Which cards earn American Express rewards points?

Information about the Amex Everyday Preferred Card and American Express Blue Card has been collected independently by CreditCards.com. The issuer did not provide the content, nor is it responsible for its accuracy.

American Express offers a large array of cards – including everyday spending cards, travel cards, business cards and co-branded cards – that let you earn Membership Rewards points. It can be confusing to try to sift through all the offerings and figure out where all the bonuses lie, so we’ve sorted it out for you.

Here’s a breakdown of the cards:

American Express Membership Rewards consumer credit cards

	Rewards rate	Introductory bonus	Annual fee
Blue from American Express card	2 points per dollar for eligible travel purchases booked through AmexTravel.com 1 point per dollar on every purchase (Terms apply)	None	$0
Amex Everyday Preferred card	3 points per dollar at U.S. supermarket purchases ($6,000 yearly purchase limit) 2 points per dollar U.S. gas stations 1 point per dollar other purchases 50% bonus points when you make 30+ purchases per month Terms apply	15,000 points if you spend $1,000 in first 3 months (Terms apply)	$95
American Express® Green Card	3 points per dollar on travel, transit and restaurants worldwide 1 point per dollar on other purchases Terms apply	30,000 points if you spend $2,000 in first 3 months (Terms apply)	$150
American Express® Gold Card	4 points per dollar at restaurants worldwide 4 points per dollar at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 in purchases per year, then 1x) 3 points per dollar on directly booked flights 1 point per dollar other purchases Terms apply	60,000 points if you spend $4,000 in first 6 months (Terms apply)	$250
The Platinum Card® from American Express	5 points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel 5 points per dollar on eligible hotels booked with American Express Travel 1 point per dollar other purchases Terms apply	75,000 points if you spend $5,000 in first 6 months (Terms apply) 10 points per dollar on eligible purchases at U.S. gas stations and U.S. supermarkets (on up to $15,000 in combined purchases) in first 6 months	$550

American Express Membership Rewards business credit cards

	Rewards rate	Introductory bonus	Annual fee
The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express	2 points per dollar on first $50,000 in purchases each year 1 point per dollar thereafter Terms apply	None	$0
Business Green Rewards Card from American Express	2 points per dollar on travel booked through American Express Travel 1 point per dollar on other purchases Terms apply	15,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases within the first 3 months (Terms apply)	$0 intro first year, then $95
American Express® Business Gold Card	4 points per dollar on two categories where your business spends the most ($150,000 yearly purchase limit) 1 point per dollar other purchases Terms apply	35,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $5,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months. (Terms apply)	$295
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express	5 points per dollar on directly booked flights and prepaid hotels through Amextravel.com 2 points per dollar on travel booked through American Express travel 1.5 points per dollar on qualifying purchases of $5,000 or more 1 point per dollar on other purchases Terms apply	85,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on qualifying purchases within your first 3 months (Terms apply)	$595

Entry-level cards

The Blue from American Express card is an entry-level card for newbies with less-than-stellar credit scores. The card offers a paltry rate of 1 point per dollar of spending and 2 points per dollar on American Express Travel purchases and no introductory bonus. Plus, unlike other Membership Rewards cards, it doesn’t allow you to transfer points to an outside loyalty program. But you can qualify for the card with a merely average credit score, so it may be a good starting point if you can’t qualify for any other American Express card.

Everyday spending cards

Everyday spending is not a strong point in the Membership Rewards program, but Amex does offer a card that lets you earn bonus points on everyday purchases.

The American Express Everyday Preferred card gives you 3% back on U.S. supermarket purchases (up to $6,000 in purchases per year), 2% back on U.S. gas station purchases and 1% back on other purchases, plus a 50% point bonus whenever you use your card at least 30 times in a month, for a $95 annual fee (waived the first year). That’s a very generous grocery bonus – amounting to 4.5% back if you trigger the bonus every month – but it’s unfortunately capped at $6,000 in purchases, and the requirement to use the card 30 times each month is onerous.

