Rakuten has increased the welcome offer on its American Express credit card to $200 after $2,000 spend in the first 90 days. This matches the best offer that we’ve seen on this fairly new card.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
 ⓘ $79 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates $100 cash back ⓘFriend-ReferralThis is a friend-referral offer. A member of the Frequent Miler community may earn a referral bonus if you are approved for this offer Earn $100 bonus cashback after $1K spend in the first 90 daysNo Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Recent better offer: Earn $200 bonus cashback after $2K spend in the first 90 days (Expired 4/10/26) FM Mini Review: Earning 4% extra (or 4x Membership Rewards) on purchases via Rakuten is good, but the limit of $7,000 spending limits its usefulness. Earning rate: 5X extra on Rakuten Dining ✦ 4X extra on Rakuten purchases (limit $7k spend per calendar year) ✦ 2X groceries & restaurants ✦ 1x everywhere else Base: 1% Grocery: 2% Dine: 2% Brand: 4% Card Info: Amex issued by FEB. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: If you have another Amex card that earns Membership Rewards, you can change the earning preference on your Rakuten account to Membership Rewards as well. If you do this, the "cash back" earned via this card will be converted to Membership Rewards and deposited into your Amex account. |
Quick Thoughts
When the Rakuten American Express card launched, the welcome offer was a meager $50. They soon increased it to $100 and have done a couple of one-day boosts to $200. If we had to guess, this one might be intended to hang around for the Big Give Week, but we don’t know exactly when the offer will end.
Depending on your Rakuten earnings preference, the welcome offer could be worth significantly more than $200. If your account is set up to earn American Express Membership Rewards or Bilt points (and you have Bilt elite status), the $200 bonus effectively translates to a 20,000-point bonus.
That’s not as impressive as the Membership Rewards you can earn from the welcome offers on other Amex cards, but it’s still decent if you’re interested in getting the Rakuten card for its 4x earnings. Just remember that the 4x earning rate applies only to purchases made via Rakuten, and it’s capped at $7,000 in spend per calendar year.
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How do they know if you go through Rakuten for the purchase or not?
I really wish this card was backed by any other issuer / processor. I’d probably get this card eventually, but being issued by AmEx is a non-starter. There are just too many other great SUBs and spending opportunities with AmEx to take up one of your 5 precious card slots with this.
Does this actually take up a slot? The card is not issued by AMEX. Instead, it’s issued by First Electronic Bank.
It is not issued by Amex, only running on Amex network.
I believe this was only a one-day deal? Showing $100/10k points now.
Same, back to $100.