I just applied for and was approved for the Amex Everyday Preferred card. Thereafter, I canceled my American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card. For me, the 2 cards are too similar and I did not want to pay 2 annual fees, the Gold card being $175 and the Everyday card being $95. Here was my thinking….
I use my American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card almost every day because I use it at supermarkets and gas stations, 2 places that I visit a lot. The reason I use this card for these is because I earn 2x Membership Rewards points in those categories.
However, while I was writing about the Amex Everyday Preferred card, I came to the realization that I would rather have this card instead!! The Amex Everyday Preferred card also offers bonus points at supermarkets and gas stations. Specifically, the card offers 3x Membership Rewards at grocery stores and 2x Membership Rewards at gas stations.
Here is my reasoning as to why I think the Preferred card is better for me…..
1. Purchase bonuses
Gas- Same purchase bonus each card, so I consider the cards a tie.
Supermarkets- the 3x bonus with the Everyday card is capped at $6,ooo (after $6,000 your earn 1x points at supermarkets), the Premier Rewards Gold card has a 2x bonus but there is no cap. So for example, I think that I spend about $200 per week at grocery stores (including fresh direct) or about $10,400 per year. With my current Premier Rewards Gold Card, I earn 20,800 Membership Rewards points on these purchases. With the Everyday Preferred card, I will earn 22,400 (18,000+ 4400). I will earn 2,400 more points with the Everyday card.
Everyday card wins!
Note the Premier Rewards gold card also offers a 3x purchase bonus on airline fares, but I rarely buy plane tickets, :-), and Rob has the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card, which also has a 3x bonus on airfare, so I did not consider this benefit in my decision.
2. Annual Fee
Premier Rewards Gold card-$175
Everyday Preferred card-$95
Everyday card wins!
3. Spending Incentives
Premier Rewards Gold Card-Used to have a spending incentive but it was ended for 2015. The old incentive was after spending $30,000 or more in eligible purchases on your card in a calendar year you can get 15,000 extra Membership Rewards points. This incentive is no longer available to card members.
Everyday Preferred Card-After you make 30 purchases in a billing period with the card, get 50% more Amex Membership Rewards points on those purchases. I will likely only use this card for groceries and gas, so it is unlikely I will use this card more than 30x in a billing period. However, it is nice to know that if I ever wanted to accumulate Membership Rewards points, I could use this card for everything, ensuring I am using it more than 30x and then get a very lucrative 50% bonus on all of those purchases over 30!
Everyday card wins!
Summary
So there we have it. The Everyday card wins for me in every category that involves my spending habits. So I got it. I should also mention that I got a 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus offer with the card, if I spend $1,000 in the first 3 months. So easy with my grocery bill!
One more thing, Amex Gold offered me $150 in statement credits to keep the card, $75 now and $75 after I met a spend threshold. Despite the fact that this would have technically brought the annual fee down to $25 ($175-$150), I still canceled the card. I want to start earning the 3x points on my groceries (I don’t want to be forced to use the card) and I would have had to deal with the annual fee the following year anyway. I would have just been delaying the inevitable. But it is nice to see that Amex is willing to negotiate, like Citi and unlike Chase!