@Anonymous wrote:Depending on how much you charge each year in that bonus category and how you redeem Membership Rewards points it's either a decent deal or horrible.
If you're going to redeem them for a statement credit, there is only a very small window in the program for you to come out ahead:
According to my calculations:
Each membership reward point is worth $0.006 for statement credit. That means you have to charge $4,166.67 to breakeven.
Each membership reward point is worth $0.01 for gift cards. That means you have to charge $2,500 to breakeven.
Each membership reward point is worth ??? for Shop Amex.
As for other packs, just divide the pack cost by 0.006 and 0.01 respectively to figure out the breakeven point. And remember, Amex caps the bonus at $5,000 in spending for this pack.
That's not quite right. You need to consider the bonus points. Assuming you're looking at bonus spend only, take the pack cost and divide by .012 or .02 respectively (redemption ratio multiplied by 2 to account for bonus earning). So, for the $20 connect pack, you would need to spend $1000 a year on cell phone, cable, internet, to justify the cost of that pack (assuming gift card redemption). But if that's the only spend you're putting on the card, you also need to justify the $25 base annual fee. That turns out to $2250 annual spend if it is all in the bonus category. And that's just a break even point, which is really a loss because if you had put that spend through a straight 1% cashback card with no AF, you'd be ahead $22.50 instead of breaking even.
To do this properly, you have to figure out your annual approximate annual spend in the bonus category and multiply by 2 (accounting for any spend caps), then approiximate your annual spend outside the bonus categories and sum those totals. Then you can multiply by the 0.006 and 0.01 redemption figures above to figure out if you're getting any value. But again, you'd at least want to compare the earn to what you would have earned on a straight 1% cashback card with no AF. Something like Blue Cash Everyday which earns better than 1% with no AF may be a better option for you if that is within reach.
All of this is further complicated if you're going to try to accumulate MR Express points using the lower AF of the Zync with the goal of transferring them to airline miles by adding a regular MR card later as mentioned above. But based on your spend mentioned above, that doesn't seem like your goal.
In any event, even after crunching the numbers, there may be other reasons for keeping the Zync besides earning rewards. Amex offers good customer service and other benefits. Perhaps you're trying to get foot in the door to be able to get a revolving account from them later.
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