than the Amex Gold, yet you can still earn great rewards. A key difference between the cards is that Chase Sapphire Preferred allows balance transfers.
So, if you want to earn great rewards and move a balance over to your new card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is worthy of serious consideration.
General Comparison
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| |
|---|---|---|
American Express® Gold Card | Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | |
Annual Fee | $250. See Rates and Fees. | $95
|
Rewards | 4X points at restaurants (including Uber Eats purchases in the U.S.) and U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year in purchases, then 1X points), 3X points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com, 2X points on rental cars through amextravel.com and 1X points on all other purchases. Terms Apply. | 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3x points on dining and online grocery purchases and 2x on other travel purchases. Plus, earn 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases
|
Welcome bonus | 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $4,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership. | 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening |
0% Intro APR | None | N/A
|
Foreign Transaction Fee | None. See Rates and Fees. | 0% |
Purchase APR | 20.49% – 28.49% Variable
| 20.24% – 28.24% (Variable) |
Compare Rewards: Which Card Gives More?
The Amex gold card is much more relevant when it comes to everyday spending. The high rewards rate on restaurants and U.S. supermarkets makes it best for everyday spending.
On the other hand, the Sapphire Preferred card is best for travelers and those looking for a travel card more than an everyday one. Every purchase via Chase Ultimate rewards can significantly increase your earnings.
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| |
|---|---|---|
Spend Per Category | American Express® Gold Card | Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card |
$15,000 – U.S Supermarkets | 60,000 points | 45,000 points |
$5,000 – Restaurants | 20,000 points | 10,000 points |
$4,000 – Hotels | 4,000 points | 20,000 points |
$3,000 – Airline
| 9,000 points | 15,000 points |
$4,000 – Gas | 4,000 points | 4,000 points |
Total Points | 97,000 points | 94,000 points |
Estimated Redemption Value | 1 point ~ 0.6 – 1.6 cents | 1 point ~ 1 – 1.25 cents |
Estimated Annual Value | $582 – $1,552 | $940 – $1,175 |
Editorial Note: Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollments may be required for select benefits. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more
Compare Requirements: How Hard Is To Get Them?
The Amex Gold card is available for those with good to excellent credit, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred requires excellent credit. This means that you will need to have a minimum FICO score of at least 670.
Additionally, American Express and Chase will check your income-to-debt ratio, credit utilization, and other factors to determine your eligibility.
If you are interested in either card, you can apply online via the official American Express or Chase website. However, both companies offer pre-approval. So, if you’re unsure if you would qualify, you can complete the pre-approval form on the website without impacting your credit.
Which Card Costs You More?
There are some crucial differences between the fees and charges for these cards. The most obvious difference is the annual fee. While the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a reasonable $95 annual fee, the Amex Gold annual fee is $250.
Both cards have no foreign transaction fees, and while Amex does not allow balance transfers, Chase applies a 3% fee to balance transfers. The rates are determined by your credit profile, but the typical range for both cards is very similar.
Since the day to day charges on the cards are so similar, it is the annual fee that is the deciding factor on which card costs more. Since the Amex Gold has a higher annual fee, it means that it is the more costly card.
Compare The Perks
Amex Gold | Chase Sapphire Preferred |
|---|---|
Uber Credit | Anniversary Statement Credit |
Dining Credit | Travel Bonus |
Baggage Insurance |
Anniversary Bonus |
Global Assist Hotline | Trip Cancelation and Interruption Insurance |
Car Rental Coverage | Baggage Delay Cover |
Signature Perks | Rental Car Coverage |
Purchase Protections | |
DoorDash Perks/Lyft Rides/GoPuff Credit | |
Emergency and Travel Assistance |
American Express Gold Card
- Uber Credit: If you link your new Gold Card to your Uber account, you can automatically receive $10 per month in Uber Cash to use for Uber rides or UberEats orders, up to a maximum of $120 per year.
