After fighting very hard to get "in" with Amex several years ago when I was building my credit from scratch as (at the time) a college student, I can say, they're not worth it. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have even bothered.
To start, before I list the reasons why I don't think Amex is worth it for the average consumer, I will admit they have benefits for frequent travellers, and MR points can be very valuable if transferred and redeemed in the right way. If you are not one of these people, and are like me with an upper-middle class income, who travels infrequently, and just likes to live a comfortable life with some cash back and a few protections of a CC, travelling VERY infrequently, there are better cards.
1. Cash back. Amex is in the dark ages here. My BCE takes a full extra cycle for rewards to post, and then they can only be redeemed for a statement credit (not even a check), and still in $25 increments. Nearly everyone allows full redemption now. You CAN redeem to a $0 balance and get a check, but what a hassle. On a semi-related note, its the same thing with their online savings, antiquated systems, and slower ACH times than competitors like Ally, Synchrony and Discover.
2. Acceptance. Sure, they're getting better, but here (Boston metro area), I find I run into enough places where its too annoying to use Amex as a primary spending card. Why bother with the occasional lack of acceptance, when Visa is taken literally everywhere except the very occasional cash-only small business? If you're like me and like to use 1 card for all daily spending, Amex's acceptance is just not there. (Discover is closer, I find, to having ubiquitous acceptance).
3. Benefits. They are almost completely matched by Visa Signature and World/World Elite Mastercard. The only exception is the extended warranty, which Amex does in house, and there are numerous anecdotal stories of how Amex is much easier to deal with. This is probably the ONLY reason I am still a cardholder (that and keeping my MSD), I use this card for large electronics purchases. If I had to pay an annual fee, this card would be gone faster than you could say its name.
4. Prestige. Meh, not only do I not care about what people think of my CREDIT CARD, but if anyone is searching for this, the regular revolvers don't have it to the average person (who doesn't know they're harder to get). You could argue the higher (Gold and above) cards do have some "prestige", but unless you're a traveller, the MR points have a much worse cash value for the typical suburban consumer (.5% if I remember).
5. Customer service. This one is meh, I get overseas service all the time with Amex, and while they seem better trained than the awful, just terrible service I always get with Citi, I am still unimpressed. I know some of the AF cards have better domestic service, but with Discover, Barclays and Bank of America (Preferred rewards program), I have never once gotten overseas service, I have always gotten professional, domestic, helpful service. Amex was pretty good one time calling the EO to get the 10.24% APR, but that's about it. There is NOTHING here in my experience that sets Amex apart from Chase, BofA, Barclays or Discover.
I think I have some more points, but they're not coming to me, I will probably be adding them later.
My point here is this, it seems they still are beneficial to travellers and high-spenders. But the average middle-class consumer would be better suited by higher acceptance, similar benefits, equal service and better rewards with Visa/MC or even Discover products, IMO.
BofA Cash Rewards VS - $25k | Citi Double Cash World MC - $18.9k | Amex BCE - $50k | Discover it - $50k | Chase Freedom Unlimited VS- $10k | Barclay Ring $5k |
