AMEX Membership Rewards - Rip off unless used for travel?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I currently have an AMEX Zync for personal use (Ecopack and Restaurant pack) and an AMEX TrueEarnings cashback card for my business.

I am thinking about replacing the TrueEarnings with an AMEX Green charge card, which participates in the membership rewards program, because I want the credit utilization benefits and the evolving internal credit limit.

Upon doing some research, I've found most of the stuff on the AMEX site (vacation packages, gift cards, electronics) have less than a 1% return associated with their redemption; with few exceptions.  For example, I found a Tag Heuer watch for 177,000 points (1,770.00 worth of cash value @ 1% redemption) but turned around and found the identical watch easily for $1300.00.  The same goes for Apple products, like iPods - $250.00 worth of points to redeem for a product that can be bought from Apple for $150.00.  

In my opinion, the Membership Rewards program for businesses AND personal is a ripoff compared to the TrueEarnings card, which (for the personal) is 3% cashback for gas, 3% restaurants, 2% travel, and 1% everywhere else.  

I understand that AMEX points can be redeemed for travel and hotels; when I called AMEX about this, they were vague and said that your AMEX MR points can be worth 1%, less than 1%, or MORE than 1%, depending on the airline and the current airfare deals the airlines have available.

I am wondering if I am missing something here - if I use AMEX MR points just for airfare and hotels, will I consistently get at least a 1% return on my points (or more?), or am I going to get the weak ~0.50% that I am seeing on the AMEX MR website?  Anyone reading this who uses AMEX MR points to get free airfare may want to chime in about this?

[GST2008]

I use my MR points for giftcards as they generally trade in at a 1% rate that way (e.g. $25.00 g.c. is 2500 points).  One of the benefits to the program is that if you do a lot of shopping online, you can use the bonuspoint mall and get 3 or 4 or 5 points per dollar.

[Anonymous]

Yeah the bonus points mall is pretty neat......but again I'm concerned about redemptions (1% for gift cards is mediocre and 0.50% for other gifts.....horrible).  I would use most of my MR points for electronics and travel, but for electronics the payout is 0.40 - 0.50%, and it seems hit or miss with travel.

So I ask -  has anyone on this board used their points in an effective manner?  Meaning more than 1.0% value received from redemptions....

[joestay]

When I first was looking for an Amex card, I was taking into account the reward system also.  I also took into account my chance of getting the cards I was looking into.  After some serious thinking, it looked like the Costco card was the best in rewards for me based on my spending and also because I got a pre-approved mailing for Costco and other charge cards.  This brought me up to 2 credit card:  Amex Costco and Capital One.  I use Capital One for gas, grocercy, and drug store purchases since I get 5 points of each $1 spent.  I'm gonna trade in 20,000 points for a $200 gift card, which will make sure I get as close to 5% cash back as possible.  Everything else, I charge on the Costco card, unless Amex isn't accepted.

[Anonymous]

---

@joestay wrote:

When I first was looking for an Amex card, I was taking into account the reward system also.  I also took into account my chance of getting the cards I was looking into.  After some serious thinking, it looked like the Costco card was the best in rewards for me based on my spending and also because I got a pre-approved mailing for Costco and other charge cards.  This brought me up to 2 credit card:  Amex Costco and Capital One.  I use Capital One for gas, grocercy, and drug store purchases since I get 5 points of each $1 spent.  I'm gonna trade in 20,000 points for a $200 gift card, which will make sure I get as close to 5% cash back as possible.  Everything else, I charge on the Costco card, unless Amex isn't accepted.

---

Joe,

Can you explain why you stuck with the AMEX Costco TrueEarnings w/ cash back versus going for an AMEX Charge card under the membership rewards program?  I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

 Joe,

Can you explain why you stuck with the AMEX Costco TrueEarnings w/ cash back versus going for an AMEX Charge card under the membership rewards program?  I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

---

Not sure about Joe, but if you are not a big spender and don't travel much, the Amex Costco is the only rewards card from Amex that's worth it. With low spending, any card with a fee is right out, and I make good use of the two 3% categories and decent use of the 2% category. As everything else yields 1%, you cannot really do anything wrong with that card.

[joestay]

Almost all of the gift card and reward will be based on 1% or less return for each dollar you spent using an Amex charge card for the membership reward program.  With Costco Amex Trueearnings, I'm guarentee at least 1% return for each dollar spent.  See, with the charge card, you do get 2x points for each dollar spent but with the Coscto card, you also get 2% for each dollar spent.  Costco has the advantange here because of the trade in from the membership reward program.  Also, with Costco, you get 3% cashback for resturant purchases (including fastfood).  Everything else is 1%, which guarantee you can't go under 1% return for each dollar spent.  With the cashback from this, I could use the money to buy the things I want by price shopping first for a better deal then for the items that you could get from the membership reward program.  Hope you get what I am saying.

[Anonymous]

I can vouch for Costco TE, 3% gas, 2% restaurants and travel (fastfood included as joestay mentioned), 1% everything else. Combine that with the Costco Executive Membership to get 2% extra for Costco spending bringing it up to 3% for Costco purchases. The cashback from both (Costco voucher that can be cashed out) should more than pay the annual fee for the executive membership and some

*Edit* Might want to look into the Starwood Amex too for travel rewards

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

 Joe,

Can you explain why you stuck with the AMEX Costco TrueEarnings w/ cash back versus going for an AMEX Charge card under the membership rewards program?  I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

---

Not sure about Joe, but if you are not a big spender and don't travel much, the Amex Costco is the only rewards card from Amex that's worth it. With low spending, any card with a fee is right out, and I make good use of the two 3% categories and decent use of the 2% category. As everything else yields 1%, you cannot really do anything wrong with that card.

Yeah, that is a good point, I love the TrueEarnings cash back spread (way better than lots of the other cashback cards, especially now that Chase Freedom has been gimped).  I don't travel much, but I would love to do it more often IF I can get AMEX to pay for the airfare and perhaps some of the hotel.  I am still trying to ponder, thanks to AMEX's vague explanations, if loading up major business expenses on a membership-rewards enabled AMEX Business Green charge card (or gold/plat) would give me superior travel ability than loading up on my current TrueEarnings for business card.

Since I entertain and promote my company often at restaurants......the TrueEarnings is giving me about $4-500 cash back per month.  If I were to put the same expenses on an AMEX Biz Green, I would get around 16-17K of MR points.  What concerns me is whether or not 16K of membership reward points equals $400.00 cash back per month (I doubt it, looking at the Membership Rewards store).  The only way AMEX Biz Green can give me more benefits over the TrueEarnings is IF the MR points can be converted to frequent flier miles and hotel points at a redemption rate of return of at least 1% or more - is this possible, or even probable?

[C6]

Why waste your time and money with the American Express direct issue cards. They're over priced, offer very limited rewards in general, and you're always subject to FR when you don't fit a specific profile. While the Costco Amex card is probably the best current Amex direct offer most would be better served by the Fidelity Amex card. The Fidelity Amex offers a flat 2% back on everything, no annual fee, and a lower interest rate for those that occassionaly revolve debt. Another choice is the USAA Amex which has fair rewards, no fee, and a low 8.9% interest rate for those in the top tier. Perhaps the only reason to apply for an Amex direct issued card is for the reward bonus points as in the current case for their Starwood card. Use the points and cancel it. Even now the Starwood offer is looking minimal when Citibank is offering an AA Amex with 75,000 - 100,000 bonus miles for new customers.