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American Express Canada offers several cards, but two stand out for their popularity:
Let’s take a look at the major differences between the blue and the golden cards.
The welcome bonus offered by each of these cards varies according to the promotions.
Here is how the current offer is structured:
With this welcome offer, you can earn up to 15,000 Membership Rewards points, spread over the first 12 months of card ownership.
With this welcome offer for American Express® Gold Rewards Card you can earn up to 60,000 Membership Rewards points:
The American Express Cobalt® Card requires no minimum income.
The American Express® Gold Rewards Card requires no minimum income.
For residents outside Quebec, the American Express CobaltMD Card has monthly fees of $15.99 (total of $191.88). For residents in Quebec, it is $191.88, charged annually.
Holding the American Express® Gold Rewards Card has a fee of $250, charged once a year.
The American Express Cobalt® Card and the American Express® Gold Rewards Card each offer several levels of point accumulation.
The American Express Cobalt® Card gives :
For its part, the American Express® Gold Rewards Card you get :
Both American Express cards earn Membership Rewards points, and the redemption process is similar. On this point, the American Express Cobalt® Card and the American Express® Gold Rewards Card have no difference and are both winners!
This points program is the most flexible in Canada, allowing :
With the American Express Cobalt® Card, you benefit from the following advantages:
With the American Express® Gold Rewards Card you benefit from the following advantages:
The American Express Cobalt® Card and the American Express® Gold Rewards Card both have promotional offers.
American Express regularly offers savings to its cardholders. They are given on the basis of purchases from targeted retailers and according to each person’s purchasing profile:
There is no difference between the two cards. You may get certain offers on one card and not on the other, and vice versa.
For years, the American Express Cobalt® Card was the obvious answer to this comparison. Three changes have since moved the math back in favour of the American Express® Gold Rewards Card.
Add the Priority Pass membership, the 4 complimentary Plaza Premium visits per year, and the trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance of up to $1,500 that the Cobalt Card does not carry, and the Gold Rewards Card becomes the stronger choice for anyone who travels more than once a year.
If groceries, restaurants and food delivery drive your budget, nothing in Canada matches the 5 X points of the American Express Cobalt® Card. A household putting $2,000 a month into those categories stays under the $2,500 monthly cap and still collects 120,000 Membership Rewards points a year from that spending alone. The mobile device insurance of up to $1,000 is another advantage the Gold Rewards Card does not offer.
From two trips a year onward, the American Express® Gold Rewards Card wins on every point that matters to a traveller: 2 X points on travel purchases, the $100 annual travel credit, Priority Pass, 4 Plaza Premium visits, trip cancellation and interruption insurance, and travel accident coverage of $500,000 against $250,000 on the Cobalt Card. The $50 NEXUS credit and the Hertz benefits complete the package.
Many Milesopedia readers carry both cards and split their spending: groceries and restaurants on the Cobalt Card, travel, gas and pharmacy purchases on the Gold Rewards Card. The points land in the same Membership Rewards account, so a single transfer to Aeroplan, Flying Blue or Marriott Bonvoy can draw on the earnings of both cards.
Our detailed guides on this topic:
Here is the same verdict summarised card by card.
The American Express Cobalt® Card stands out thanks to:
The American ExpressMD Gold Rewards Card stands out on:
Savings are this way:
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