In fact, the requirements to earn the full bonus are stringent. Unless you use the card for most of your spending, you probably will have a difficult time mustering 30 separate purchases on a single card each month. In other words – if you’re not all about earning Membership Rewards points – this is probably not the card for you.

Travel cards

American Express is the pioneer of travel rewards cards, and its offerings are strongest in this category. You have three levels of card to choose from – all of which offer extensive travel perks, bonuses focused on travel purchases and high annual fees.

The American Express Green card – the lowest tier card – is a good introduction to American Express travel benefits. The card offers a good earning rate on travel, transit and dining purchases: You earn 3x points on a wide array of travel and transit purchases, including airfare, hotel stays, subways, tolls and more. You also earn 3x points on purchases at restaurants worldwide. The remainder of your purchases earn 1 point per dollar. The card also offers a couple of fairly valuable credits, including up to $100 toward CLEAR membership and up to $100 for LoungeBuddy lounge access each year.

The card comes with a lower $150 annual fee. Altogether, it’s not a bad deal, though can find other starter travel cards with lower fees and better rewards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card*. Also, if you’re able to foot a $150 fee, you should ask yourself whether it’s worth doling out a little extra to get much better rewards and benefits with Amex’s higher tier travel cards.

The American Express® Gold Card is a good value for middle-of-the road cardholders and comes with a $250 annual fee that’s relatively affordable, though on the high side for the level of rewards that it offers. You earn bonus points on both travel and everyday purchases – 4x at restaurants worldwide and on the first $25,000 in U.S. supermarket purchases each year, 3x on flights booked directly with the airlines and 1x on other purchases. You also get a decent 60,000-point bonus for spending $4,000 in the first six months.

And then comes the king of travel cards – the American Express Platinum card – offering a stellar 75,000-point introductory bonus (after spending $5,000 in the first six months), a litany of travel benefits and an outsized $550 annual fee. The Platinum card is squarely aimed at heavy travelers – you earn a massive 5% bonus on flights and hotels and you get some very generous travel credits, including a $200 airline fee credit, a $100 credit every four years for Global Entry, a $100 hotel fee credit and up to $200 worth of Uber credits. Also, the card grants you free lounge access – probably the most extensive lounge access package that any credit card has to offer – including Priority Pass lounges and ultra-posh Centurion lounges. The Platinum card is not for the casual traveler; however, if you travel frequently you can get more than $550 of value out of the Platinum card.

Business cards

American Express also has several business card offerings that offer American Express benefits for business owners and bonus points on business purchases. These cards are a great opportunity to earn additional introductory bonuses for cardholders who have exhausted the introductory bonuses on Amex’s consumer line of cards.

Note, too, that you don’t have to be the owner of a brick-and-mortar business to qualify for a business card; independent contractors of all sorts may qualify.

The Blue Business Plus card is an excellent option for earning bonus points on everyday purchases – you get a 2x point bonus on your purchases, up to $50,000 each year (1x thereafter). Moreover, the card doesn’t charge an annual fee.

Like the consumer version of the card, the Business Green Rewards Card offers an insipid rewards rate of 2x points on eligible American Express Travel purchases and 1 point on the rest of your purchases, for a $95 fee. On the plus side, the annual fee is waived for the first year, and it currently comes with an offer of 15,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases within the first three months.

The Business Gold Card rewards your highest spend in two 4x bonus categories – which can include dining, gas, travel and common business purchases.

The American Express Business Platinum card offers many of the same benefits – including lounge access – as the regular Platinum card. Unforutnately, the card doesn’t offer a $200 credit for Uber rides. However, it does have one feature to its advantage: You can earn 35% of your points back when you use them for flights on a qualifying airline that you designate at the beginning of each year (when flight is booked on amextravel.com).

Essentially, you can boost the value of your points to 1.35 cents per point if you use them the right way – that’s a much better value than the consumer version of the card. Also, the card offers several generous credits targeted to business professionals: You get up to $200 each year on Dell purchases, and up to $200 in statement credits each calendar year for baggage fees and other incidentals at one selected qualifying airline. The value of the added perks can help to outweigh the card’s $595 annual fee.

