I recently received two offers from American Express for two different cards, the Gold Card and the Green Card. I am pretty conservative when it comes to credit cards, so I don't really want both. What differences between the two are profound enough to elevate one over the other?
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2Consider the Blue Cash card instead. No fee, you can carry a balance if you have to, and you can get 0.5-5% cash back (but look out for the funny structure on that; it starts as .5% general / 1% groceries+gas+etc, and then after you've spent like $6500 that year it jumps to 1% and 5%.)– user296Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 14:46
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3 Answers
Do these cards resemble your offers?
http://www201.americanexpress.com/getthecard/compare-cards/popular-cards?eyetracking=true
If so there really only appears to be a couple of extra features on the gold card with regards to event / ticket insurance. Are your offers both charge cards like these? Charge cards do not allow you to carry a balance (i.e. you have to pay your bill in full each month) as opposed to credit cards that will.
answered Sep 16, 2010 at 4:37
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1These charts are excellent, and in all honestly I've never heard of "charge cards". I learned a lot tonight.– SampsonCommented Sep 16, 2010 at 5:29
Which one has the features you want? That's really all that matters.
Do you want a low introductory APR? Do you want no annual fee? Do you want rewards? Do you want a pretty color? They all swipe the same and let you walk out of the store with your purchase. It's how you pay, how much you're charged, and how much you get back after the purchase that makes the difference between them.
American Express "charge" cards do allow you to carry a balance, using a feature called "sign and travel". Charges over either $100 or $250 can be paid over time, but charges under that amount must be paid in full every month.
I have a Gold card, and the main benefit is the AAA-like roadside assistance service. If the fee ever went up though, I'd probably switch to the Green card.
