Which Is Better American Express Gold Or Platinum

Here’s More Info About The American Express Platinum Card Car Rental Insurance:

• You’re covered up to $75,000 per claim for collision damage or theft.
• You must pay for the entire rental with your American Express Platinum card or rewards points.
• You must decline the rental agency’s insurance policy.
• The following types of vehicles are not covered by American Express Platinum card rental car insurance: Cargo vans, vans that carry 9+ people, box trucks, trucks that weight 10k+ lbs., modified vehicles , antiques, limos, off-road vehicles, motorcycles/motorbikes/mopeds, RVs, golf carts, and a few others.
• The following situations and types of damage are not covered by American Express Platinum card rental insurance: Manufacturing defects, wear and tear, damage from illegal activities, accidents caused by driver’s intoxication, seizure by authorities, damage by war, and a few others.
• To make an American Express Platinum card rental car insurance claim, call within 30 days of the incident. You can also call collect from abroad. Amex will then mail you instructions for what to do next. You’ll have 60 days to return any proof they request, which may include damage estimates, police reports, etc.

American Express Platinum card rental car insurance will reimburse you within 90 days of American Express receiving your proof of the incident. Before you rent a car with your Amex Platinum card, you should take some time to read through the benefits guide. It will give you the full information.

Gold Vs Platinum Amex Card: An Overview

Lets face it, theres a secret pleasure attached to American Express precious metal cards, whether Gold or Platinum. Whether it’s from decades of tv brand advertising or simply because you know your boss carries one, you have decided to join the club because membership has its privileges. You can imagine your restaurant server or local merchant taking notice when you hand over the iconic card brand with the metallic sheen. Perhaps the status buzz comes from the cards being charge rather than credit, which means the bill is paid off in full at the end of the month. The subtle message it conveys is: I can afford to spend freely on everything I want and need and not go into long-term debt to pay for it.

But when it comes time to choose a premium Amex card, how do the gold and platinum cards compare? The American Express Gold card carries a $250 annual fee while the Platinum card has an eye-popping $550 annual fee, as of June 2020.

Over 10 years of use, the Platinum will cost you an additional $5,500, and a side-by-side comparison confirms that the Platinum card is basically a Gold card with some attractive add-ons. As a result, it’s best to make your decision based on whether you will value and use the additional features year in and year out. If so, the Platinum card may well be worth the higher annual fee.

Annual Credits Winner: Amex Platinum

To start, the Amex Gold offers up to $120 in Uber Cash. Simply add your Gold Card to your Uber account and automatically get $10 in Uber Cash each month for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S. .

Youll also get up to $120 in dining credits. Upon enrollment, youll earn up to a total of $10 in statement credits each month when you pay with your Gold Card at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruths Chris Steak House, Boxed and participating Shake Shack locations. This can be an annual savings of up to $120. Lastly, you can get up to a $100 on-site credit for qualifying activities like dining or spa treatments when you book The Hotel Collection with American Express Travel and stay at least two nights . This brings the annual credit value to $340 a year.

The Platinum Card, on the other hand, is one of the best credit cards with annual credits. The card offers up to $200 in Uber cash for your U.S. rides each year after you add the card to the Uber app . Youll also be able to take advantage of the up to $200 in airline fee credits, which can be used on baggage fees and more on one qualifying airline of your choosing.

New to the card: Youll get up to $155 per year in Walmart+ monthly membership credits each month you pay your Walmart+ membership with your card. Theres also up to $300 in credits you can now receive for each eligible SoulCycle At-Home bike purchase made using your card .

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Rewards Rate Winner: Amex Goldat Least For Most People

While the Platinum Card from American Express lets cardholders rack up 5X points on up to $500,000 spent on directly-booked airfare as well as flights and prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel , what gets the Amex Gold over the line is its broader bonus categories. Unless youre a frequent traveler, youre likely to earn a healthier overall rewards rate for your normal spending with the Amex Gold, which offers bonus points for dining out and groceries in addition to flight purchases.

The year-round rewards rate of 4X points at U.S. supermarkets is particularly generous, and thats especially true when you realize this rate applies to your first $25,000 spent on qualifying grocery purchases each year . If youre a foodie who spends a lot on specialty foods or you have a big family, its easy to see how the Amex Gold Card could leave you ahead. The fact that this rate also applies to restaurants, including takeout and delivery, is another major plus.

