Do you have an Amex card that earns Membership Rewards? Are there certain things you wish you could pay for using a credit card, but you refrain from doing so because of a fee? Two things that immediately come to my mind are taxes and country club dues.
As of today, you can stop wishing! Today, Amex introduced Rewards Checking. It is basically an Amex checking account that earns a small interest rate (like other online bank accts). BUT… You get a DEBIT card with the account, and when you pay for things with the debit card, you CAN EARN MEMBERSHIP REWARDS POINTS.
For clarity, let’s use taxes as an example. It wouldn’t really make sense to use a credit card for taxes because the fee you pay will likely be more than the rewards you earn on the payment. But, there is no fee to use a debit card linked to a bank account.
Granted, when you use this new Amex debit card for payments, you only earn 1x Membership Rewards point per each $2 spent. But it’s better than nothing which you would have been getting before!
Remember, you would only use this debit card on items you won’t pay with a credit card because of a fee. You should continue to use your Amex CREDIT cards on all other purchases. Here is the link if you want to open a checking account (I did).