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Looking for a new rewards card to help secure the points for your next trip? Today, we’re pitting two of the best mid-tier rewards cards head-to-head to see which card offers the best bang for your buck.
Both cards allow you to earn valuable welcome offers and provide an excellent return on spending. However, each will appeal to different people depending on your travel and spending habits.
The Basics
The American Express® Gold Card charges a $250 annual fee (Rates & Fees). This fee can be hard to swallow if you don’t utilize the up to $240 per year in credits that the card offers. In exchange for this fee, cardholders receive up to 4 points per dollar spent on bonus category spending.
- Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $4,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Earn 4X Membership Rewards® Points at Restaurants, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S., and earn 4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1X).
- Earn 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com.
- $120 Uber Cash on Gold: Add your Gold Card to your Uber account and each month automatically get $10 in Uber Cash for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S., totaling up to $120 per year.
- $120 Dining Credit: Satisfy your cravings and earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations. Enrollment required.
- Get a $100 experience credit with a minimum two-night stay when you book The Hotel Collection through American Express Travel. Experience credit varies by property.
- Choose the color that suits your style. Gold or Rose Gold.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees.
- Annual Fee is $250.
- Terms Apply.
- Rates & Fees
- 4X Membership Rewards® Points at restaurants, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S.
- 4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year in purchases, then 1X)
- 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com
- 1X on other purchases
- Earn up to a total of $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations. This can be an annual savings of up to $120. Enrollment required.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card charges a lower annual fee at $95 per year. While the card has broadly defined bonus categories, it doesn’t offer as high a return on spending as its Amex counterpart.
- Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
- Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 3x on dining, and 2x on all other travel purchases, and $50 annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit, plus more.
- Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel.
- Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more.
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024.
- Member FDIC
- 5X points on Lyft rides through March 2025
- 5X points on travel purchased through Chase
- 3X points on dining at restaurants worldwide
- 3X points on eligible streaming services
- 3X points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
- 2X points on all other travel
- 1X point per dollar spent on all other purchases
Let’s dig into the earning potential, redemption opportunities, and benefits of each card to see which one deserves a spot in your wallet.
Welcome Offers
The first item to weigh up is the welcome offers. While the long-term earning potential is key to holding onto the card after the first year, the welcome offer should obviously influence which card you apply for.
The Amex Gold is currently offering an increased 60,000 point bonus after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 6 months. This is a significant increase from the standard 35,000 point offer. Also, it's the highest welcome offer that we've seen on this card since it launched.
New Sapphire Preferred cardholders earn 60,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's the standard bonus for this card.
We assign Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards points roughly the same value, so these offers are evenly matched.
Annual Fees
One of the most prominent differences between these two cards is the annual fee. The Amex Gold charges a yearly fee of $250 each year compared to the Sapphire Preferred‘s $95 annual fee. Clearly, that $155 difference needs to be made up via benefits and earning points to ensure the Amex Gold is better for your hip pocket than the Sapphire card.
While the annual fee is much lower on the Sapphire Preferred, yearly fees are a blunt instrument to measure a rewards card’s value. For that, we need to calculate the earning potential.
Long-Term Earning Potential and Bonus Categories
Possibly the easiest way of determining which of these cards deserves a long-term spot in your wallet is to calculate how many points you can earn each year. Both cards earn just one point per dollar on non-bonus spending. So, we only need to factor in how much you spend in each card’s bonus categories to get a handle on the earning potential for each card.
- Amex Gold — 4X points at restaurants, 4x at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year, then 1X), and 3X points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com.
