Yes, another one (following the recent Kohl’s card).
The Amex EveryDay cards weren’t supposed to be live until April 2nd, but for whatever reason, they went ahead and released them early. I’ve been considering dumping one (or two) of my Amex cards after getting screwed out of Membership Rewards bonuses multiple times which caused me to wish Amex to DIAF.
I’ve decided to give them another chance due to this long overdue and solid entry into the premium card market, which pits them directly against my beloved Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Barclaycard Arrival Plus, which I just decided to keep for another year.
About the Amex EveryDay Preferred card
- Link: Amex EveryDay Preferred card
- Link: Amex cards
This card is truly set up to be an “everyday” card for daily spend. Their marketing people are geniuses. The card earns full Membership Rewards point which are fully transferable to 17 air and hotel partners. The signup bonus is a modest 15,000 Amex Membership points at the time of writing, which, who knows, maybe I’ll actually get this time.
I’m not using the Premier Rewards Gold card as much as I thought I would. Yes, it earns 3 points/dollar for airfare, but the other categories really aren’t much to write home about. The card is truly only worth keeping if you spend $30K in a year, which earns you a bonus 15,000 points.
So I’m glad they’ve put out a new card with a new new points earning structure:
- 3x at grocery stores
- 2x at gas stations
- 1x everywhere else
That’s all fine and good. The kicker is that you get 50% more points if you use the card 30 times or more in a month. And you can track your progress on the mobile app and website. This forces you to constantly interact with the product to make sure you get the bonus each month. How smart is that?! I know I will be checking to make sure I get that bonus. It brings the spend categories to:
- 4.5x at grocery stores
- 3x at gas stations
- 1.5 everywhere else
That is a wonderful earning structure.
By following our axiom of getting 2 cents of value out of every point or mile, we will effectively get this rate of return:
- 9% back at grocery stores
- 6% back at gas stations
- 3% back everywhere else
That gives this card the best rate of return for travel in the industry. And yet, I don’t see it, personally, as a competitor to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. The CSP’s big categories are 2x points (4% cash back) at restaurants and on travel purchases, which makes these two cards unlikely complements of each other. Between the new Amex EveryDay Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Preferred, I’ve got a solid earning strategy for daily spend. But, the Barclay Arrival card is STILL valid thanks to its ease of earning, great shopping portal, free TripIt Pro, and really cool online community.
Bottom line
Overall, this is a very, very good thing and a welcome addition to the credit card market. The more, the merrier in this case.
I will be sure to post more thoughts as I begin to use and interact with the card and the app. But for now, very glad I got this one. It holds a lot of potential.
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You’ll have to make sure to keep us all updated on whether or not you receive the sign up bonus. I think you would’ve been better off just waiting and doing a product change on the PRG card, but it’s probably worth the hard inquiry if you get the 15k sign up points.
Definitely will. It would be my first sign up bonus with Amex since getting the Delta Gold Skymiles card in 2012!
I did ask about doing a product change from PRG–>EveryDay Preferred, but it wasn’t possible because PRG is a charge card and EveryDay cards are credit cards. So then, I thought about converting Delta Platinum Skymiles–>EveryDay Preferred, but decided not to because I get a BOGO free companion cert issued next month, which is worth it. So in the end, decided to risk the inquiry for a new card + bonus. Fingers crossed.
Somebody already got a bonus who had a PRG card, so you should be good to go.
Once bitten, twice shy. 🙂
If you have a points balance with the PRG card and you cancel, will the balance be transferred to the Everyday card?
Yes. They share a cumulative balance, so axing the PRG card won’t affect the points balance as long as you have a MR-earning card.