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Update 2024.10: The $100 LoungeBuddy credit benefit is waived for new applicants and existing cardholders have until January 13, 2025 to use the credit. This is not surprising, because LoungBuddy itself is going to be shut down very soon. This decision makes it more difficult to justify AmEx Green’s annual fees.
Update 2023.8: The 60k+$200 offer ends on August 23, apply quickly if you want this card! (Updated) Expired. The current offer is only 40k.
Update 2023.5: The new offer is 60,000 + $200, which is the best offer ever on this card!
Application link
Benefits
- 40,000 Offer: Earn 40,000 Membership Rewards (MR) points after spending $3,000 in the first 6 months. The best recent offer is 60,000 + $200.
- We estimate MRs to be worth around 1.6 cents/point, see below for a brief introduction. So the highest welcome offer of 60,000 + $200 is worth around $1,160!
- Earn 3 MR Points for every $1 spent on dining and travel worldwide, and 1 MR on all other purchases.
- CLEAR credit of $189 per calendar year. CLEAR is a service to bypass the travel document checker at security checkpoints at certain airports.
Lounge Buddy credit of $100 per year.(Removed from 2024.10)- No foreign transaction fees.
- With this card you can access the Amex offer, which usually offers very good discounts at certain stores, such as: spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; spend $75 or more and get $25 back at Amazon.com.
- Refer a friend: You can earn 5,000 bonus MR Points for each approved account you refer, up to 55,000 MR Points per calendar year.
- This card is very easy to get approved because it is a charge card and not a credit card. Cash card means you don’t have the option to make a minimum payment, you must pay your balance in full by the due date. Cash card applications will also result in a high demand for credit, similar to credit card applications.
- Payment cards do not have a preset spending limit.
Disadvantages
- Annual fee of $150, not waived in the first year.
- If you add an additional card to your account following your basic card application, you will be charged an annual fee of $30 for up to 5 additional cards. The annual fee for 6 or more additional cards is $30 for each card. Canceled for the first year.
Introduction to MR points
- You can earn MR points with AmEx ED, AmEx EDP, AmEx Green, AmEx Gold, AmEx Platinum, AmEx Platinum for Schwab, AmEx Platinum for Morgan Stanley, AmEx Blue Business Plus, AmEx Business Green, AmEx Business Gold, AmEx Business Platinum, etc. .
- MR points you earn on different MR cards will automatically go to the same MR account.
- MR points never expire. You will not lose the MR points on a card if you close the account, but you will lose all MR points if you close all MR cards. To avoid losing your MR points, we recommend keeping AmEx ED with no annual fee.
- If you have one of the MR cards, MR points can be transferred to miles on certain airlines. One of the most common and best ways to use MR points is to transfer them 1:1 to All Nippon Airways (ANA, NH) (Star Alliance) miles. Other good options are: Air Canada (AC) (Star Alliance), Delta Air Lines (DL) (SkyTeam), British Airways (BA) (Oneworld), Asia Miles (Oneworld), Singapore Airlines (SQ) (Star Alliance ), Flying Blue (SkyTeam), Virgin Atlantic (VS) (Non-alliance), etc. If you use MR this way, the value is approximately 1.6 cents/point.
- If you have one of the MR cards, you can redeem your MR points at a flat rate of around 1 cent/point for airline tickets on the AmEx travel portal.
- If you have AmEx Platinum for Schwab, you can redeem your MR points at a flat rate of 1.1 cents/point for cash. If you don’t want to spend time studying airline miles, this is a great way to cash in points. If you do not have this card, you can only exchange your MR points at a fixed rate of 0.6 cents/point for cash.
- In summary, we estimate that MR points are worth approximately 1.6 cents/point.
- For more information on MR Points, see Maximizing the Value of Credit Card Points (Overview) and Introduction to MR: How to Earn and Introduction to MR: How to Use It (Very Detailed).
Recommended application time
- You can only get the welcome bonus once in your lifetime, so make sure to apply when the highest historical offer appears.
- (New) (Family language) AmEx is starting to add family language: Cards with higher annual fees will affect welcome offers on those with lower annual fees in the same family series. Specifically, having held Platinum or Gold makes you ineligible for Green’s welcome offer. So if you want them all, consider applying for Green first.
- AmEx doesn’t care about the number of hard draws.
- You can try applying for it when you have a 6 month credit history.
Summary
The new Green Card appears to compete with the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR). After the $300 travel credit on the CSR, the annual fee is effectively the same ($150). However, you don’t get Priority Pass, bonuses on points spent through the Amex Travel Portal, primary auto insurance, or any other travel benefits. The Lounge Buddy credit is okay and explains Amex’s acquisition of this company in 2017, but I would never pay for Lounge Buddy to begin with, so I don’t consider it a benefit. The $100 AWAY baggage credit is a nice touch, but my understanding is that AWAY baggage is not very high quality or built to last. The 45,000 sign up bonus is very good and I would definitely recommend waiting for this offer rather than the 30,000 offer. I don’t think the card is worth keeping long term so if you decide to apply for this card and cancel after the first year but need to keep your MR points active, you can apply for the AmEx EveryDay with no annual fee.
Recommended downgrade options
- You cannot downgrade this card to a no annual fee card, so I suggest you close it when you no longer want to keep it.
After applying
- Click here to check AmEx application status.
- AmEx Reconsideration Backdoor Number: 877-399-3083. The “real” Amex backdoor number is well protected. Unlike Chase, representatives of this AmEx review backdoor number only have the right to help you submit requests.