- Sapphire Preferred — 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (2X on other travel); 3X points on dining at restaurants including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out; 3X points on streaming services; 3X points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs); and 1X on all other purchases
As an example, let’s say you spend $4,000 a year on dining, $8,000 on groceries, and $5,000 on travel. This is how your rewards would add up, assuming a value of 1.7¢ for each type of points:
American Express® Gold Card
- Dining = 16,000 ($4,000 at 4X earning)
- Groceries = 32,000 ($8,000 at 4X earning)
- Travel = 10,000 (assuming roughly half of the travel spending is airfare purchased directly with the airline, so $2,500 at 3X earning and $2,500 at 1X earning)
- Total = 58,000 points ($986 @ 1.7¢ per point)
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Dining = 12,000 ($4,000 at 3X earning)
- Groceries = 12,000 ($2,000 @ 3X for online purchases $6,000 at 1X for other grocery purchases)
- Travel = 12,000 ($1,000 @ 5X through the Chase Travel Portal and $4,000 at 2X for other travel)
- Total = 36,000 points ($612 @ 1.7¢ per point)
Now, your monthly expenses will likely be different from the spending amounts that we use above. And you might assign different values to each currency. Still, you can see how calculating the total points earned in each category is a useful way of working out the value each card can provide.
In this case, the difference works out to $374 worth of points each year in favor of the Amex Gold, before factoring in any additional benefits or spending. That more than covers the difference in annual fees between these cards.
Redeeming Points
Both cards earn flexible points and feature some great transfer partners. But there are subtle differences around how you can redeem your points and the value you get from each redemption option.
Redeem Points for a Fixed Value
The most significant difference in redemption value applies to the respective travel portals.
When redeeming Ultimate Rewards points from your Sapphire Preferred via the Chase Travel Portal, you’ll get 1.25¢ for each point. That's a 25% bonus compared to redeeming points as cashback. For example, if a flight or hotel stay costs $1,250 through the portal, you’ll pay 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points. At a base, you can also redeem points at 1¢ per point as cashback.
Amex Gold cardholders can redeem Membership Rewards points for travel through Amex Travel, but you’ll get just 1¢ per point in value. Amex Membership Rewards points can be cashed out at a value of only 0.6 cents per point.
Transfer Points to Travel Partners
Both Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards allow you to transfer points to airline and hotel partners.
Membership Rewards features more transfer partners. However, many of the partners require a relatively high-level understanding of the programs to extract maximum value for your points. Programs like ANA Mileage Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Etihad Guest, and Avianca LifeMiles can provide outsized value. But they definitely involve some legwork to get an award booked.
On the other hand, Ultimate Rewards partners with 13 airlines and hotels—including heavyweight domestic programs like United MileagePlus, Southwest Rapid Rewards, and World of Hyatt. That makes Chase Ultimate Rewards ideal if you focus primarily on domestic travel. Members can also extract serious value from British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
For more information on transfer partners, check out our ultimate guides:
Feature Perks and Travel Protection Benefits
The Amex Gold offers up to $240 in annual statement credits designed to help offset the annual fee. These include:
- $120 Uber Credit — received as $10 monthly credits into your connected Uber account.
- $120 in dining credits — received as $10 monthly credits for use at select food outlets, including Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations.
- Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.
To take advantage of the monthly Uber credits, just add your Amex Gold as a payment method in your Uber account. You can find more details on the Amex-Uber partnership here.
How much are these credits worth?
Points and miles fans often point to the Uber and dining credits’ value to justify the Amex Gold’s annual fee. However, the credits may be too hard to use to assign them full face value.
Unless you already spend money dining at the designated restaurants that qualify for the dining credits and use Uber at least monthly, you aren’t getting any additional value. Indeed, it’s likely you end up spending more out of pocket just to try and recoup the monthly dining credit!
Overall, I see the Amex Gold’s earning potential as a much better indicator of the long-term value this card can offer than these credits.
Travel Protections
Amex Gold cardholders can also take advantage of enhanced travel and purchase protection benefits, including a trip delay policy, baggage loss & damage insurance, purchase protection, and extended warranty benefits.
Although the Sapphire Preferred doesn’t receive any statement credits to offset the annual fee, it comes equipped with an impressive range of travel and purchase protection benefits that include:
- Primary car rental loss or damage insurance
- Trip interruption, cancellation, and delay coverage
- Lost and delayed baggage coverage
- Roadside assistance
- Emergency travel assistance
- Travel accident insurance
- Purchase protection
- Extended warranty
Application Restrictions and Strategy
Amex only allows you to earn the new-cardmember offer on a rewards card once. So, if you’ve had the Amex Gold or its predecessor (the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express), you may not qualify for the welcome offer on this card. Thankfully, Amex will let you know during the application process if you aren't eligible for the welcome offer.
