Amex Everyday Credit Cards

American Express Credit Cards

The American Express Everyday Preferred Card has the potential to earn the highest reward rates on groceries and gas of any credit card and can also be a good option for some people's general-purpose reward card. However, to get full value from the card's reward rate, you need to use it for 30 transactions every month and be comfortable redeeming Membership Rewards points for frequent flyer tickets.

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EveryDay Card Options
Intro to Membership Rewards Points
Signup Bonus
Using for your Everyday Spending
Notable Benefits
Bonus Categories
Getting Rid of the Card

	Everyday Preferred. If you use your Everday card for more than about $3,500 on groceries (or gas) per year, the extra Membership Reward points you earn with the Preferred version will be larger than the $95 annual fee. Amex Webpage. Signup Bonus Chart.
	Everyday. The no-annual-fee version earns 2x points on groceries, which turns into 2.4x points if you can make 20 transactions that month, doesn't earn bonus points on gas, and doesn't earn a competitive rate on everyday purchases. Amex Webpage, Signup Bonus Chart.

Introduction to Membership Rewards Points

Membership Rewards is the name of Amex's own rewards program. Membership Rewards Guide

Membership Rewards points can be transferred to many different frequent flyer programs. This gives you the flexibility to take advantage of award space on over a hundred different airlines. In many cases, you can choose to book a flight through one of several different partner programs, allowing you to take advantage of whichever program requires the fewest miles and fees for your trip.
Membership Rewards has many more airline partners than the other big credit card reward programs, such as Chase's Ultimate Rewards and Citi's ThankYou Rewards. They also have many more credit cards with Membership Rewards bonuses. If you are willing and able to use your points to book frequent flyer tickets, especially premium cabin award tickets, Membership Rewards is the most valuable reward program.
Amex frequently offers promotional transfer bonuses. When the promotion is active, you'll get extra airline miles when you transfer your Membership Rewards points to a specific airline. For example, if American Express is offering a 40% bonus for British Airways, you'll receive 14,000 British Airways points for every 10,000 Membership Rewards points you transfer. See Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points for more information or visit Frequent Miler’s Current Transfer Bonuses page for a list of current (and past) promotions.
Unlike Ultimate Rewards points, frequent flyer tickets are usually the only good option for redeeming your Membership Reward points. Membership Rewards' transfer rates for hotel programs aren't very attractive, it doesn't partner with any fixed-value airline programs (like Southwest), and you'll only get 1 cent per point when you use them to purchase travel through Amex.
The only exceptions are for certain Amex Platinum cardholders:

Amex BUSINESS Platinum Cardholders get a 35% rebate on some airfare purchases made through Amex. This works out to a value of 1.54 cents per point. While this isn't as much as we hope to get by using our Membership Reward points for frequent flyer tickets, you'll always get decent value from your points and don't have to worry about finding available award space. It is a lot better than purchasing travel at only 1 cent per point.
Amex SCHWAB Platinum Cardholders get an option to cash out their points at 1.1 cents per point (1.25 cents through September).

We value Membership Reward points at 1.5 cents each. Because you can take advantage of award space and "sweet spots" from many different frequent flyer programs and the occasional transfer bonus, Membership Reward points are worth more than any single type of airline miles. If you highly valuable premium-cabin award tickets, Membership Reward points are worth even more. But if you want to avoid the hassles associated with frequent flyer tickets, they are worth significantly less. How Much are Points Worth?

Collecting the Signup Bonus

This card is primarily interesting for its reward rates, not for its signup bonus. The typical signup bonus is 15,000 Membership Rewards points, valued at $230 (at 1.5 cents per point). Sometimes, even better targeted offers are available.

After subtracting the annual fee and the opportunity cost of using the card for $1,000 of spending, the calculated net value for the initial year is $130 (13 cents per dollar spent). Your value may be higher or lower, depending on how much you value the Membership Rewards points. Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points.

You can only earn the signup bonus once per lifetime. With Amex cards, you are normally not entitled to earn the signup bonus, if you've ever had the card before. However, you may eventually receive a targeted offer that bypasses this limitation, allowing you to earn the bonus an additional time.
But you can earn the bonus from both versions of the card. The no-annual-fee EveryDay card only has a 10,000 point signup bonus, valued at about $150. But if you start running out of other Amex cards to take advantage of, you might want to eventually collect that bonus as well.

