When American Express updated the Amex Gold card last year, one of the changes was that restaurant purchases would earn 4x Membership Rewards.
There was a fairly large drawback for international travelers though – 4x Membership Rewards would only be earned at US-based restaurants and not overseas eateries. Well, there’s good news on that front today as American Express has announced that the Amex Gold card will earn 4x at restaurants worldwide from June 6, 2019.
With the Chase Sapphire Reserve card earning 3x Ultimate Rewards on international dining and the Citi Prestige card earning 5x for international restaurants too, Amex has no doubt been under pressure to offer this category bonus for spending outside of the US.
Let’s just hope the international transactions code better than some US-based restaurants.
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[…] Amex Gold Card has become relevant again now that it will offer 4X at restaurants worldwide as of June 6th (previously it offered 4X only in the US). That’s a nice improvement to the extent that […]
I’ve been getting proper coding of restaurants. Good luck finding a restaurant abroad that’ll cheerfully accept AMEX. I’m sure it’ll happen in some upscale touristy place but most local joints stick to visa/mc plus some local card flavor.
Do folks still need to call in to have restaurant category points credit appropriately? This may be all a wash if AMEX still can’t credit points as they should.
For the second time today you guys need to clarify that this is for the NEW gold card, not the existing one which continues to earn 3x points in the bonus category of your choice. AND, this NEW card has a higher annual fee, $250 I believe. You need to research this and clarify it for your reader just like the other blog has been instructed to do.
The Amex Gold card used to be known as the Premier Rewards Gold card, but I think all PRG cards have been (or soon will be) converted to the Amex Gold card. The PRG card used to have 3x categories, but those were all set and not optional.
I think you might be referring to the Amex Business Gold card which did have a 3x category you could choose. That’s a completely different card to the one I wrote about in this post though.
GetToThePoints is correct. There are multiple old Gold Cards floating around. Amex does not automatically convert you to the new Amex Gold card unless you consent and request it, also the order Gold cards have lower annual fees. Plus, what GetToThePoints is saying is accurate, I spoke to an Amex representative and he says that there are literally 300 different Gold Cards that actively being used worldwide and in the U.S., most are grandfathered, but are not automatically upgraded to the new PREMIER GOLD CARD as you would think.
The Amex Rep I spoke to also said that the Business Gold card also has about 300 versions active currently, the old ones are grandfathered and no longer available, but Amex will not automatically convert you to the newest version unless you request it, or if you cancel and reapply, then you have no choice. Just FYI, and wanted you to provide the most accurate information.