- Dining Credit: You can also earn up to $10 in statement credit per month when you use your Amex Gold card to pay for dining out at The Cheesecake Factory, Wine.com, Goldbelly, Shake Shack and Milk Bar locations.
- Baggage Insurance: When you purchase your entire Common Carrier Vehicle fare with your Gold card, you can receive baggage insurance. You’ll have up to $500 in coverage for checked bags and $1,250 for carry on bags should your baggage be stolen, lost or damaged. However, there is an aggregate maximum limit if you’re resident in New York State.
- Car Rental Coverage: When you use your card to reserve and pay for your entire car rental, you can decline the collision damage waiver from the rental company counter and you’ll be covered for theft of and damage to the rental vehicle in a covered territory. However, not all rentals and vehicle types are covered, so be sure to read the restrictions and exclusions document.
- Global Assist Hotline: If you’re more than 100 miles away from home, you can access the Global Assist Hotline 24/7 for emergency assistance and coordination. This includes help with missing luggage, emergency cash wires or medical and legal referrals.
- Signature Perks: Amex Gold cardholders can access the Amex Hotel Collection to enjoy signature perks at some fantastic upscale hotels to enhance your travel experience.
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Anniversary Statement Credit: You can earn up to $50 per anniversary year in statement credit for hotel stays that you purchased via the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
- Travel Bonus: You can receive 25% more value when you redeem your reward points for travel via the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
- Anniversary Bonus: Chase gives a 10% anniversary bonus on your total purchases from your previous year. This means that if you earned 20,000 points across year one, you would get a 2,000 point bonus in year two.
- Trip Cancelation and Interruption Insurance: If you pay for your trip with your Sapphire Preferred card, you will have this coverage. The policy limitations are up to $10,000 per traveler and $20,000 per trip. So, if your trip is canceled or cut short due to a covered situation, you can get reimbursed.
- Baggage Delay Cover: Losing your bags can be a real hassle, but if you’ve paid for your common carrier fare with your card, you can claim up to $100 per day for five days to cover your essential purchases. There is also up to $500 per ticket should your common carrier travel be delayed for more than 12 hours.
- Rental Car Coverage: If you charge your car rental to your card, you can benefit from auto collision rental damage waiver cover for free.
- Purchase Protections: When you pay for new purchases with your card, they are covered for up to 120 days against damage or theft. There are also extended warranty protections for eligible items. This feature has a claim limit of $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
- DoorDash Perks: When you register, you can get a one year DoorDash subscription. Your DashPass will offer reduced services fees and $0 delivery fees on orders over $12.
- Lyft Rides: You’ll earn additional points on Lyft rides for the promotional period, which currently ends March 2025.
- Instacart+ Subscription: Instacart allows you to have your groceries delivered to your door. When you link your card, you can receive six months of Instacart+ for free, and as an Instacart+ member, you can earn up to $15 in statement credit per quarter until July 2024.
- GoPuff Credit: You can receive up to $10 in statement credit per month when you order snacks, drinks and household essentials to your doorstep using your card. This promotion is in place until December 2023.
- Emergency and Travel Assistance: If you’re away from home and run into a problem, you can call a dedicated helpline to access medical and legal referrals or assistance with any travel or emergency issue.
Redemption Options: Amex Gold Card
The Amex Gold card has a tiered reward structure weighted towards supermarket and restaurant purchases, but flights are also highly rewarded. Once you’ve accumulated points, American Express makes it very simple to redeem your rewards.
You can log into your account anytime to check your current points balance. You can also visit the membership rewards website to explore the various reward options. These include:
- Gift Cards: Amex has a comprehensive list of gift cards with numerous famous brands, including dining, shopping, and travel retailers. The redemption values vary depending on the retailer, but the typical redemption value is 0.5 cents per point. So, if you have 1000 points, you should be able to get a $5 or $10 gift card.
- Pay with Points: You can use your points to pay for online purchases with partner retailers. The redemption rate varies from 0.5 cents per point to 0.7 cents or more. So, for example, if you’re using your points for Ticketmaster, you’ll get 0.5 cents per point, but Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon have a redemption rate of 0.7 cents per point.
