How the Amex EveryDay Preferred Beats the American Express Gold Card

It’s Amex vs. Amex in this showdown. We’re going to compare two good cards — the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card and the American Express® Gold Card — and help you figure out which one is the best fit for your spending.

In this article:

• DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card vs. American Express® Gold Card
• DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card pros and cons
• American Express® Gold Card pros and cons
• Which card is right for you?

DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card vs. American Express® Gold Card

Here’s a look at the highlights of what each card offers:

	DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card	American Express® Gold Card
Welcome offer		60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $4,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months.
Rewards	Earn 50% extra points when you use your card 30 times or more in a billing cycle.	Earn 4X Membership Rewards® Points on Restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery. Additionally, earn 4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1X), and 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com.
Intro APR	on purchases, then a APR applies. , then a APR applies.	None
Annual credits	None	Up to $120 for a dining credit
Annual fee	$95	$250

To see rates & fees for American Express® Gold Card please click here.

DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card pros and cons

Pros

Rewards. .

50% extra points. If you use your card 30 or more times on purchases within a billing cycle, you can earn 50% extra points on those purchases (minus returns and credits).

Once you hit the higher rewards earning threshold, your earning rate is boosted as follows:

• 4.5X points per $1 spent at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then your earning rate at U.S. supermarkets will drop to the boosted base rate of 1.5X points per $1 spent)
• 3X points per $1 spent at U.S. gas stations
• 1.5X points per $1 spent on other purchases

Welcome offer.

The value of points varies depending on how you redeem them, but if you choose one of the options, where points are worth 1 cent each (such as booking flights through American Express Travel), this welcome offer has a value of $150.

Lower annual fee. The DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card’s annual fee is $95 — less than half the cost of the American Express® Gold Card’s $250 annual fee.

Read our review of the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card.

Cons

Frequent purchases required to get extra points. If you use the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card for all your spending, you can probably get to at least 30 purchases within a billing cycle pretty easily. But if you use your card less frequently, you might struggle to get to meet that goal. And if you’re not earning 50% extra points each month, that makes this card less attractive.

No annual travel or dining credits. If you want credits for airline fees or dining, you might like what the American Express® Gold Card offers. The DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card doesn’t offer any credits — however, as we noted earlier, it has a significantly lower annual fee.

American Express® Gold Card pros and cons

Pros

Rewards. Earn 4X Membership Rewards® Points on Restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery. Additionally, earn 4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1X), and 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com.

Welcome offer. 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $4,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months.

Up to $120 annual dining credit. You can earn a total of $10 in statement credits each month when you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at the following:

• Grubhub
• Seamless
• The Cheesecake Factory
• Ruth’s Chris Steak House
• Boxed
• Participating Shake Shack locations

Know that you have to enroll if you want to earn these credits.

Cons

Higher annual fee. The annual fee for the American Express® Gold Card is $250. If you use the dining credit (worth up to $120) and the airline fee credit (worth up to $100) each year, that can effectively reduce the card’s annual fee to $30. But if you don’t use the credits much or at all, American Express® Gold Card is a bit pricey.

Read our review of the American Express® Gold Card.

Which card is right for you?

Those who travel frequently, dine out a lot and want a big welcome offer will find a lot to like in the American Express® Gold Card. However, for ongoing value, we like the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card.

If you’re earning 50% extra points each month, the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card will earn more points per dollar than the American Express® Gold Card on supermarket purchases. However, one caveat is that the two cards have different spending caps.

With the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card, after you spend $6,000 in a year at U.S. supermarkets, your rewards rate at supermarkets drops to the base rate (1.5X per $1 if you’re earning 50% extra points, 1X per $1 if you’re not). With the American Express® Gold Card, you can spend up to $25,000 per year at U.S. supermarkets before your rewards rate drops to a base rate of 1X per $1 on supermarket purchases. For context, $6,000 a year comes out to a $500 spend a month, while $25,000 a year comes out to roughly a $2,083 spend a month.

When it comes to the other categories the cards reward — gas station purchases for the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card and restaurants and flights for the American Express® Gold Card — it’s a matter of your personal spending habits. The frequent traveler will find more value in getting points for dining and air travel, but we think cardholders who drive more than they fly can get more benefit from a higher rewards rate at the pump.

In short, both are good cards. But for everyday value (pun intended) the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card wins out.

The information related to the DUPLICATE Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card has been independently collected by CompareCards and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card prior to publication. Terms apply to American Express credit card offers. See americanexpress.com for more information.