Choosing an American Express Card Based on Your Goals

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When people ask me which American Express card they should get, my answer is almost always the same:

"What are you hoping to accomplish?"

I've learned that there isn't one card that's the best fit for every person.

Over the years, we've carried several American Express cards, but we've never expected one card to do everything. Instead, we've found that different cards have served different purposes depending on where we were in life.

Some have helped us earn points on everyday family spending. Others have made frequent travel more enjoyable. As Moms Chasing Miles grew from an idea into a business, our priorities shifted again, and so did the cards that made sense for us.

Even within our own family, our travel goals aren't the same.

Troy has always dreamed of visiting every Major League Baseball stadium. He loves exploring historic cities and somehow manages to find a golf course almost everywhere we go—even in Rome.

Our girls are much easier to please. Give them a beautiful pool, a frozen daiquiri (the kid-friendly kind, of course), and they're perfectly happy spending the afternoon swimming.

As for me, I'm always chasing something different. I want to experience cultures that are completely different from my own, see landscapes that don't exist back home, and leave every trip feeling like I experienced something I couldn't have found anywhere else.

Those different goals have shaped not only how we travel, but also how we think about the cards we carry.

If Your Goal Is Traveling as a Family

Family travel looks very different than solo travel.

When we're planning a trip, I'm not just trying to find one award seat. I'm trying to figure out how to get four people there while staying within our points budget.

Over time, I've realized that making family travel easier isn't only about earning more points. It's also about making the travel experience itself more enjoyable.

That's one reason the American Express Platinum Card® has become part of our strategy.

It's the card I naturally think about when we're preparing for a big trip because many of its travel-focused benefits fit the way our family likes to travel.

If Your Goal Is Making Everyday Spending Work Harder

Most of life doesn't happen on vacation.

It happens buying groceries, grabbing dinner after soccer practice, stopping for coffee and making all of the purchases that fill an ordinary week.

That's where the American Express® Gold Card fit our family particularly well.

There was a season when this was one of the most-used cards in my wallet because it aligned with the spending we were already doing.

One thing I've learned over the years is that some of the biggest point balances aren't built on vacation—they're built one everyday purchase at a time.

If Your Goal Is Making Frequent Travel More Comfortable

When we first started using points and miles, nearly all of my attention went toward one question:

How can we earn enough points to book the trip?

As we began traveling more often, I realized that getting there was only part of the experience.

Now I also think about the hours spent in airports, long connections, overnight flights and what it feels like to arrive exhausted with two kids.

Airport lounges have gradually become part of our routine rather than something we viewed as an occasional luxury. Before a long flight, we try to leave enough time to sit down, get something to eat, charge our phones and let the girls settle in before boarding.

It may not be the most exciting part of a trip, but those quieter moments have prevented more than one travel day from beginning in complete chaos.

That is where some of the travel-focused benefits of the American Express Platinum Card® have become valuable to us.

If Your Goal Is Growing a Business

Starting Moms Chasing Miles completely changed the way I looked at business credit cards.

At first, we had very few business expenses.

Now we're paying for website hosting, email marketing software, editing tools, cameras, equipment and everything else that comes with creating content every day.

That's where The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has fit into our strategy.

Instead of mixing those expenses with our personal purchases, we've been able to separate business spending while continuing to earn Membership Rewards® points.

One purchase I'm especially glad we made was using the Dell Technologies benefit toward a DJI Osmo Mobile gimbal that we now use regularly while filming content.

For us, that's a perfect example of using a benefit to purchase something we genuinely needed rather than buying something simply because a credit was available.

If Your Goal Is Building Membership Rewards® Points for the Long Term

There is one American Express card that quietly plays one of the most important roles in our overall strategy:

The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express.

It isn’t the flashiest card we have.

It doesn’t come with airport lounge access or luxury hotel benefits, and it’s probably the card I talk about the least.

But because it has no annual fee (see Rates & Fees) and earns Membership Rewards® points, it can serve as a long-term place for the points we’ve earned. That means I don’t feel pressured to keep a higher-fee Membership Rewards card open solely because I’m worried about preserving our points.

That flexibility gives me real peace of mind.

Some cards are exciting.

Some cards are practical.

The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express is one of those practical cards that quietly does exactly what I need it to do, which is why I expect it to remain part of our strategy for the long term.

Our Strategy Has Changed Right Along With Our Goals

If you looked inside our wallets five years ago, they would have looked completely different.

Back then, we were simply trying to take family vacations without spending a fortune.

Today we're traveling internationally several times a year, running Moms Chasing Miles as a business and introducing our daughters to places and cultures we never imagined we'd experience together.

Naturally, the cards that fit our goals have changed too.

I don't expect our wallet five years from now to look exactly like it does today either.

Travel changes.

Life changes.

Goals change.

Our card strategy has changed right alongside them.

Final Thoughts

I no longer believe there's one "best" American Express card.

Instead, I think there are cards that fit different goals at different times.

For our family, some have helped us earn more points from everyday spending. Others have made frequent travel more enjoyable. And as our business has grown, we've found value in products that support an entirely different set of expenses.

The card that's right for someone else may not be the card that's right for us—and that's okay.

The question I always come back to isn't, "Which card is the best?"

It's, "What am I trying to accomplish?"

Editorial Disclosure

Opinions expressed here are the authors' alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within this post.