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American Express Green Card
After 50 years, the American Express Green card just got supersized. The OG of Amex cards, once termed the “money card” because of resemblance to US dollars has long looked in on the credit card community from afar. With few valuable benefits, and its big bros Amex Gold and Platinum going metal and getting a bevy of enviable benefits, it was a wonder Amex even continued to offer the Green Card.
That all changed in the fall of 2019.
Not only did Amex amp up their Green card with a bevy benefits, ushering out its uninspired predecessor, but it’s completely made out of recycled material. And it even feels like metal. We can tell you this personally because not only does It have a place in our wallets, It’s also on our Monkey Miles Best Credit Cards list
American Express Green Card Bullet Point Benefits
- 30k Membership Rewards Welcome Offer after $2k Spend
- 3x on Travel, transit, and dining
- $100 annualClear credit
- $100 Loungebuddy credit
- $150 annual fee
A very nice welcome offer of 30k Membership Rewards after $2k spend in 3 months
30k Membership Rewards after $2k spend in 3 months is heavily worth your consideration especially when sign up bonuses on the previous version of this card, the Amex Green card, hovered around 5k. What’s crazy is we just redeemed 47.5k Virgin Atlantic miles ( an Amex partner ) to fly it’s new upper class between NYC and London. This welcome offer combined with some referrals and you’ll be within striking distance on numerous business class flight opportunities. We also love using Amex transfer partner Aeroplan to fly airlines like Swiss, Lufthansa, and United to Europe – all for 55k points in business class.
3x on travel and dining – no nonsense categories as well.
This is very exciting news. On pretty much every other Amex in existence, there are more stringent limitations on what qualifies as travel. When it comes to Amex Green…here’s where you’re guaranteed to earn triple points
- Flights
- Hotels
- Rideshares like uber and lyft
- Busses
- Taxi
- Subways and Metros
- Tolls
- AND ALL Dining worldwide.
If you live in an area where you’re hitting toll roads – now you’ll get 3x. Take the bus or subway – 3x
Holding the Amex Green Card also makes it much easier to pull out a card at hotel check in. If you’re like me and have a lot of credit cards, all with different category bonuses, Amex simplified things a bit. If you think travel…use the Amex Green Card if in doubt.
If you’re wondering about that title? A Chase Sapphire Reserve killer?
The Amex Green has some of the very same earn categories as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, but the annual fee is $400 cheaper. Sure it has fewer travel protections and gives a $100 Lounge Buddy credit vs a Priority Pass membership, but…for those who just want those earn rates and a $100 offset to their Clear membership ( which you’ll probably use a lot more than Priority Pass ) – it’s a really heavy right hook to the CSR jaw.
Is 30k the highest we have ever seen?
Targeted and Referral offers have gone as high as 50k! Make sure you check our Reader Referral page too.
$150 annual fee makes sense for us
This is something you should definitely take into consideration and the Amex Green card. However, we’re already Clear members ( which help with expedited security on top of TSA Pre ) so getting the extra $100 back means the annual fee is just $50. There is also a $100 Loungebuddy credit, but those overlap Priority Pass quite a bit, and since I have Priority Pass it’s a bit redundant.
$100 credits broken down
We mentioned above that we make use of Clear every single year, so that $100 is easy to recoup. Here’s a look at other $100 credits
- $100 Clear credit given annually
- $100 Loungebuddy credit given annually
Did we mention Referral bonus points? Yes we did…55k per year.
When it comes to referrals, Amex is the best. You can almost refer any card in Amex’s stead from any other card you keep in your wallet. For cards that earn Membership Rewards like the American Express Green card, that annual total is capped at 55k points per year.
This is a major reason why we keep our Amex cards long term. The ability to invite our friends and family members. It’s also how we earn in excess of 500k points per year.
Overall:
We will be adding this card to our wallet and creating the Amex Quadfecta. The fact that the Amex Green is offering a healthy 30k welcome offer + the opportunity to refer our friends and family to earn another 55k means this card is a hands down no brainer addition to our wallet. In fact, I’d say if you’re considering this vs a Chase Sapphire Reserve you should really weigh your options. Just the ease of referrals, in my opinion, gives the Amex Green an edge, but that’s just my two cents.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back. .
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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