Credit Card Review – American Express Gold Business

As mentioned in previous posts, I am a HUGE fan of American Express because the Membership Rewards Program, unlike most programs in Canada, provides extreme flexibility in where you want to transfer your points.  This benefit provides you with a lot more choices when it comes to deciding how to use your points.

Today I am continuing my credit card review series and focusing on the American Express Gold Business card.

In a previous post, I covered the personal card offering in the American Express Gold and while they have similar names, there are some key differences.

Business Card vs Personal Card

The first thing anyone says me when I recommend this card is “I don’t have a business … can I get this card?”.  The answer here is yes.  Literally anyone can have a sole proprietorship which would qualify you for the business card.  And while every card issuer is different, American Express does not require you to provide a business licence or any other articles of incorporation.  I mean, if you think about it, many sole proprietorships do not officially register their businesses.  As many new businesses don’t have a credit rating, AMEX uses your personal credit history as the measuring stick for whether you qualify for the card.  My first AMEX Gold Business Card was under the business name “Jayce Loh” so you too can open a business card with American Express.

Points Collecting Benefits

Currently, the American Express Gold Business card offers 30,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months of account opening.  They also offer the First Year Free (FYF) but if you use my referral link, you will receive 40,000 Membership Reward Points!

If you recall, the personal card only offers 25,000 points so this represents a much better offer.  While the required minimum spend is significantly higher, the increased points are really quite a nice bonus.  With these points, you can fly a free round trip to the Caribbean from Canada in Economy.  Or you could take a trip anywhere in North America and still have enough points left over for a short haul flight.

Rather than bonus categories for gas, grocery, drugstore and travel – like the American Express Gold Personal, you are able to choose 3 suppliers where you always earn 2 points for every dollar spent.  The suppliers you are able to choose from are:

I much prefer having broad categories for bonus points rather than collecting a bonus on select retailers so after meeting my minimum spend requirements, I might be tempted to put this card in a drawer and focus on using a card with broader bonus categories like the American Express Gold Personal card.

Insurance Coverages

The coverages on this card are very similar to the American Express Gold Personal and they include:

• Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance
• Baggage Delay Insurance
• Flight Delay Insurance
• Lost or Stolen Baggage Insurance
• Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance
• $100,000 Travel Accident Insurance
• Travel Emergency Assistance

Additionally, for business purposes you have access to a couple of other benefits including:

• Employee Card Misuse Protection – up to $100,000 coverage for employees that misuse their cards
• Disability Plan for Small Business – if you as a Sole proprietor, become permanently, totally disabled as a direct result of an accidental injury, you are eligible to receive up to $10,000 in benefits. Benefits increase with the length of Card membership. After two years, benefits increase to a maximum of $25,000. After six years, the maximum amount is $50,000.

Purchase Coverage

Like the American Express Gold Personal, you are given two coverages for purchases:

• Automatically double the manufacturer’s warranty (up to 1 year) if you purchase the item using the American Express Gold Business Card
• Purchase Protection which protects your items against accidental physical damage and theft up to a limit of $1,000 for 90 days from the date of purchase when you charge the full purchase amount to the card.

Conclusion

The American Express Gold Business card is one of those automatic cards Travel Hackers turn to when they are looking to accumulate points.  Since you get a large sign up bonus and the first year is free, there is no reason not to apply for this card.

Helping out PointsNerd

If you plan on applying for this card and you would like to help out the blog, please use the link below.  If you don’t find this post or the blog useful, feel free to search out the sign up from American Express directly but please leave a comment below to let me know why so that I can improve the blog for the future.

In this particular card’s case, using my referral link nets you an additional 10,000 Membership Rewards Points so there’s no reason not to use the link.

PointsNerd Referral

If you do decide to help me out by using my referral, be sure to select the correct card for your application (the card highlighted below on the left of the screen):