American Express Business Gold: 50,000 Points After $5,000 In Spend Via Referral

Update 3/21/19: Just a friendly reminder that this is still available, some other blogs are advertising a 35,000 point bonus via affiliate links. Remember we always put readers first by telling them about the best possible deal.

The Offer

No direct link to offer, must use referral link

  • American Express is offering a bonus of 50,000 points after $5,000 in spend on the American Express Business Gold Card

Card Details

  • $295 annual fee, not waived first year
  • Card earns 4x points on the two categories your business spends the most each billing cycle, from the following list (up to $150,000 in combined purchases each calendar year):
    • U.S. purchases at restaurants
    • Airfare purchased directly from airlines
    • U.S. purchases for advertising in select media
    • U.S. purchases at gas stations
    • U.S. purchases for shipping
    • U.S. computer hardware, software, and cloud computing purchases made directly from select providers
  • 25% points back after you book a flight with pay with points

Our Verdict

The current public sign up bonus is 1 year free of G Suite basic for 3 users and up to 1 year of ZipRecruiter Standard. I don’t think that bonus is that attractive unless you’d normally pay for ZipRecruiter/G Suite anyway. Before the card was revamped it was possible to get  60,00075,000 points with the annual fee waived. Remember you can get a friend or family member to refer you to this card and they will get up to 15,000 points as well (you can also self refer). Interestingly it seems that you can refer from this card to other cards and get 20,000 points, beating the 15,000 maximum previously offered.

Personally I don’t think the offer is worth considering without the annual fee waived, but it’s difficult to say what American Express plans to do with this card long term in regards to the bonus. If you can max out the 4x categories then it’s obviously worth considering even with the high annual fee. Another interesting thing to note that aksurvivorfan points out is that the terms say:

  • Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card

When the Premier Rewards Gold card was changed it stated:

  • Welcome Offer not available to applicants who have or have had this card or the Premier Reward Gold Card.

American Express isn’t auto converting people to the new Gold card, so it’s possible it’s actually considered a different product (but unlikely. Update: Even more unlikely). For now I won’t be adding this to our list of the best credit card bonuses. If you have any questions about American Express, read this post first. Please do not share your referrals in this post.

Hat tip to aksurvivorfan & MilesTalk

View Comments (43)

  • Does the referrer get 20K MR points as stated in the comments? I am only seeing 10K MR

      • Says "I’ll create a dedicated post shortly where they can be shared" at the end of post. Maybe remove that? I can understand why you would not have referral thread, but also some ppl might not already have amex and need a fresh link.

  • I asked American Express (via chat) as to whether the Business Gold card and the Business Gold Rewards card are different products 2 days ago and was explicitly told that they are, indeed, considered different products.

    I haven't tried to apply as yet though - I may do that after I've finished abusing Australia's current Prime Minister via Twitter for the evening.

  • Thanks for periodically re-posting best available offers, DoC. I saw another blog which will remain nameless, pushing that 35k offer hard, despite the 50k/5k offer being pretty readily available. This place is an oasis in the desert of crappy CC blogs.

    • If you have a spouse/P2 who has a business gold card and can refer you so the offer becomes 70k for $295 I think it can make sense.

  • I applied for BGR with self referral this January. At that time although annual fee was not waived in the application but just after being approved I could see $0 annual fee for the first year (also the same language in the card agreement). Is it same now?

  • I have the 50K points referral code available, send me a text with your first name and email address. [removed]

  • I have a few of the 50,000 sign-up bonus referral links available and you also get $100 Credit for Dinning. Email[removed] with your name and I’ll send you the link to sign up. Hurry, there’s just a little over 2 weeks left on this extras offer for the Amex Gold Card.