American Express Everyday Credit Card Review (2024)

3

The Amex Everyday card is the no annual fee, wallflower sibling to the more interesting Everyday Preferred card. The card earns 2x at grocery stores and, like the Everyday Preferred, awards additional bonus points based on reaching a baseline number of transactions during a statement cycle. In this case, reaching 20 purchases gets you a 20% bonus, raising the earning to a *whopping* 2.4x at grocery and 1.2x everywhere else. Also like the Everyday Preferred, the supermarket multiplier is limited to a measly $6k/calendar year.

Amex Everyday Current Welcome Offer

Card Offer
10K after $1K spend in 3 months. Terms apply.
No 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.

Amex Everyday Credit Card Review

There’s little reason to put any spend on the Everyday card, or mess around with the monthly transaction minimums for the 20% points bonus. It just isn’t rewarding enough. That said, this unremarkable piece of plastic can be useful, primarily as a downgrade path from the Everyday Preferred card and/or as a no annual fee backstop to keep your Membership Rewards points active. Outside of that, there isn’t much to see here.

If you make 20 or more purchases in a billing period you will get a 20% bonus on points, less returns and credits. This turns the card’s earnings into:

    • 2.4x – US supermarkets
    • 1.2x – everywhere else
  • Travel Protections:
    • Auto Rental CoverageSecondary auto rental CDW (collision damage waiver). Provides reimbursement for theft and collision damage for rental cars in the U.S. and abroad.
  • Who’s this card for? Those who want a no annual fee consumer card option to keep Membership Rewards alive (although we’d recommend the Blue Business Plus instead).
  • Is the Amex Everyday a keeper? Once you’ve received the welcome offer, there’s not much reason to jump through the monthly transaction hoops for what would become a 2.4x grocery card. The Everyday’s primary utility is to function as a no-annual fee backstop card that keeps Membership Rewards alive and transferable to partners. The Everyday also consistently receives upgrade offers to the Everyday Preferred that are fairly similar to the original welcome bonus. For some, this could make it worth upgrading in order to get a bonus and maximize that card’s superior earnings on gas and grocery.
a close-up of a website
An example of an upgrade offer from the Amex Everyday card to the Everyday Preferred

Amex Everyday Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Unusually for a no annual fee card, it keeps Membership Rewards points alive and transferable to partners
  • Often receives decent upgrade offers to the the Amex Everyday Preferred card
  • Membership Rewards has great airline partners
  • Often has a period of low or 0% APR on purchases and transfers as part of the welcome offer

Cons

  • Welcome offer is rarely anything to get excited about
  • Outside of targeted Amex offers, there’s little reason to put any spend on the card
  • Having to maintain 20 monthly purchases isn’t worth the 20% points bonus
  • 2x/2.4x at supermarkets is limited to only $6K/calendar year

