American Express Gold vs. Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Compared to the Amex Gold card, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with a higher $395 annual fee and doesn’t offer bonus rewards for dining or U.S. supermarket purchases. You also won’t earn maximum bonus miles if you book airfare directly with an airline. However, these disadvantages may not matter, especially if you take advantage of all the card’s features.
When you book travel through the Capital One Travel portal, you get more chances to quickly rake in rewards: 10X miles on hotels and rental cars and 5X miles on flights. Your general purchases will earn 2X miles — twice as much as the 1X points the Gold card offers for general purchases.
The Venture X also comes with an annual credit worth up to $300 for travel booked through Capital One Travel, a credit worth up to $100 to cover the cost of Global Entry or TSA PreCheck and 10,000 bonus miles on your account anniversary (once your annual fee is paid). To top it off, you also get access to Capital One and Priority Pass lounges. These perks have the potential to easily offset the Venture X’s annual fee and help the card outshine the Amex Gold card, especially if you pair it with a no-annual-fee dining or grocery rewards card.
American Express Gold vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a more versatile travel card compared to the Amex Gold card. The Sapphire Preferred carries a much smaller $95 annual fee, saving you more than $150 a year compared to the Gold card’s annual fee. It offers higher bonus rewards on more travel options besides airfare, as long as you book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. You can also earn bonus rewards on dining, select streaming services, online grocery purchases, Lyft rides (through March 31, 2025) and travel purchases made outside the Chase travel portal. Depending on your spending habits, the number of categories earning bonus rewards could make up for the Sapphire Preferred’s slightly smaller dining and grocery rewards limitations.
The Sapphire Preferred is one of the rare travel rewards cards that offers great value for various redemption options — even non-travel redemptions. Your points are worth 1 cent apiece when redeemed for cash back options like statement credits and 1.25 cents when redeemed for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
That means 10,000 points with the Sapphire Preferred card will get you a $100 statement credit or $125 for travel booked through the Chase travel portal. On the other hand, 10,000 points with the Amex Gold card will only get you a $60 statement credit or $100 for travel booked through the American Express Travel portal. Plus, when you transfer your points, we estimate that Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth 2 cents apiece, which is comparable to the Amex Gold card’s 2.1-cent-per-point valuation.
The Sapphire Preferred only has one $50 hotel credit, which can’t match the overall value offered by the Amex Gold card’s credits. But when you take the Sapphire Preferred’s hotel credit and factor it in with the smaller annual fee, outstanding rewards program, and potential for greater value when redeeming your rewards, this mid-level travel card can outshine the Amex Gold card’s potential.
Best cards to pair with this card
Since the Amex Gold’s bonus rewards for travel only cover airfare, frequent travelers may want to pair it with another travel card, especially if you’re loyal to one particular hotel brand. A hotel rewards card could help you rake in a lot of bonus rewards on hotel stays. Some, like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card come with an impressive number of perks like automatic elite status and anniversary free night awards, which can help you save money and enjoy enhanced stays.
Another option is to pair the Amex Gold card with a cash back card. If you have a lot of spending that falls outside the Gold card’s bonus rewards categories, instead of settling for only 1X points on those purchases, you can double that amount with the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card, which offers 2 percent cash rewards on purchases.