Compare the Features and Benefits of American Express® Business Gold Card and
Chase Freedom Unlimited®

💳 This card earns American Express Membership Rewards points. American Express often runs transfer bonuses where you can get even more points when you transfer to airline or hotel partners at designated times. Transfer bonuses are awesome. Get 20%, 30%, 40% or more bonus miles when you transfer points at the right times. But they are easy to miss!

You can see all past Transfer Bonuses from American Express Membership Rewards here.

Even better? Get notified when a new transfer bonus comes out and again before it ends (either or both, your choice). Sign up for free alerts right here. 🔔

Is the Amex Business Gold Card worth it?

It is if you spend big. The card offers 4X Membership Rewards points in some of the most popular categories that businesses use so, if you spend a lot in the qualifying categories listed above, the card is extremely valuable.

Courtesy: American Express

Membership Rewards points are particularly useful. You’ll have 18 airline partners to transfer to, with representatives from each of the 3 major global airline alliances.

The card now also comes with up to $395 in potential statement credits, which if you maxed out would offset the annual fee. As a reminder, those statement credit offers are:

• $240 Flexible Business Credit: earn up to $20 in statement credits each month after you use the Business Gold Card for eligible purchases at FedEx, Grubhub, and Office Supply Stores. Enrollment required.
• Walmart+ Membership Credit: use the Business Gold Card to pay for a monthly Walmart + membership (subject to auto-renewal) and receive a statement credit that covers the full cost each month, valued at $155 annually.

Even if you don’t shop at Walmart, I could see easily using the Flexible Business Credit every month, even if just for a meal via GrubHub (pickup or delivery). Plus, the card also comes with Cell Phone Protection (See the Cell Phone Protection feature above for all of the details).

If you can spend a full $150,000 in purchases on your 2 bonus categories over a calendar year, that earns you 600,000 Membership Rewards points which Your Best Credit Cards values at around $10,000!

The card also has no foreign transaction fee and is especially good if you already have a nice collection of points in another credit card program, like Chase Ultimate Rewards, so you can be diversified since each program has unique transfer partners.

Rates and Fees for the American Express® Business Gold Card

This is a staple card in the Chase Trifecta, which includes a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve, a Chase Freedom Flex, and this card, the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

The primary benefit of this card, from a bonus category perspective, is the ability to earn 1.5% on all purchases that don’t have a bonus category. So while you earn 3% on dining and drugstore purchases with the Freedom Unlimited, you’ll earn 1.5% cash back on anything else, like insurance or utilities.

But since the Chase Freedom Unlimited is a pure cash back credit card unless you also have a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® with which to combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it’s ideally used as a combo.

When you hold one of these premium Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards, you can transfer points earned on the Freedom Unlimited to the premium card. Once you’ve moved the Ultimate Rewards over to the premium credit card, you can take advantage of points transfers to 12 Chase airline and hotel partners or book travel through Chase Travel℠ where Points Boost gives you the opportunity to redeem at up to 2 cents per point in value depending on the card, or 1 cent per point otherwise.

But our absolute favorite way to redeem is always via airline and hotel transfer partners. The easiest high-value redemption is usually Hyatt. We often get better than 2 cents per World of Hyatt point. Keep in mind that Hyatt doesn’t charge any resort fees when you stay on a free night award. So let’s say you are looking at a hotel with a cash price of $259 and a $25 a night resort fee and 8% tax. That would come to $307 a night. But if that same room costs 8,000 or 12,000 Hyatt points, you could be using your points (which transfer at an even 1:1 ratio to all airline and hotel partners) with a rate of return of 3 – 4 cents.

That said, even without a card combo, it’s still a solid card to earn 1.5% cash back (plus 3% on dining, including takeout and eligible delivery services, and drugstores) since it has no annual fee. Best of all, you can accrue cash back on this card and decide to add a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® later on – if you suddenly decide that you’d like to delve into the world of credit card rewards that transfer to frequent flyer and hotel programs to book free award flights and hotel nights.

It comes with a solid range of benefits for a card with no annual fee, too. You’ll get Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty on the shopping side and you’ll be taken care of on canceled or shortened pre-paid trips if a covered reason arises. with the included Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance.