What is the difference between American Express Gold and American Express Platinum?

We often get asked about the differences between American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and The Platinum Card from American Express.

In truth, virtually the only thing that Amex Gold and Amex Platinum have in common is the fact that you earn American Express Membership Rewards points from your spending and as a sign-up bonus.  Everything else varies.

To find out more, or to apply, the website for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is here.  The website for The Platinum Card is here.

How does American Express Gold differ from American Express Platinum?

I am going to compare each key feature of the Amex Gold and Amex Platinum cards side by side.  If you want to see a dedicated article on either card, click here for our full review of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and click here for our full review of The Platinum Card from American Express.

How do the cards differ legally?

They don’t, as of late 2022.

After decades as a charge card, The Platinum Card is now issued as a credit card.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold has been issued as a credit card for almost six years now.  As long as you meet the small minimum monthly payment, you can roll over what you owe from month to month – although you will be charged interest. 

Here is the current interest rate information:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold:

The representative APR is 88.8% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases, and in the first year which has no fee, is 31.0% variable.

The Platinum Card:

The representative APR is 704.6% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 31.0% variable.

How do the annual fees on Amex Gold and Amex Platinum differ?

Amex Gold has no annual fee in year 1 and is £195 per year thereafter.

Amex Platinum has an annual fee of £650 per year.

Annual fees are refunded pro-rata if you cancel during your membership year until at least 29th February 2024. At some point after this date the ability to get a pro-rata refund mid-year will be removed.

How do the minimum income requirements differ?

American Express brought back PERSONAL minimum income requirements during 2023. It previously looked at household income and did not have an official minimum.

Amex Gold requires a personal minimum income of £20,000.

Amex Platinum requires a personal minimum income of £35,000.

To put this into comparison, all other personal American Express cards have a minimum income requirement of £20,000 except for the British Airways Premium Plus American Express which is £35,000.

What are the sign-up bonuses?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold offers 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days. This is the most generous sign-up bonus generally available on any free UK loyalty credit card – albeit that Amex Gold is only free for the first year.

The Platinum Card offers 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 90 days.

Membership Rewards points can be converted 1 to 1 into Avios or Virgin Points. Click here to see what other reward programmes are Membership Rewards transfer partners.

This means that you can receive 20,000 Avios points for free by applying for Amex Gold (no fee in Year 1), spending enough to trigger the sign-up bonus and then transferring the points to British Airways.  You would receive 40,000 points by applying for Platinum.

What are the rules for qualifying for the sign-up bonuses?

These differ by card. There are fewer restrictions for getting the Platinum bonus than the Gold bonus, perhaps unsurprising given the large fee difference.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold:

The Amex Gold sign-up bonus is only available to customers who have not held a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months. 

You will receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express card via your job and you receive Membership Rewards points from it.

You will definitely receive the bonus if you are only a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s American Express card. As far as Amex is concerned, that card belongs to the primarily cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

If you do not qualify for the Gold bonus, you can still apply.  You still receive the other card benefits, including the four free airport lounge passes, £120 of Deliveroo credit and ‘no fee in the first year’.

The Platinum Card:

The Amex Platinum sign-up bonus is only available to customers who have not held a personal American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points in the previous 24 months.  This would include Green, Gold, Platinum and the American Express Rewards credit card.

You are OK if you currently or recently only had a British Airways, Marriott or Nectar American Express card.  All that matters is that you have not held a personal card offering Membership Rewards points.

You will receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express card via your job and you receive Membership Rewards points from it.

You will definitely receive the bonus if you are only a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s American Express card. As far as Amex is concerned, that card belongs to the primarily cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

If you do not qualify for the bonus, you can still apply.  You still receive the other card benefits, which are substantial.

To summarise on bonuses ….

• You are blocked from the Gold bonus if you have had ANY personal American Express card in the last two years. 

• You are ONLY blocked from the Platinum bonus if you have had a Green, Gold, Platinum or any other MR-earning personal American Express in the last two years.

• There is no scenario under which you can get the bonus on both Gold and Platinum within a two year period, unless you have Gold and receive a targetted upgrade offer to Platinum

What other card benefits do you get?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold:

You receive FOUR free airport lounge passes each membership year with Amex Gold, valid at any airport lounge in the Priority Pass network. Heathrow (including the Aspire and Plaza Premium lounges in Terminal 5), Gatwick, Luton and Stansted – amongst many others – have participating lounges as do most major airports worldwide. After your four free visits, you can make further lounge visits for a £24 charge.

