The American Express® Gold Card (application) has a $325 annual fee (Rates & Fees), which is obviously on the steep side. Fortunately the “worth it” question on the card is pretty easy to answer. Almost everyone eats, and the bonus points at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets is easy to use, and those represent real bonus categories.
However, the real question is whether you actually capture most of the more than $400 in annual credits the card uses to offset that fee — or whether they quietly expire as a coupon book you forgot about.
So rather than re-listing the card’s perks (the full Amex Gold Card review covers those), this is a first-person accounting of what I’ve actually earned and redeemed: which credits I capture every month without thinking, which ones take effort, which I forfeit, and whether the math still works for me.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
