New Amex EveryDay Cards are Coming

ByThe Miles Professor

American Express will be introducing two new credit cards next week: The Amex EveryDay Card and the Amex EveryDay Preferred Card.  Although applications are not yet available, the excitement for these cards is already building! Some preview information is available on the American Express Everyday website. The reason these cards are attractive are the following:

  • Ability to earn full Membership Rewards points that transfer to 10+ different airlines.
  • Bonus categories: for groceries up to 4.5 points per dollar and gas up to 3 points per dollar.

The angle for these cards is to attract customers that will use these cards everyday and that will become a regular staple in their wallet. Those that do will be rewarded with extra bonus points. The EveryDay card will offer a 20% bonus for more than 20 transactions a month and the EveryDay Preferred Card will offer a 50% bonus for more than 30 transactions a month. What that means is that these cards will earn 1.2 points per dollar or 1.5 points per dollar, depending on the card, and that’s on all base spending.

Two Versions of the EveryDay Cards

There are two versions of the Amex EveryDay cards: No annual fee and $95 annual fee. The sign-up bonus on the

EveryDay Credit Card (No Annual Fee)

  • Sign-up bonus: 10,000 points when you spend $1,000 in 90 days
  • Earning: Earn 2x Membership Rewards points at U.S. supermarkets (not including warehouse stores like Costco), on up to $6,000 per year on purchases (then 1x); and 1x points on all other purchases.
  • Spending Bonus: Use the Card to make 20 or more purchases in a billing period and earn 20% extra points on all those purchases less returns and credits.
  • App: A digital counter in the Amex Mobile app helps keep track of each qualifying purchase for the bonus, so Card Members always know when they’re close to earning 20% extra Membership Rewards points.
  • Other features: The Card will also come with smart chip technology and a 0% introductory rate on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months.

EveryDay Preferred Credit Card ($95 annual fee)

  • Sign-up bonus: 15,000 points when you spend $1,000 in 90 days
  • Earning: Earn 3x Membership Rewards points at U.S. supermarkets (not including warehouse stores like Costco), on up to $6,000 per year on purchases (then 1x); 2x on US standalone gas stations; and 1x points on all other purchases.
  • Spending Bonus: Use the Card to make 30 or more purchases in a billing period and earn 50% extra points on all those purchases less returns and credits.
  • App: A digital counter in the Amex Mobile app helps keep track of each qualifying purchase for the bonus, so Card Members always know when they’re close to earning 50% extra Membership Rewards points.
  • Other features: The Card will also come with smart chip technology and a 0% introductory rate on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months.
  • Annual fee: $95

Earning Membership Rewards Points

Membership Rewards points have always been valuable by transferring these points to airline partners. These include Aeromexico, Aeroplan, Alitalia Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Asia Miles, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, EL AL Israel Airlines, Flying Blue, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia Plus, JetBlue Airways®, Singapore Airlines, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic Airways.

The thing about Membership Rewards points, however, was they were always reserved for American Express’ “premium” cards like the personal and business versions of the Amex Platinum ($450 annual fee) and Amex Gold ($175 annual fee) cards. Basically, unless you were willing to shell out a fairly large annual fee, these rewards points were simply not available. And even those that did sign up for the premium cards and wished to cancel suddenly had to transfer out all their points to an airline.

With the introduction of the Everyday cards, the ability to earn Membership Rewards (and keep them) is being made available to the everyday consumer. Not just those willing to pay high annual fees. And in terms of base spending, the earning is pretty great:

Everyday Spending

It’s not enough to just be able to earn Membership Rewards points. We want to be able to earn Membership Rewards points at a rewarding rate for everyday spending and these cards give us exactly that.

  • EveryDay Card: Use the Card to make 20 or more purchases in a billing period and earn 20% extra points on all those purchases. That’s 1.2 Membership Rewards points per dollar.
  • EveryDay Preferred Card: Use the Card to make 30 or more purchases in a billing period and earn 50% extra points on all those purchases. That’s 1.5 Membership Rewards points per dollar.

This works well for those who have small daily transactions (coffee, lunch, bagel, etc). For me personally, the 30 transaction limit isn’t really much of an obstacle. I value Membership Rewards points at 1.4-2.0 cents each so that’s essentially return of 2.1-3.0% cash back on base spending for the EveryDay Preferred Card.

Bonus Categories: Grocery Stores and Gas

  • EveryDay Card: Earn 2x Membership Rewards points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year on purchases. With the 20% bonus, that’s 2.4 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent at supermarkets.
  • EveryDay Preferred Card:  Earn 3x Membership Rewards points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year on purchases (then 1x); 2x on US standalone gas stations. With the 50% bonus, that’s 4.5 Membership Rewards points per dollar at supermarkets and 3 points per dollar at gas stations. 

I definitely spend around $500 a month on groceries. My current bonus card for that is the Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card

Sign-Up Bonus

The sign-up bonus is where the Amex EveryDay cards lose a bit of ground as it’s not very high. The EveryDay card offers a 10,000 point sign-up bonus and the EveryDay Preferred card offers a 15,000 point sign-up bonus. These may not be as high as some of the 40,000-50,000 bonuses we’ve been seeing, but the attraction of these cards is not the bonus. It’s the ability to earn generous rewards for everyday spending and grocery spending.

