40,000 Membership Rewards points 
$846 First-year value The American Express Business Gold Rewards Card is the mid-range small business credit card by American Express, which comes with a decent welcome bonus and modest perks.
Bonuses & Fees
Currently, the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card offers a standard bonus of up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, awarded as follows:
- 40,000 MR points upon spending $7,500 in the first three months
The annual fee is $199.
Amex also offers a “Quarterly Purchase Bonus” which awards 10,000 MR points upon spending $20,000 in each of the four calendar quarters every year. No enrollment or registration is required – all of your purchases will count towards the quarterly bonus. Indeed, this is quite a large amount and not everyone would be able to take advantage of this feature.
The card also allows you to earn 15,000 MR points for every referral you make to any card in the Membership Rewards family, up to a maximum of 75,000 MR points a year.
At Prince of Travel, our favourite tool to use with minimum spending requirements is Chexy, a Canadian platform that allows you to pay a host of bills – including rent, tuition, utility bills, car lease payments, property taxes, and much more – with a credit card and earn points. There’s a 1.75% processing fee for each payment, but when you consider the value of the points you earn from spending and welcome bonuses, it’s easy to justify.
Chexy is our favourite Canadian platform for earning credit card rewards on rent, bill payments, and personal taxes.
How Much Is This Offer Worth?
Here’s a breakdown of what the welcome bonus for the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card is worth. Keep in mind that this doesn’t take into consideration the potential value of other card benefits, which we’ll outline in detail below.
We value American Express Membership Rewards points at 2.2 cents per point, and using that value, we’d peg a value of $880 on the total welcome bonus of 40,000 MR points alone.
Plus, assuming the card’s baseline earning rate of 1 Membership Rewards point per dollar spent, you’d earn an additional 7,500 MR points for meeting the total $7,500 minimum spending requirement. We’d value these points at an additional $165.
Therefore, in the first year as a cardholder, the minimum amount of net value you can expect to get from this card’s welcome bonus is $846: $880 from the welcome bonus, $165 by spending the bare minimum to earn the welcome bonus (with the card’s baseline earning rate of 1 MR point per dollar spent), and then minus the card’s annual fee of $199 in the first year.
Of course, you can certainly squeeze more value out of the card by leveraging the card’s other benefits; however, this is unique to each cardholder, and our valuation assumes a minimum amount of value rather than a maximum amount of value.
Earning Rewards
With the Business Gold Rewards Card, you’ll earn a flat 1 MR point per dollar spent on all purchases. This is a very simple structure and the earning rate is standard.
However, it can be a decent addition if you incur a lot of business expenses and can take advantage of the quarterly bonus which can amount up to an additional 50% more points.
Redeeming Rewards
The Membership Rewards program offers outstanding redemption opportunities. This is primarily because it’s a flexible, transferable rewards currency.
You can transfer your MR points to these airline and hotel programs at the following rates:
- Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio
- The British Airways Club at a 1:1 ratio
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at a 1:0.75 ratio
- Air France KLM Flying Blue at a 1:0.75 ratio
- Delta SkyMiles at a 1:0.75 ratio
- Etihad Guest at a 1:0.75 ratio
- Marriott Bonvoy at a 1:1.2 ratio
- Hilton Honors at a 1:1 ratio
What makes Membership Rewards points so powerful is that they can pretty much do everything that all other points currencies in Canada can, but they can also do much more.
By earning a single points currency, you have access to airlines in all three major alliances, and within each of those programs, you also have access to other external partners, too.
Air Canada’s Aeroplan gives you access to Star Alliance-member airlines, such as All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, and more, as well as external partners, such as Etihad Airways, Virgin Australia, and more.
The British Airways Club gives you access to oneworld-member airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, and more. Plus, you can also convert your British Airways Avios into other “flavours” of Avios, which can result in some excellent redemption opportunities.
Air France KLM Flying Blue gives you access to SkyTeam-member airlines, such as Delta Air Lines, China Airlines, and more, as well as external partners such as Etihad Airways and even WestJet.
Furthermore, you can redeem MR points directly for flights through the Amex Fixed Points Travel reward chart, although these are limited to round-trip flights departing from Canada.
Lastly, you have the option of redeeming MR points directly against travel purchases at a rate of 1 cent per point (cpp), although this is typically not recommended, as the value pales in comparison to what you could get by booking flights through Aeroplan, Avios, or even the Fixed Points Travel chart.
Perks & Benefits
While the Business Gold Rewards Card lacks some of the premium travel benefits that you’ll find on the higher-end American Express cards, you’ll still get all of the standard perks of being an American Express cardholder.
If you enjoy watching concerts, theatre productions, or other special events, your Platinum card will give you access to presale and reserved tickets through Amex’s Front Of The Line program and with Amex Experiences.
You can also take advantage of specially-tailored Amex Offers for extra value when used at specific dining venues, shops, and more.
Lastly, for your peace of mind, the card includes round-the-clock customer service, emergency replacement if lost, and complete fraud protection.
Insurance Coverage
Insurance isn’t necessarily the strong suit of the Business Gold Rewards Card, but it does include the following coverages if you charge your travel expenses to the card:
- Flight delay insurance: Up to $500 (aggregate maximum with Baggage Delay insurance), for food, accommodation and items purchased within 48 hours when your flight is delayed 4+ hours.
- Baggage delay insurance: Up to $500 (aggregate maximum with Flight Delay insurance), for items purchased within 4 days of arrival when your baggage is delayed 6+ hours. (Note: this is different from lost and stolen baggage insurance, which doesn’t cover delays)
- Lost or stolen baggage insurance: Up to $500 of coverage total for all insured persons.
- Hotel burglary insurance: Up to $500 coverage for stolen items (excluding cash).
- Travel accident insurance: Up to $100,000 of Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance.
- Car rental theft and damage insurance: Comprehensive coverage for up to 48 consecutive days for cars with an MSRP of up to $85,000.
One significant drawback: The Business Gold card does not include Emergency Medical Insurance – a crucial benefit many travellers rely on.
As a business credit card, it does offer Employee Card Misuse Protection of up to $100,000 per Basic Cardmember in the event an employee misuses their Supplementary Card for unauthorized charges after their termination.
Additionally, it is one of the few credit cards to offer Mobile Device Insurance. Coverage will be up to $1,000 per insured person, in the event of theft, loss or accidental damage, anywhere in the world, for up to a maximum of 2 years from the date of purchase.
Lastly, the card offers Purchase Protection Plan and Buyer’s Assurance Protection Plan, covering most eligible items you’ve purchased with your card up to $1,000 should they be stolen or damaged within 120 days of purchase, as well as an extended one-year warranty period on the manufacturer’s warranty.
I canceled my Amex Business Gold on August 14, 2018. If I reapply during the fall, what are my chances of getting the bonus again?
I have had Platinum Business and currently have Bonvoy Business. I would like to get the Amex Business Gold, but the Terms and conditions says that Current or Former Small Business cardholders won’t get the bonus. Do you know if this is the case?
Did you figure this out?
You should be alright.
So as someone who just maxed out my first year bonus with the Cobalt Card… which im sad cuz its the best card by far… im thinking the basic Aeroplan Amex still beats out this new gold card.