How dow Amex MR Membership Rewards work?

[DaveInAZ]

I pretty much only use CCs with rewards, and much prefer the straight forward statement credit. I very rarely travel (been there, done that), and don't even try to get me to use rewards for merchandise. I've had the Amex BCE for almost a year, and while the statement credits only in $25 increments are annoying, I can deal with it. I also have an Amex Savings account.

So now they're pre-qualifying me for a EveryDay card with decent incentive - 10k MR points for 3 month $1k spend, 15 month 0% including no fee BTs made within 60 days. I've looked into the MR Program enough to see that you can apply them against a U.S. "retail" purchase on your statement. Anyone have experience with this? Such as how it works, what kind of "retail" purchase it works against? And how much are MR points worth? I'm assuming 1 pt. = .01 cent, 1000 pts = $10, my 10k point SUB would be worth $100 against a statement purchase?

Thanks.

[K-in-Boston]

The simple answer is that unless you're redeeming Membership Rewards for travel, it's not a very good program.  Best-case scenario, you'll get 1 cent per point (cpp) on some eGift cards.  You can use Pay with Points at checkout with selected retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, but the points are worth 0.7 cents.  Using them to credit charges on a statement is worse at only 0.6 cpp.  Compare that to something like a straight transfer to Delta (1.2 to 1.6 cpp) or in a more extreme example, my conversions to Starpoints and over to Marriott for an effective 2.5 cpp.  (And generally my MR card charges are bonus categories, so I'm getting more like 12.5% back at Marriott for airline purchases.)

You can cover any charge on a closed statement, as long as you have enough points to cover it (no partial credits).  Using that redemption method will get you a whopping $60 signup bonus.

[Shadowfactor]

You would be much better served by a cash back card then an MR card through Amex.
MR points are only valuable when used for travel.

They have about a little higher then 1/2 cent value per point when used for statement credits.

When used for travel they are worth atleast 1CPP and you can often get higher values by transferring to airline partners for long haul international premium cabin flights.

I would look into discover, Chase, BoA,USB they all have different cash back programs.

[Anonymous]

No. The value of a MR point depends on how it’s used. Redeeming for statement credits yields roughly a 0.6% return. The best value comes from airline partner transfers, where some people have claimed to get up to 9 cents per point. 

[mongstradamus]

I don't think any card is worth signing up for only 10k Mr . The only reason to have the regular everyday isto have a no af card to house and transfer Mr you have already accumulated.

In your situation you already have bce so for purely cash back that's already better than the everyday. Since you aren't traveling Mr is worked to you imo.

[Anonymous]

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@mongstradamuswrote:
I don't think any card is worth signing up for only 10k Mr . The only reason to have the regular everyday isto have a no af card to house and transfer Mr you have already accumulated.

In your situation you already have bce so for purely cash back that's already better than the everyday. Since you aren't traveling Mr is worked to you imo.

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1.2 and 2.4 MR points earned on purchase for no AF is pretty good. 

Its also the only no AF card in the industry that has the same transfer options as the annual fee cards offered within the same company. 

If you redeem Delta miles valued at 1.2 cents, for example, the card essentially becomes 1.44% and 2.8%.

[DaveInAZ]

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@mongstradamuswrote:
I don't think any card is worth signing up for only 10k Mr . The only reason to have the regular everyday isto have a no af card to house and transfer Mr you have already accumulated.

In your situation you already have bce so for purely cash back that's already better than the everyday. Since you aren't traveling Mr is worked to you imo.

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Thanks for everyone's response. I worked in hotel management and was Delta Gold Medallion (50k+ miles per year) for 12 years, if I never have to climb into an airplane again I'll be very happy. I prefer driving trips, NM, CO, NV & CA are all easy driving from AZ, and lots of great things to see & do..

I didn't think the SUB was very impressive, less so now that I understand it's only worth maybe 60 bucks in "statement credits" against purchases. It's the 15 month 0% including BTs that appealed to me. I'm fine with cashflow/available cash, just always like "free money". But it looks like I'd pretty much sock drawer EveryDay after the 0%, so not worth a HP & another new account. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymouswrote:

No. The value of a MR point depends on how it’s used. Redeeming for statement credits yields roughly a 0.6% return. The best value comes from airline partner transfers, where some people have claimed to get up to 9 cents per point. 

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I looked into exchanging them for TrueBlue (JetBlue) points, and was disappointed to see that each MR point was worth only 80% of a TrueBlue point.

[DaveInAZ]

EDIT: I did decide to app for Everyday & was approved, in buying a new TV I decided the 15 mo. 0% interest no fee BT was worth it to me.

Since the thread has evolved into a good discussion on how to maximize the value of your MR points I'll post my approval in the CC Approvals forum. 

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaicawrote:

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@Anonymouswrote:

No. The value of a MR point depends on how it’s used. Redeeming for statement credits yields roughly a 0.6% return. The best value comes from airline partner transfers, where some people have claimed to get up to 9 cents per point. 

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I looked into exchanging them for TrueBlue (JetBlue) points, and was disappointed to see that each MR point was worth only 80% of a TrueBlue point.

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Unlike Chase who allows 1:1 transfers regardless of the value, AMEX purposely tries to make each point worth 1 cent each regardless of the transfer partner, which is why we see the stupid 800:1000 ratio and the 3:1 ratio with MRPG.