Using the Card for your Everyday Spending

For some people, the EveryDay Preferred card can be the best general purpose reward card. Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending

We generally prefer earning 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points using the Chase Unlimited Combination, rather than earning 1.5x Membership Rewards points with the Amex EveryDay Preferred Card. However, that is primarily because we like having the flexibility to get good value from our points on things other than frequent flyer tickets. If you plan to use your points for frequent flyer tickets, especially premium cabin tickets, you would probably prefer earning the Membership Rewards points instead. Membership Rewards has more transfer partners and offers the occasional promotion where you can get more than one mile per point.
Earning 2x Membership Rewards from the Blue for Business card is even better, assuming you are willing and able to use a business card for the bulk of your purchases. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.
To get the full 1.5x Membership Rewards points, you'll need to make at least 30 transactions per month. You'll get a 50% bonus for points earned in any month with at least 30 transactions, boosting the reward rate from the normal 1x points per dollar. If you don't naturally make at least 30 transactions per month, there are some tricks to make sure you qualify. Tips to Generate More than 30 Charges per Month.
You won't get price protection. The EveryDay Preferred card comes with purchase protection (for items that break or are stolen during the first 90 days), extended warranty coverage and return protection (for items where the merchant refuses to accept a return). But, it doesn't provide any price protection (which refunds the difference if you find the product for a lower price during the first couple months after your purchase).
Amex cards aren't accepted at every merchant. You'll need to have another card to use for anyone who doesn't take Amex.
The EveryDay Preferred card has a foreign transaction fee. You'll need to use another card for any purchases you make overseas. However, many of your overseas purchases are likely to be made with a card that earns bonus rewards on travel and restaurants, rather than your general-purpose reward card.

Notable Benefits

Access to Amex Offers. Amex continuously provides discount offers to their cardholders. Most of the offers are in the form of "Spend $x, get $y back", but other offers are in the form of "x% off your entire order" or "Earn an extra Membership Reward point on your purchases". To take advantage of the offers, you need to go to the Amex website, find the ones you are interested in, and "add them" to your card. Each offer will then be automatically applied when you use your card to make the corresponding purchase. Amex Offers Website.
Free ShopRunner membership. As with all Amex cards, you are entitled to a complimentary ShopRunner membership, which provides free two-day and return shipping from around 150 of the largest online retailers. ShopRunner Website
Exclusive access to entertainment events. Amex sponsors cardmember-only events around the country and also provides early ticket access for some other shows.

Bonus Categories

The EveryDay Preferred Card earns the most valuable rewards on your grocery and gas purchases. Assuming you make 30 transactions per month, you'll earn 4.5x Membership Rewards points (valued at 6.75 cents per dollar) on Groceries; and 3x Membership Rewards points (valued at 4.5 cents per dollar) on Gas. This is better than you can earn with any other card. Best Credit Cards for Grocery Spending. Best Credit Cards for Gas Spending.
Bonus rewards is capped at $6,000 worth of grocery spendingper year. If you hit that cap, you'll want to switch to a different card. If you don't spend that much, you can purchase gift cards at the grocery store to use at other merchants.
Without the 30-transaction bonus, the reward rates are significantly less attractive. The Blue Cash Preferred Card winds up being the better option.
The reward rates from the no-annual-fee version aren't as interesting. Assuming you make 20 transactions per month, you can earn up to 2.4x Membership Rewards points, valued at 3.6 cents per dollar. For every $1,000 you spend in groceries, you could earn an extra $32 in rewards with the EveryDay Preferred Card. Plus, you'd earn extra rewards on gas. For most people, these extra rewards would more than offset the Preferred card's annual fee.
However, the no-annual-fee card might make a good additional option for people who need to spend more than the $6,000 cap on the Preferred card. The main obstacle is that the two cards would use up two of your 4-5 Amex slots.
You don't want to use these cards for your everyday spending. You'll earn higher rewards from a good general-purpose reward card. Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending.

Getting Rid of the Card

You need to be careful or you could lose your Membership Rewards points when you cancel your card. To keep your points, you need to hold onto at least one card that earns Membership Rewards points. If you don't have one, you either need to hold onto the card, downgrade it to the regular Everyday Card, or transfer all your points to your favorite airline program. Before cancelling, make sure to check that the card you're cancelling is linked to the same Membership Rewards account as your other cards (as it should be).
We usually recommend cancelling your card, rather than doing a product change. If you change to a card that you haven't had before, you won't be able to earn the signup bonus for that card in the future. In addition, signing up directly for the new card would earn a referral bonus for your Amex referral partner. And it usually isn't hard to get approved for a new Amex card when you need it.

You can product change between the Everyday Preferred ($95), Everday ($0), Blue Cash Preferred ($95), Blue Cash Everyday ($0), Cash Magnet ($0), or Blue ($0) cards.

You can wait to cancel the card until after the annual fee shows up on your statement. As long as you cancel within 30 days of the statement closing date, Amex will refund the fee. After 30 days, you can receive a pro-rated refund by downgrading to a lower-priced card, like the regular Everyday Card.
You might be able to receive a retention offer to keep your card. It could be enough to make it worthwhile to keep the card.

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