- Travel: This is one of the most popular redemption methods, as your travel purchases via Amex Travel have the potential to offer the best points value. You can explore the Amex Travel portal for flights, hotels, and other travel purchases and then have the option to pay with your points.
- Donations: Amex works with JustGiving to allow its members to donate points to charity. There are many good causes on the platform, and you can simply select which one you want to support and designate the number of points. You’ll be able to donate with a value of 0.7 cents per point.
- Merchandise: American Express also has a merchandise page, where you can shop for items. The selection varies weekly, but the typical redemption rate is 0.5 cents per point.
Once you find a way you’d like to use your points, there are two redemption methods:
- Click the Reward: This is the easiest method, as chances are that you’re already on the rewards website. Next, you need to click the reward you’re interested in and follow the prompts to complete your redemption.
- Call the Support Team: Amex has a toll-free phone number where you can speak to an agent who can help you through the redemption process.
Redeem With Amex Gold | Redeem With Chase Sapphire Preferred |
|---|---|
Gift Cards | Gift Cards
|
Travel (Including Transfer to airline and hotel partners) | Travel (Including Transfer to airline and hotel partners) |
Pay with Points with partner retailers | Amazon Shopping |
Donations
| Donations
|
Redemption Options: Chase Sapphire Preferred
As one of the most popular Chase cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card also has a tiered reward structure, but it is more heavily weighted towards travel. You can still earn high rewards on online groceries purchases or dining, but the best rewards are awarded when you book travel using the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
As with American Express, Chase has several redemption options for your accumulated rewards. These include:
- Gift Cards: Chase also has a variety of different gift card options for shopping, entertainment and dining brands. These also have a redemption rate of one cent per point. So, if you want a $10 gift card, you’ll need to accumulate 1,000 points.
- Amazon Shopping: Chase has a relationship with Amazon, which allows you to use your points to pay for some or all of an eligible Amazon.com order. You’ll need to link your Sapphire Preferred card to your Amazon account. As with gift cards and other forms of cash back, you’ll get a redemption rate of one cent per point, but this can be a convenient way to access your rewards.
- Travel: The Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal is a comprehensive platform that allows you to shop for flights, hotel stays, rental cars, and other travel-related purchases. As a Chase Sapphire Preferred customer, you can redeem your points at a higher rate than the Travel Portal base rate. So, each point is worth 1.25 cents. You’ll need 8,000 points for $100 of travel purchases.
How To Maximize Card Perks?
American Express Gold Card
- Link Your Uber Account: When you link your Gold card to your Uber account, you can receive up to $10 per month in credit to use for food delivery or rides, up to a maximum of $120 per year.
- Book all Fares With Your Gold Card: If you’re traveling by bus, train or plane, make sure that you use your Gold card to pay for your fares. This will ensure that you have free baggage insurance should any of your bags be lost, damaged or stolen.
- Consult the Dining Partner List: If you are in the mood to eat out but don’t have a particular restaurant in mind, be sure to consult the dining partner list. Amex has a list of participating partners and when you make purchases at these restaurants with your card, you can get up to $10 of statement credit per month.
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Book All Your Travel Via Chase: As we touched on earlier, you’ll get the maximum rewards and maximum redemption rates via the Chase travel portal. So, if you’re planning any travel, be sure to check the flights, fares and hotels on the platform for your chosen dates and destination.
- Check the Extended Warranty Protection: This coverage is only available for certain eligible products, but if you’re planning a major purchase, it could save you plenty of cash compared to buying an extended warranty from the retailer.
- Link all Your Subscriptions: Your Sapphire Preferred perks package includes benefits with DoorDash, Lyft, Instacart and GoPuff. So, if you don’t already use these services, sign up as soon as possible. Linking your card with your subscription accounts can offer statement credit and other freebies that will maximize the potential of your new card.
Customer Reviews: Which Card Wins?
American Express® Gold Card | Chase Sapphire Preferred® | |
|---|---|---|
App Rating (iOS)
| 4.9 | 4.8 |
App Rating (Android) | 4.2 | 4.4 |
BBB Rating (A-F) | A+ | B+ |
WalletHub | 4 | 4 |
Contect Options | phone/social | phone/social |
Availability | 24/7 | 7 AM – 11 PM |
Generally, the Amex Gold card has a solid reputation as one of the generous Amex cards. Many customers appreciate the possibility of earning very high rewards with everyday spending. With the rising cost of groceries, having this as a top-tier reward category will help to offset the price increases.
Other positive reviews highlight the sheer variety of redemption partners and the generous welcome bonus if you meet the achievable spending requirement.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is particularly praised for its traveler benefits and rewards. The card offers some decent travel insurance coverages, and you can earn great rewards using the Chase travel portal. Considering the modest annual fee, the insurance alone should offset the cost even if you’re not a frequent traveler.
However, there are some negative reviews about the standard of customer service from Chase Travel. Since this is a third-party company, consumers often find the experience of trying to resolve an issue quite frustrating.
When You Might Want the Amex Gold Card?
The Amex Gold card may be a good option for you if:
- You travel regularly. If you’re happy paying for your fare with your Gold card, you can get a higher tier reward on your flights and also benefit from baggage insurance. Additionally, since the card has no foreign transaction fees, you can use it when you’re away from home. If you are willing to pay an annual fee and much better rewards, compare it with the Platinum Card From American Express.
- You enjoy dining out: Restaurants and other dining purchases are in the top reward tier, so this card is a great option for foodies. There is also statement credit when you dine with some of the participating partners.
- You enjoy a finer travel experience: As an Amex Gold cardholder, you can access the signature perks from the Amex Hotel Collection. This provides access to preferred seating, upgrades at upscale hotels and more to take your vacation to the next level.
When the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card Wins?
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is also a flexible option that may appeal to you if:
- You are comfortable using the Chase Travel Portal: The Chase Travel Portal will provide the highest tier rewards and the best points redemption values. So, if you are comfortable using the platform, which works like Expedia and other travel portals, you can get the best value from your card. If you are willing to pay an annual fee and much better rewards, compare it with the Reserve Card.
- You’re a frequent traveler: While the card does not have lounge access, it has various travel perks that frequent travelers are sure to appreciate, particularly since the card has a modest annual fee.
- You enjoy subscription services: This is a great card option for you if you want to get products and services delivered to your door. From high-tier rewards for certain streaming services to perks from DoorDash, Instacart, and more, you’ll find this card offers some excellent benefits.
Compare The Alternatives
Both cards are definitely considered as one of the best in the niche. However, there are always recommended alternatives to check out before applying:
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|---|---|---|---|
The Platinum Card® from American Express | Chase Sapphire Reserve® | Citi Premier® Card | |
Annual Fee | $695. See Rates & Fees | $550 | $95 |
Rewards |
1X – 5X
5X points on up to $500,000 spent on directly-booked airfare and flights and prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel (per calendar year), 2X points on prepaid car rentals through American Express Travel and 1X points on all other purchases
|
1X – 10X
5X total points on air travel and 10X total points on hotels, car rentals when you purchase through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, immediately after earning your $300 annual travel credit. Also, earn 3x points on dining at restaurants and travel (after meeting the $300 travel credit), then 1x points per dollar spent on all other purchases
|
1X – 3X
3X points per dollar on restaurant, supermarket, gas station, hotel and air travel purchases, and 1X points per dollar on all other purchases
|
Welcome bonus |
80,000 points
80,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $6,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership
|
60,000 points
60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
|
60,000 points
60,000 points after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening
|
Foreign Transaction Fee | 0%. See Rates & Fees. | 0% | None
|
Purchase APR | 20.49% – 27.49% Variable | 21.49% – 28.49% variable APR | 20.49% – 28.49% (Variable) |
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- Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
