Amex Relaunches the American Express Green Card

American Express relaunches the American Express Green Card

American Express has relaunched the Green Card today, made from 70% reclaimed plastic for those that care about that stuff (do you?), to more directly compete with high performing mid-tier cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offering a bit more than each of them in exchange for a $150 annual fee (vs. $95 on those other cards).

Amex Green Welcome Bonus

30,000 Bonus Membership Rewards points when you spend $2,000 within 3 months. You’re eligible if you have never had the personal Green card. You’ll also get a $100 credit to use on purchases at Away.com. Both offers end January 15th, 2020.

If you click through in incognito mode, you may be offered 45,000 points instead of 30,000. It didn’t work for me but it has worked for many, many people today.

The American Express Green card earns 3X Membership Rewards on Travel and Dining

The biggest feature of this card is 3X American Express Membership Rewards points on Travel, Transit and Dining (globally, not just US restaurants like some Amex cards), besting the 2X offered on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and equaling the 3X points offered by the Chase Sapphire Reserve (albeit with a $550 annual fee / $300 travel credit on the Reserve, making that card essentially the same $150 fee but feeling like more).

What Counts as Travel for the 3X?

Amex counts airfare, hotel, cruises, and car rentals as travel. Gas is not included in this bonus category.

What counts as Transit?

• Trains
• Taxi cabs
• Ride share services
• Ferries
• Tolls
• Parking
• Buses
• Subways

The new Amex Green card also comes with a few annual credits:

• $100 credit towards a CLEAR membership for expedited airport security lines (and expedited security in select other places like concert venues and even some Hertz locations.
• $100 credit to Lounge Buddy (airport lounges – a competitor to Priority Pass lounge access
• And for a limited time, as part of the Welcome Bonus, you’ll get a $100 credit towards Away luggage. This credit must be used within 3 months of card approval.

Overall, Amex has substantially upped the game compared to the legacy Green card and it gets even better if you can use the multiple $100 credits offered.

Note that while this is a great way to earn the 3x points on travel, you would do even better on dining (4X) with the American Express Gold Card.

The Amex Green Card Acts like a Credit Card

The new Amex Green card is part of the same family of Amex proprietary charge cards that aren’t technically credit cards. (Technically they are charge cards). However, the Green Card has a built-in Pay Over Time feature, making it function in just about all ways as any other standard credit card, with a revolving balance line.

Limit on How Many American Express Cards You Can Have

What this means: Amex generally limits a cardmember to 5-6 credit cards (personal and small business combined), while they have no limit on proprietary Amex charge cards.  This means that even if you already have 5-6 Amex credit cards, you would still be eligible for a Green Charge Card.

Bonus Eligibility: They still state that if you had the Green Card before, you are not eligible for a welcome bonus on this card. So you’ll be eligible if you have less than 5-6 Amex charge cards and have never had the Amex Green card before.

Learn how to apply for the American Express Green Card

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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards. 

New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.