Now here’s another reason to love the Amex Gold card! Amex is more liberal regarding merchant categories.
So, as you may recall, Chase adjusted what it considers a restaurant a while back. As a result, coffee shops, bakeries, etc. no longer count as restaurants, and do not earn 3x or 2x points when using your Chase Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred card, respectively. But guess what? Amex doesn’t have the same restriction.
Amex Restaurants Category
Because Amex doesn’t restrict the restaurant category the same way Chase does, making life just a little bit easier. The reason for this, of course, is because you don’t have to think about which card to use for each dining establishment you visit. Plus, as I’ve detailed in a previous post, places you think of as dining establishments but are actually coded as grocery stores, still earn the same bonus too.
So, for example, Kona Coffee Purveyors at the International Market Place is a coffee shop. And when Chase made the change, I went from earning 3x points down to one. As a result, I ended up putting spend at that merchant on my Marriott Rewards Premier Visa for 2x Marriott points or my Freedom Unlimited for 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points. But with the Amex Gold, I earn 4x points at Kona Coffee Purveyors.
Amex is More Liberal Regarding Merchant Categories, Final Thoughts
Honestly, had I know this difference in merchant categorization exists, I probably would’ve jumped on the Amex Gold bandwagon earlier. It’s irritating to have to think about which restaurants do and don’t qualify for bonuses, and so the Amex Gold makes life easier. And there’s the fact that it earns more points on dining spend than the Sapphire Reserve does either way.
Of course, regardless of earning power, a card is only worth it if you see value in the points. And, in my opinion, Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards are a close match. Yes, Membership Rewards doesn’t have Southwest, British Airways, or Hyatt as transfer partners, among others. But, Amex does have Hilton and Hawaiian Airlines as transfer partners.
And it’s not like you have to choose one over the other. I see value in keeping both cards, especially because they come with completely different benefits. It’s also worth reminding that the Gold card’s bonus doesn’t apply to restaurants and supermarkets outside of the US. So, you’ll still want to use your Sapphire Reserve/Preferred for all foreign dining spend.
Where does Citi fall into the mix, especially now that the Prestige is earning 5x on restaurants?
Great question! Unfortunately, I don’t have have the Prestige and do not plan on getting one.
Not my experience at all. I’m constantly not getting my 4MR per $ for restaurants …. Amex then argues that it was a “bar” not a restaurant …. I get a beer and a burger at two places that look the same and one is treated like a “restaurant” and the other as “bar” (aka 1MR per $).
And they wash their hands from any responsibility
Unfortunately, I haven’t had enough experience with this yet. I have bar transaction from this past weekend, but the restaurant transactions don’t seem to show how many points you’ll earn until after your statement cycles. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it though.
I’ve had the exact opposite experience with AMEX Gold and the restaurant category. Many transactions I’ve made at legitimate restaurants have not coded correctly and I’ve only earned 1x instead of 4x points. One of the issues appears to be related to merchants that use Toast POS for payment and credit card processing. These transactions will appear on your statement as *TST followed by the merchant name. So while I agree it’s great AMEX is more liberal with the restaurant category, I’ll stick to my Chase card until they resolve the above issue.
Maybe it’s just luck, but things seem to be getting better in this regard. I had a TST transaction at Pizza Press last month and I earned the 4x points. Same for Pieology back in December. But, yeah, there are restaurants that are categorized as such and use traditional POS systems that aren’t posting 4x points. I’m still waiting for Amex’s response to my initial inquiry regarding this. We’ll see! But, at the moment, Amex points are a little more useful to me than Ultimate Rewards, so I’m going to continue rolling the dice for now.
Amex is frustrating for me because they don’t code my Kroger (Fred Meyer) as grocery. Ridiculous as Kroger is huge! Amex gold also doesn’t give 4x for any restaurant that uses Square, even though it codes as a restaurant.
Yeah, that is an issue Amex has acknowledge and says they’re working on. It’s a mixed bag for me, though; some Square merchants show up as 4x, while some don’t. Most recently, my favorite local burger place (food truck) did come through as a 4x transaction.