I am AU in both of DW's BCP & NPSL Gold. She also has the SkyMiles Blue.
In our particular case, the Gold has become a fall back card. For example, when the BCP 6% in groceries hit the $6k ceiling in purchases, we switch to the Gold 4x MR points in groceries for the remaining of the year.
The Gold was opened 3 months before closing our mortgage (June 2019), mostly because of the intro MR points bonus, planning to use the points for a side-by-side fridge DW was eying for quite some time. So, fridge was purchased entirely with MR points. 👍🏼
That Xsaction overweighted the Gold's AF for 2018...
Also, she opened the SkyMiles (while planning our 2021 vacations), to be the recipient of the Gold MR points (one of the most efficient ways IMO to retain the value of the MR points), knowing we would accumulate a bunch of points during the course of its 1st yr, and it was easier to generate 4x points on restaurants and groceries with the Gold, than 2x miles with the SkyMiles. So, we ended up xfering 64,000 MR points to the SkyMiles (1,000 MR points = 1,000 MR miles), to aid in the purchase (in August 2020) of the air tickets for our 2021 vacations, which was done entirely with SkyMiles MR miles (96,000 miles).
That Xsaction overweighted the Gold's AF for 2019...
We purchased 2 loaded Macbook Pro with a bunch of accessories back in February 2020 with the Gold, because it provided an additional year of warranty that mimics AppleCare (past the 2 yrs of AppleCare we had purchased).
That Xsaction helped break even the Gold's AF for 2020...
You can redeem points with the Gold card at an average rate of $70 for every 10,000 points at merchants like Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, etc. That means we would need a little over 35,700 points to be able to redeem $250 and break even with the AF. As a side note: paying your Gold card bill with points, Xlates to: $60 for every 10,000 points.
So, if a $250 restaurant or supermarket purchase will yield 1,000 points, we would need to spend $250 x 36 instances to get to 36,000 points. That’s $9,000 in groceries and restaurants! We don’t eat that much, or that expensive.
So, for us is not about being able to pay $250 for the AF. Of course we can do it... For us is about the worth; the monetary value of being able to enjoy membership benefits past breaking even at $250 by trying to plan ahead and use timing on purchases that would justify the AF.
Hopefully our experiences gives you a little insight on a different angle you hadn’t explored yet.
AU:
Gold. Your scores are on the lower end and charge cards (barring Platinum) are easier to get approved for than credit cards.
You may want to consider going for the AMEX GOLD as charge cards are easier to get than AMEX credit cards. Keep us posted
What I did was maintained me Gold then received a preapproval for an upgrade, The Platinum wasn't really hard to get, its just expensive to keep because of the annual fee.