American Express Transfer Partners

Rewards ProgramAmex Transfer RatioBest Uses
Aer Lingus Avios1 to 1Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus (Avios.com) rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar.  See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets.
AeroMexico ClubPremier1 to 1.6AeroMexico is a SkyTeam partner. Club Premier points can be used to book flights on AeroMexico, SkyTeam alliance members (such as Delta or Korean Air), or on select partner airlines. Unfortunately many have reported that awards are extremely difficult to book through AeroMexico so we do not recommend transferring points to this program. If you want to fly AeroMexico, look to transfer points to another SkyTeam partner (such as Air France) and then book AeroMexico with that program.
Air Canada Aeroplan1 to 1Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know.
Air France KLM Flying Blue1 to 1Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel.
ANA Mileage Club1 to 1Redeem for Star Alliance flights. Multiple stopovers allowed. ANA offers many great sweet-spot awards, including flying around the world in business class for as few as 115K miles! See also: ANA - a terrific Membership Rewards gem.
Avianca LifeMiles1 to 1Avianca LifeMiles can be great for Star Alliance awards. They offer reasonable award prices and no fuel surcharges on awards. They also offer shorthaul awards within the US (for flying United, for example) for as few as 7,500 miles one-way. Best of all, their mixed-cabin pricing can lead to fantastic first-class award prices. See this post for details.
British Airways Avios1 to 1While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets.
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles1 to 1Cathay Pacific has a decent distance based award chart, but they no longer allow stopovers longer than 24 hours. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles can be a good option for booking American Airlines flights with a distance based award chart, especially if other OneWorld Alliance miles aren't available. For long distance flights, it is possible to reduce the cost of a premium cabin award by adding on a lower cabin segment. See this post for details.
Choice1 to 1Choice Privileges points seem to be randomly valuable within the US, but dependably valuable internationally in expensive locations such as Scandinavia and Japan. Points can sometimes offer great value when used towards participating Preferred Hotels of the World.
Delta SkyMiles1 to 1 plus excise taxDelta no longer charges change or cancellation fees on awards originating in North America. Flash award sales and flights to/from locations other than the U.S. or Canada can offer great value. See: Best uses for Delta miles.
Emirates Skywards1 to 1The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be steep. See: Emirates Sweet Spot Awards - First class from 30K miles round trip.
Etihad Guest1 to 1Etihad offers a distance based award chart for flying Etihad and another for its partners. Points may offer good value for expensive but short-distance flights.
Hawaiian Miles1 to 1 plus excise taxHawaiian Airlines’ award prices tend to be quite high, but there are some not-terrible uses: fly to neighboring islands for 7.5K miles, fly first class round-trip from Hawaii to South Pacific islands for as few as 95K miles, fly first class round-trip from Hawaii to Australia for as few as 130K miles, or use miles to upgrade paid flights.
Hilton1 to 25th Night Free awards. Best value is usually found with very low end or very high end Hilton hotels. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees.
Iberia Avios1 to 1On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets.
JetBlue250 to 200 plus excise taxJetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards.
Marriott Bonvoy1 to 15th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find.
Qantas Frequent Flyer1 to 1Best use is probably for flights on El Al with no fuel surcharges. Also useful for short AA flights. Qantas offers distance based award charts similar to Cathay Pacific. Both are OneWorld Alliance members. I recommend comparing award prices across both programs before transferring to either. Qantas offers round the world business class awards for only 280,000 points (but with many restrictions)
Qatar Privilege Club Avios1 to 1Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer1 to 1Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines).
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club1 to 1Virgin Atlantic offers a few great sweet spot awards including US to Europe on Delta One business class for 50K points one-way. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight).

American Express Application Tips

  • Safe to Apply: Amex is usually the safest bank for trying your luck at earning a new welcome offer. Most of the time, they won’t issue a hard pull when denying your application or when approving you if you already have at least one Amex card. Plus, they’ll warn you during the application process if you’re not eligible for the bonus.
  • Once in a Lifetime Rule: If you've ever had a card before, you are most likely prohibited from earning a welcome offer for that same 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 5-7 years. Note that there are frequently offers with no lifetime language (NLL) that aren't bound by this restriction.
  • "Family" Rules: In addition to the "once in a lifetime" rule, Amex now applies additional "family" rules to several groups of consumer cards. These rules don't apply to business cards.
  • 2 per 90 days: You can get at most two credit cards within 90 days. This rule usually does not apply to Pay Over Time (charge) cards.
  • Marriott cards: Approval for any Marriott card is governed by a labyrinthine set of unintuitive rules. You can see the full eligibility chart here.
  • Card Limits: Amex normally only allows customers to have five credit cards and ten charge cards at one time. Both personal and business cards count towards the respective five and ten card limits. There are some instances where certain customers have been allowed to go above those limits.
  • Application Status: Call (877) 239-3491 to check your application status or use this link.
  • Reconsideration: If denied, you can call (800) 567-1083 and ask for your application to be reconsidered.

Related Cards

Card Offer
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

3 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
CJH

I have AMEX premium car rental protection linked to this card. Otherwise I do not spend on the car.

Mist

There’s absolutely no reason to put any spend on the Everyday card

When I got an AmexOffers with some juicy cashback or bonus points, sometimes I take this one out of sockdrawer.

Last year was less bountiful. I didn’t hit $100 savings on this account.