Overview
The Amex EveryDay Credit Card from American Express is a solid choice for those who want a card that earns transferable points and has no annual fee.
The card earns 2 points per dollar at US supermarkets, on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1x); and 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases
You can do better, though. When you use the card 20 or more times in a billing period, you get 20% more points. In other words, in every billing period in which you use the card 20 or more times, you earn the following points per dollar:
- 2.4 points per dollar at U.S. supermarkets, up to $6K spend per year (then the rate drops to 1.2X)
- 1.2X points per dollar on all other eligible purchases.
Those earning rates are very good for a no-fee card that gives you the ability to transfer points to frequent flyer programs. However, you can do much better with cards that have fees, such as The Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card from American Express. Depending upon how much you spend annually, the value of extra points earned with a card that has a fee can easily make up for that annual fee.
Membership Rewards points earned with this card are transferable to many airline programs and can be pooled with points earned on other Membership Rewards cards such as Platinum, Gold, and Green cards. One particularly good use is to pool points with the Business Platinum Card so that you can use points to buy airfare at a value of 1.5 cents per point.
Rewards
| Amex Membership Rewards points can be incredibly valuable if you know how to use them. In general, if you use Membership Rewards points to pay for merchandise or travel, you won't get good value from your points. One exception is with the Business Platinum card where you'll get a 35% point rebate when using points to book certain flights. This gives you approximately 1.5 cents per point value, which is pretty good. Another exception is with the Business Gold Card where you'll get a 25% point rebate when using points to book certain flights. This gives you approximately 1.33 cents per point value. If you don't have either card, then your best bet is to transfer points to airline miles in order to book high value awards. More details can be found here: Amex Membership Rewards Complete Guide. |
Application Tips
Amex Application Tips
- Safe to Apply: Amex is the safest bank for trying your luck at earning a new welcome bonus offer. They don’t usually issue a hard pull when denying your application, and if you already have an Amex card, they won't usually issue a hard pull when approved for another one. Plus, they’ll now warn you during the application process if you’re not eligible for the bonus.
- Lifetime Rule: If you've ever had the same card before, you are most likely prohibited from earning a welcome bonus offer for the card if you apply now. Fortunately you'll be warned during the application process if this is the case. Amex is known to "forget" that you've had a card after about 7 years.
- 90 Day Rule: You can get at most two credit cards within 90 days. This rule does not apply to Pay Over Time (charge) cards.
- 5 credit card max: Amex usually won't approve applications for new credit cards if you already have 5 or more Amex credit cards or 10 or more charge cards.
- Better Offers: You may be able to get a better offer than the best available public offer. Details here.
- Hard inquiries combine into 1 when approved same day
Check application status here.
If denied, call reconsideration: 877-399-3083 (new accountholders); 866-314-0237 (current accountholders)
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How to Meet Spend Requirements
In order to meet minimum spend requirements, people often look for options to increase spend in ways that result in getting their money back. These techniques are referred to as "manufacturing spend". American Express has terms in their welcome offers that exclude some manufactured spend techniques from counting towards the minimum spend requirements for the welcome bonus offer. For example, most new cardmember bonuses have terms like this:
Eligible purchases to meet the Threshold Amount do NOT include fees or interest charges, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of other cash equivalents.
That said, many techniques for meeting minimum spend are perfectly fine. Here are some techniques that are safe for meeting Amex minimum spend requirements (click each link for more information):
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Related Cards (Membership Rewards)
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American Express® Business Gold Card Alternate offer: Some are targeted for an offer of 130K points after $10K in purchases in the first 3 months. You can see this post for more details Targeted Business Gold offer for 130K (Highly YMMV) Recent better offer: 70K points + up to $300 in statement credits: 70K points after $10K spend in 3 months + up to $150 in statement credits for US shipping purchases and up to $150 in statement credits US advertising purchases. [Expired 4/7/21] |
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Hi Greg, I have the AMEX Gold card but don’t want to pay the $250 every year. The only benefits I get are the $100 airline credit and perhaps 1% more on groceries/restaurants. I will not likely ever use the monthly $10 dining credits as I don’t use those restaurants or services. .
I have a lot of MR points and you say above that the The Amex EveryDay Credit Card with zero fee is good for preserving points, but I assume it cannot transfer points to airlines/hotels. Is that so?
What else could I do to preserve my points AND be able to transfer?
My wife has a Platinum card and I am an AU on it – and that allows me to transfer her points to my airline/hotel accounts I believe, but what about my own MR points?
Advice would be welcome. Thanks.
The EveryDay card does allow you to transfer points. Same answer for the no-fee Blue Business Plus card (which I think is a better option for a fee-free way to preserve your Membership Rewards points).
Being an AU on your wife’s Platinum card will not preserve your own MR points.
Thanks for confirming …
When I click on the link above it says “SAMANTHA has referred you for the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card. Your friend will receive a referral bonus if you are approved.”
However the bonus is only 15000 Membership points and not 25000 as mentioned in the post.
Checking into this right now. It showed 25K / 30K when I tested it. Will report back.
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