Co-branded Membership Rewards cards

If the above list of Membership Rewards cards hasn’t already boggled your mind, American Express offers several co-branded cards that give you additional options for category bonuses and – most notably – additional options for earning introductory bonuses.

American Express Membership Rewards co-branded credit cards

	Rewards rate	Introductory bonus	Annual fee
Mercedes-Benz card	5% select Mercedes-Benz purchases 1% other purchases Terms apply	10,000 points if you spend $100 in first 3 months (Terms apply)	$95
Ameriprise Financial Gold card	2% U.S. restaurants and flights booked directly with airlines 1% other purchases Terms apply	25,000 points if you spend $1,000 in first 3 months (Terms apply)	$160, $0 first year
Ameriprise Financial Platinum card	5% flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel 5% eligible hotels booked with American Express Travel 1% other purchases 5,000 points for every 20,000 in purchases, up to 30,000 points each year Terms apply	None	$550, $0 first year
Morgan Stanley card	2% U.S. restaurants, select U.S. department stores, select car rental companies and directly purchased airfare 1% other purchases Terms apply	10,000 points if you spend $1,000 in first 3 months (Terms apply)	$0
Morgan Stanley Platinum card	5% flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel 5% eligible hotels booked with American Express Travel 1% other purchases Terms apply	60,000 points if you spend $5,000 in first 3 months (Terms apply)	$550
Schwab Platinum card	5% flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel 5% eligible hotels booked with American Express Travel 1% other purchases Terms apply	60,000 points if you spend $5,000 in first 3 months (Terms apply)	$550

Outside of its Mercedes-Benz card – which offers a bonus on Mercedes-Benz purchases – most of these cards are tied to financial institutions and require that you have a qualifying account to apply for the card. If you can pass that hurdle, there’s a major plus to qualifying for one of these cards: They’re all considered to be separate cards from American Express’s consumer and business line of cards, which means – if you’ve already earned the bonuses on the Gold and Platinum cards – you have additional options for earning a 50,000- to 60,000-point bonus.

Which American Express card should you apply for?

Membership Rewards cards aren’t for everyone. The rewards are focused on travel purchases and the best asset of the American Express travel rewards program is its travel perks – including lounge access – rather than travel rewards. In other words, you need to be a frequent traveler to really reap the benefits of the Membership Rewards program. That said, if you fit the bill and want to maximize your points, you should consider signing up for the following:

An everyday spending card – Membership Rewards cards are not the strongest candidates for maximizing rewards on everyday spending, but if you are trying to rack up Membership Rewards points, you’ll probably want to sign up for the Amex Preferred Everyday card. If you don’t mind the $95 annual fee and you are able to use the card 30-plus times each month, the Amex Everyday Preferred card may be your best bet – with its 50% bonus, you can earn up to 4.5% back on your first $6,000 in grocery purchases and 3% back on gas purchases.

A travel card – If you travel frequently enough to use all of its credits and travel perks, the Platinum card is an exceptional value, even with its $550 annual fee. Or, if you qualify as a business owner, you might want to go with the Business Platinum card, since it’s possible to get a 35% bonus on all your redemptions for airfare with your selected, qualifying airline – you’ll need to do some math to decide which card offers the better value for you.

Note, if you don’t want to dole out the high annual fee for either of the Platinum cards, you might go with the American Express Gold Card instead – it can serve as both a travel and everyday card since it offers bonuses on flights, restaurants and U.S. supermarket purchases.

A flat-rate spending card – You should also consider adding the Blue Business Plus card to your wallet. You can rotate it with your other cards to earn a 2x point bonus on the purchases that don’t fit under any other bonus category.

One other very important consideration is timing. American Express has a very strict policy on earning introductory bonuses, only allowing you to earn the bonus on a particular card once in your lifetime. This means if you want to earn the most bonus points possible, you’ll want to keep a close eye on the value of the introductory bonus for each card and apply when the bonus is higher than average.

See related: Best ways to spend American Express points

*All information about the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has been collected independently by CreditCards.com and has not been reviewed by the issuer. This offer is no longer available on our site.

Source: creditcards.com