Meanwhile, Chase layers both issuer-level and card family-level restrictions on the Sapphire cards. In addition to Chase's strict 5/24 policy, you won’t receive the bonus on the Sapphire Preferred if:
- You currently hold a Sapphire card, or
- You received a signup bonus on a Sapphire card in the previous 48 months.
If you are under 5/24 and don't already have a Sapphire card, we would recommend picking up the Sapphire Preferred first to round out the Chase cards in your wallet before moving on to other issuers.
Final Thoughts
Both the Amex Gold and Sapphire Preferred are excellent mid-tier rewards cards. The decision between the two cards depends on your situation.
The Sapphire Preferred features a lower annual fee, better travel and purchase protection benefits, and easier-to-use points with a higher cashout value.
However, the Amex Gold offers a better return on your spending over the long term. It’s a workhorse rewards card providing an excellent return on popular bonus categories like groceries, dining, and airfare. That makes it one of the key Membership Rewards cards to add to your wallet.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: American Express® Gold Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Very thorough comparison! The Sapphire is definitely a better option for me based on my personal usage and redemption options. Are Amex MR similar to Chase UR in that you need a mid-tier or higher card in order to combine points across a portfolio of Amex cards/between household members?
Kinda. However, you can’t transfer Amex cashback earnings like you can with Chase. Amex cards either earn MR points or cash back. And unlike Chase, there are even a couple of no-annual-fee cards that earn MR points.
The Sapphire offers far more points (and I find UR points to be more valuable than MR points) at a much lower annual fee. So, for me, there was no comparison. I got the new Sapphire for 100,000 points.
Why not get them both? I have both and they provide me with different benefits and allowed me entry into different ecosystems. The more the merrier, right? 🙂
AMEX has a great client service of every card on the market. Also the centurion Lounges on several airport are a Plus for the travellers.
If you dine out a lot, the AMEX Gold card can make sense, otherwise I go with the CSP all the way due to the lower annual fee and the HUGE sign on bonus. Also, with AMEX limiting sign on bonuses to once a lifetime, there isn’t much incentive to circle back on their cards even when the spending proposition can look compelling.
I am not a big fan of credit cards but with 100000 points offer plus all the other benefits this is a deal you can’t pass up.
In my experience, Chase Sapphire Preferred works better for me.
Sticking with the chase sapphire reserve. Big fan of the UR points!
I prefer the Amex Gold, you also get Amex offers which can offer good value as well.
I was looking for a reward card to secure my points.
Thanks for the very good analysis you were very helpful.
I don’t think this is even a close game.
The amex gold card is the clear winner.
Both cards are great. I have the CSR and more than even out my AF, and having the many benefits was a comfort. CSP have most of it, but I find that I had to diversify with Amex for more transfer partners. Not to mentioned (current situation aside), Amex use to have great frequent transfer bonus to airlines.
CSP still works best for me.
I feel the accompanying cards like the chase freedom line of cards as compared to really nothing on the amex side make a difference since I use my freedom unlimited as my dining card since it’s 3x. And the bonus quarter on the freedom unlimited can eat into the points difference
I previously had a Chase card and booking travel through their site with points was a great feature. Good rate per point and it allowed you to cover the difference if you didn’t have enough points to fully cover anything.
Good analysis. I’m going Sapphire Preferred for my next card.
Outpacing the CSP in dining, grocery, and even “travel” (if one is purchasing revenue tickets) bonus category earning rates, the AmEx Gold is the clear winner imho.
Great comparison – just went through all this in my head a few days ago deciding between the two. Went with Sapphire Preferred due to the all-time SUB, lower fee (not sure I would maximize all of the AX Gold benefits designed to offset it the higher fee), and transferability of UR to more partners I use regularly.
Almost… perfect timing for u. 🙂 But, thankfully, it sounds as if the analysis here would not have changed your ultimate choice.
Excellent information on two excellent card choices!
I hadn’t considered the Amex Gold before. Appreciate you sharing these lower fee CCs.