Using Your Amex Points

Amex offers a few ways to use Membership Rewards points.

However, redeeming for anything aside from travel offers a poor value, usually 0.5-0.8 cents each, and is generally a poor use of points.

You can get a slightly better value by booking flights through Amex Travel, either online or by phone. Points are worth 1¢ each toward flights, but if you book a hotel or anything else, you’ll only get 0.7 cents per point.

Another option is to use points to bid for upgrades on a flight. You’ll only get 1 cent per point, but it can be a decent redemption if you want to try for an upgrade but don’t want to pay cash.

The best use and value potentially is to transfer points to airline frequent flyer partners and book flights that way. You might be able to get a dramatically higher value for points this way.

That’s because booking frequent flyer “award tickets” is different than buying reservations outright you can read more about how it works here. In most cases, the cash price and the miles price of a ticket aren’t linked, so it’s possible to get exponentially increased value from your points by transferring them and booking an award ticket instead.

That means potentially being able to fly long-haul in first or business class with points, among other things.

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Here Are Some Of The Types Of Requests You Can Make:

• Restaurant reservations

To get the Amex Rose Gold card, you have to apply for the American Express® Gold Card and request a Rose Gold version. If you are already an Amex Gold cardholder, you just have to request a new card be sent to you in the Rose Gold shade. Requesting the color is quick and easy simply call the number on the back of your card to get connected with a customer service representative and let them know you would like to exchange your existing Amex Gold card for the Rose Gold version. Alternatively, use the online chat function from your online account.

No matter what shade you choose, you can get all of the Amex Gold card’s incredible benefits, from high earning rates to a huge initial bonus of 60,000 points once you spend $4,000 in the first 6 months. You also receive annual Uber Cash benefits, as well as monthly statement credits when you dine at certain restaurants. The Amex Gold card also offers extensive ongoing rewards: 4 points per $1 at U.S. supermarkets , 4 points per $1 at restaurants, 3 points per $1 on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com, and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases.

The American Express Platinum card also offers free membership in the Hertz Gold Plus rewards program. You get an automatic 15% – 25% discount on all rentals, along with Hertz points. Plus, you can pick pretty much any car you want, without a reservation, as well as add your spouse/partner as a driver – among other perks.

Best For Everyday Spending: Delta Skymiles Platinum American Express Card

If you travel often, but only sometimes like to take advantage of the airport lounge, theres no question the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card will offer you the most value. With an annual fee of $250, which is still high but moderate compared to the $550 for the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card affords you nearly all the same benefits than the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card.

Compared to the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card gives you Earn 3X Miles on Delta purchases and purchases made directly with hotels. Earn 2X Miles at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery and at U.S. supermarkets. Earn 1X Miles on all other eligible purchases.

On the downside, its annual companion pass is limited to domestic travel in the main cabin, which can be especially limiting if you prefer to fly in first class.

The bottom line: The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card gives you more points on different spending categories and the annual fee is lower, but you have to pay for lounge access and your companion pass is limited to the main cabin.

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American Express Gold Vs Platinum Spending Example

Say you use your American Express Gold Card and spend $200 dining out and another $500 on groceries. Youll earn a cash back rate of 4 points for every dollar in these categories, which comes out to 2,800 points or $56 . Say you spend another $600 on non-category purchases, such as gas, shopping and your cell phone bill. At 1 point per dollar spent, youll earn another 600 points in non-category spending, which equals $6. In this example, youll earn a total of $62 for the month, with earnings coming from everyday consumer purchases.

Using the same purchases and dollar amounts, heres what your earnings might look like if you used the American Express Platinum for these expenditures. After the first six months of opening your account, youll earn 1 point for every dollar you spend at restaurants, so the $200 you spend dining out will deliver 200 points at 2 cents each, or $2. Similarly, the $500 you spend on groceries and the $600 towards non-category spending also yield 1 point per dollar. That means youll earn 1,100 points or $22 in this instance. In all, your total in monthly rewards earnings equals $24, which is $38 less than what youll earn with the Amex Gold card.

Customer Service Of American Express Vs Visa

Winner: American Express

In the 2020 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study by J.D. Power, American Express came in first. It has also consistently done well in these yearly studies. If you get a card that’s issued by American Express, you can expect high-quality service.

