Many credit cards beat the Mastercard Gold card for various reasons, whether earning better rewards, charging lower fees or offering a welcome bonus. Consider brand-specific travel cards like hotel credit cards or cards for your favorite airlines that may earn more and better serve your specific travel needs.
Rewards: Weak earnings and limited redemptions
Though the Gold Card touts a better redemption rate than the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card’s 50 percent redemption boost for travel booked through Chase Travel℠, its rewards are less flexible and valuable overall.
You earn unlimited 1X points on all purchases. This is relatively low, considering you can earn more with no-annual-fee cards. 100 Mastercard Gold Card points equal $1 when you redeem for a car rental or hotel stay, for a value of 1 cent. But when redeeming for airfare or cash back, your points are worth 2 cents each. All travel must be reserved through InComm InCentives on myluxurycard.com (or by calling the customer service number on the back of your card). There aren’t any transfer partners or any other way to get extra value from your points, which is quite a limiting factor.
Your point value also may vary depending if you redeem for gift cards or merchandise. Note that you’ll lose any points earned that month if you fail to make a minimum payment online.
In contrast, rewards programs like Chase’s offer additional point value with various transfer travel partners. Based on Bankrate’s valuations, Chase Ultimate Rewards points can reach a market value of 2 cents per point because of excellent transfer partner deals. By comparison, Mastercard Gold Card travel experience opportunities are restricted to select experiences that may rotate, and there are only 3,000-plus properties, which falls short of Chase’s offerings by a wide margin.
Rates and fees: Extremely high annual fees
Since the Mastercard Gold’s point values are slightly below Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, the most significant sticking point is the extremely high $995 annual fee. You’d need to spend a whopping $4,146 monthly — or $49,750 per year — and always redeem at the 2 percent value just to break even. If you’re considering adding an authorized user to help earn more rewards, that's another $295 annual fee per user. These are some of the highest overall fees on the market. Other premium travel cards have much lower annual fees and meet or exceed the overall value of the Mastercard Gold card.
The other rates and fees are standard if the high membership cost doesn’t dissuade you. Like any decent travel card, there are no foreign transaction fees. And you’ll get some help if you need to pay off another card with a respectable 0 percent intro APR for 15 billing cycles on balance transfers made within the first 45 days (21.24% to 29.24% variable APR after that, with a balance transfer fee of 5 percent or $5, whichever is greater). There isn’t a similar purchase offer, but the ongoing APR is comparable with the current average interest rate.
Welcome offer: No additional value other than debt consolidation
The Mastercard Gold Card doesn’t offer a sign-up bonus in the form of points or an intro APR on purchases, which doesn’t make the staggering price tag any easier. While the intro APR on balance transfers is decent, it seems out of character for this card. Debt consolidation likely wouldn’t be a priority if you are considering this card.
A welcome offer would add significant value to this card, especially given the mediocre rewards earning rates. Other premium travel cards offer generous welcome offers to entice applicants by providing a straightforward way to offset the annual fee in the first year.