My final thoughts? I think American Express really improved their offerings with these cards and thought about what their customers want. They are giving us the ability to earn full membership rewards points, which we can later transfer to miles. Moreover, they are rewarding us well for loyally using the cards every day and including categories that we typically spend our money on, like groceries and gas.

My plan is to get the Amex EveryDay Preferred Card in the next few month. The grocery store rewards for me alone is worth it as I spend $500 a month on groceries. I’ve been planning to cancel my American Express Platinum card so now I’ll be able to keep the Membership Rewards points I’ve accumulated with that card and decide later where to transfer them.

13 Comments

  2. We currently carry an AMEX Gold. My husband had it before we were married & he had built up a pretty good reward balance after travelling for many years. This is one of the reason we suck up the yearly charge but we currently use that card as our everyday card. After reading this I’m thinking that switching to an “everyday” card, probably the premium would allow us to keep our current rewards, lower our annual fee, earn a signing bonus, and then accumulate rewards even faster. sounds too good to be true….what are your thoughts on our situation? any pitfalls that I’m not seeing?

    1. You definitely have it correct and that’s exactly what I am doing with my Platinum card. I am getting rid of it (mainly because they removed the lounge access benefit and now I have it with my American Airlines Citi Executive Card), but get to keep my Membership Rewards points and will earn them at 1.5 points per dollar spent with the new Amex EveryDay Preferred Card. It sounds good because it really is a big improvement in the Membership Rewards space for Amex. However, Chase has been so aggressive with its Ultimate Rewards cards that have much lower fees that Amex had to make a big leap to be able to stay in the game.

  3. Thanks for your final thoughts about the new cards.
    You didn’t say if you’re planning to apply. If so, which one?

  4. Could you explain the breakdown of the membership rewards points for both of the cards …i.e. how you determine the values?
    thanks

    1. Since they convert to many airline miles at 1:1 (or higher when there is a bonus), I value them as miles that can turn into miles in 10+ different programs. As an example, I value British Airways miles at 1.6 cents each. Since I can always convert membership rewards to British Airways miles, they must be at least as valuable as British Airways miles. So each must be worth at least 1.6 cents each. :)

  5. You can finish this card in one month. Make 30 small transactions in a supermarket (1 item per transaction at self checkout), then buy $6000 worth of Visa gift cards at a supermarket. You can later top off at gas station buying visa gift cards, if you need more MR points. It’s a pity AA is not a part of the deal. British miles is much easier to earn with Chase Ink.

    1. Yugi, I bet that would indeed finish your access to that card in one month. There’s playin’ the game, and there’s gettin’ played, and you, Yugi, would fall into the latter as soon as Amex cracked down on what’s pretty clearly abuse. At minimum, it’d be a pretty mean thing to do to the supermarket, since you’d increase their credit card fees, and also pretty rude to any people waiting behind you.

      Or maybe you were just joking / really exaggerating? I hope so.

  6. Whoa, this is intriguing! My Amex biz platinum and Mercedes platinum cards are up for renewal in May, and I had planned on cancelling both… but hated the thought of having to hastily do something with all the MR points I’ve built up! Sounds like if I get one of these EveryDay cards, I won’t have to worry.

    I’m pretty unconvinced about the value of the Premium one, though. Valuing MR points at 1.7 cents each, you’d have to earn an extra 5588 points in the year. Oh, wait… from grocery spend alone, you’d get that with the 3x vs. 2x at grocery stores. Not to mention the 1.5x bonus. So — for those can muster a ~$500 spend at the grocery store monthly, the premium card seems reasonable. For better or worse, I’m a single guy in tech, so I doubt I even spend $500/yr at the grocery store. Except hmm… if I used the pharmacy there… but dang, shame they don’t sell vanilla reload cards at any of the supermarkets or gas stations where I live :p

    1. The grocery stores is definitely how I plan to make back the annual fee! I spend $500 a month so that’s 27,000 points a year for me :) Or to be precise, 12,600 extra over the regular card (2.1 points per dollar more).

      While grocery stores and gas stations do not sell Vanilla Reloads, they do sell Vanilla Visa gift cards… not as simple, but also an option! I wrote about them here: http://milesprof.wpengine.com/2014/01/26/grocery-store-bonuses-gift-cards/

  7. How does the “new” Everyday Preferred differ from the current Bluecash Preferred? I have the Bluecash preferred and wonder if it worth getting the Everyday Preferred.

    1. The Blue Cash cards are cash back cards while the EveryDay cards earn Membership Rewards points. Although these points can be used for merchandise and gift cards, their value is unlocked through transferring to miles. I have the Blue Cash Preferred myself. While I really like it for the 6% grocery store cash back, I plan to get the EveryDay Preferred card once it comes out. Comparably, the Blue Cash Preferred Card, although an excellent card for groceries, is not as rewarding for general everyday spending as it only earns 1% cash back. The EveryDay Preferred card, however, earns 1.5 Membership Rewards points per dollar when you do more than 30 transactions a month, however small.

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