You will receive 2,500 bonus Membership Rewards points for every £5,000 you spend, up to a maximum of 12,500 bonus points per membership year. You receive these as soon as you pass each £5,000 threshold.

You will receive a 10% discount and free additional driver on Hertz bookings. We looked at the American Express Gold / Hertz partnership in more detail in this article.

You receive Preferred Plus status with Avis.

There are also 600 4-5 star hotels worldwide which offer a $75 in-hotel credit and an upgrade when booked by an American Express Gold cardholder via the American Express travel service.

The Platinum Card:

The Platinum Card has substantial benefits – easily the best package of any UK loyalty card.

You receive travel insurance for yourself and your family. Some benefits require you to pay for your trip with an American Express card, but the core medical benefit is automatic. There is an age limit of 70 on the travel insurance. If you choose to give your free supplementary card to someone outside your family (eg your parents) they are covered too – my Mum had mine until she hit 70.

You receive full car hire insurance – with no requirement to pay with your card.

You and your main supplementary cardholder will each receive a Priority Pass card. This gets the cardholder plus a guest into 1,300 airport lounges across the world for free, including the Aspire lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 reviewed here and the Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 5. As you get two Priority Pass cards, each of which allows a free guest, you can get a family of four into a lounge – as I do on a regular basis.

You can also get into Amex’s own network of high quality ‘Centurion’ airport lounges for free. These are primarily in the US but are rolling out globally – the only UK site is in Heathrow Terminal 3, which we reviewed here.

You will also receive status in various hotel schemes for as long as you keep the card:

• Gold in Marriott Bonvoy
• Premium in Radisson Rewards
• Gold in Hilton Honors
• Gold in MeliaRewards

Other travel benefits include Eurostar lounge access in London, Brussels and Paris whatever your class of travel. You also receive lounge access when flying with Delta although any guests must pay $29.

There is an exclusive hotel booking scheme called ‘Fine Hotels & Resorts’ which offers valuable additional benefits on your stays. If you are a regular visitor at five star hotels then you can recoup your entire membership fee via FHR bookings. I wrote more about Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts here – for me, the guaranteed 4pm check-out on every stay is invaluable, especially for weekend breaks.

Non-travel benefits include:

• £100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols, either instore or online. This is split into £50 to spend between January and June and £50 between July and December. There is no minimum spend – it is genuinely free stuff if you spend exactly £50.

• £150 to spend at 160 UK restaurants. This benefit renews on 1st January each year. There is no minimum spend required and you can use the £150 over multiple visits to different restaurants if you wish.

• £150 to spend at 1,400 international restaurants. Again, this benefit renews on 1st January each year.

What do you earn per £1 spent on the cards?

Both cards earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold has three special bonuses, however:

• foreign currency transactions earn 2 points per £1
• airline transactions earn 2 points per £1
• you receive a bonus of 2,500 points for every £5,000 you spend in a card year, up to a maximum of 12,500 points

What is best way to spend Membership Rewards points?  As it turns out, I wrote this lengthy article on how to best redeem Membership Rewards points.

Do Amex Gold and Amex Platinum impose foreign exchange fees?

Yes. Both card impose a 3% foreign exchange fee on transactions outside the UK.

American Express Gold is a better card to use abroad than Amex Platinum, because you earn double Membership Rewards points when spending in a foreign currency.

Conclusion

I hope this article has helped you realise that American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and The Platinum Card are two completely different beasts.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold gets you:

• a sign-up bonus of 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points
• a free first year (£195 thereafter)
• a generous offer of four free airport lounge passes per year
• £120 of Deliveroo credit (24 x £5) per year
• up to 12,500 bonus points per year based on spending

The Platinum Card has a very heavy fee – and is not free in the first year – but comes with an unmatched range of travel and non-travel benefits and a big sign-up bonus. 

Whether or not these benefits are worth the fee is up to you.  I make it work – I’ve had a Platinum card for over 20 years – but it depends entirely on your circumstances.

Where do I apply?

The application form for American Express Preferred Reward Gold (20,000 points sign-up bonus) can be found here.

The application form for The Platinum Card (40,000 points sign-up bonus) can be found here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.