With Visa cards, you won’t interact with Visa for customer service issues. You’d contact the credit card company that issued the card. Since Visa partners with so many card issuers, that means customer service is more variable. It will depend on the card issuer, and Visa itself doesn’t have control over the service quality.

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Is Amex Gold Better Than Platinum

The American Express® Gold Card can be better than The Platinum Card® from American Express if you want to earn bonus points on dining and grocery purchases but fewer Membership Rewards on travel. As an added benefit, the American Express® Gold Card is now available in rose gold.

Consider The Platinum Card® from American Express if youre a frequent flyer that can benefit from these perks:

• 5x Membership Reward travel purchase rewards
• Global Lounge Collection membership , Escape, Delta Sky Club)
• Global Lounge or TSA PreCheck application fee credit
• CLEAR benefits

Should You Get The American Express Green Gold Or Platinum

With so many factors to consider, this decision is truly a personal one. Since all three cards offer much more than just travel points on what you buy each day, youll have to take all the benefits into account to determine which ones youll use and if the annual fee on each card is worth it.

If your main goal is to earn Amex Membership Rewards points and get some basic benefits and statement credits while paying the lowest annual fee possible, the Amex Green card will get you what you need. However, if you want to reap VIP travel benefits, then the Amex Platinum card provides the best airport and hotel experiences, and the included statement credits can help offset many of your travel purchases.

But if you arent traveling much right now and want a card that earns bonus points at restaurants and on groceries while youre stuck at home, the Amex Gold card is your best bet. If you can take advantage of all the statement credits available on the card in 2021, you can actually more than offset the annual fee on the card, making it a solid choice for at least the next 12 months even if you cant get on a plane.

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Welcome Bonus: Platinum Card From American Express

Heres why: The Platinum Card® from American Express offers a higher welcome bonus than the American Express® Gold Card.

With the Platinum Card® from American Express, cardholders can earn 100,000 points after spending $6,000 on purchases within the first 6 months of opening the card.

The American Express® Gold Card, on the other hand, will give new cardholders 60,000 points after spending at least $4,000 on purchases within 6 months of account opening.

Delta Skymiles Platinum American Express Card Vs Delta Skymiles Reserve American Express Card

When comparing the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card vs Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, its important to note that the differences between these cards are much more minor than between the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card and Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card cards. That said, we believe that, most of the time, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card will still give you the most bang for your buck.

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Earn A Simple Flat Rate On All Of Your Spending

Using the Amex Platinum and the Amex Gold does require a bit more mental energy than a card that earns the same flat rate on every purchase. If you feel like its more hassle than its worth to remember which card to use when, consider a card like the Citi® Double Cash Card which has no annual fee and earns 2% cash back on all purchases1% when purchases are made and another 1% when theyre paid off.

Best Overall Value: The Delta Skymiles Platinum American Express Card

Compared with the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card is the superior option when it comes to everyday spending. As long as you can meet the spending requirements, the larger welcome offer compensates for the additional cost of the annual fee even in year one where the difference in annual fees is greatest. That, on top of the companion certificate and other travel benefits offered by the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, makes this the better option when it comes to maximizing the value of your credit card.

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Customer Reviews: Which Card Wins

For the Platinum Card customers generally rave about the great travel rewards and perks that are in place. You are unlikely to find much better in this regard. On the downside, the annual fee is a bit hefty and it is not as good for a wider range of non-travel purchases.

For the Gold card, customers enjoy the nice versatility that allows you to get rewards on a wide range of different purchases. In terms of downsides, the annual fee is a good bit higher than similar cards from competitors.

When You Might Want The Amex Platinum

The American Express Platinum Card is a flexible option that could be good if:

• Travel a Lot: If you are someone who travels a lot, then the Platinum card is going to be a great fit for you.

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Rewards Plan: Welcome Bonus:

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Is The Amex Platinum Worth It

The Platinum Card® from American Express can be worth having if youre a frequent flyer and you can use the cards various travel benefits.

Earning 5x Membership Rewards on qualifying flights and hotels along with the 1:1 point transfers is a good start.

But, to justify the $695 annual fee, you will need to use some or all of these benefits:

• Global Lounge Collection airport lounge benefit
• Trip cancellation and delay benefits

Staying at upscale hotels can easily utilize the hotel credits. Several flights and lounge visits can use the airline fee credit and airport lounge benefits.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, please .

For rates and fees of The American Express® Gold Card, please .

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Editorial Note: The editorial content on this page is not provided by any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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