Card is now live, view more details here.
Update 10/21/19: Looks like we have more details based on this image a redditor posted (apparently from the CEO town hall today).
- 30,000 Membership Rewards welcome bonus + limited time $100 luggage credit from away
- $150 annual fee
- Card will earn 3x points on travel, transit & dining
- $100 CLEAR credit
- $100 Loungebuddy credit
- TV ads will go live Thursday, so expecting the card to launch by then
Don’t think the card is worth keeping if that is the full list of benefits.
Update: Reddit user regancai noticed this ad when logged into their American Express account:
Looks like that will be the sign up bonus, rather than a benefit for existing users?
Original post: The American Express Green Card is currently not accepting new applications (this has been confirmed by @AskAmEx). There has been speculation and rumors that the card would be refreshed for some time. Some reddit users have reported receiving an e-mail for the new card and offer. It seems like the launch bonus will be 35,000 Membership Rewards after $1,000 in spend and the card could be getting a name change to ‘Amex Preferred Rewards Green Card‘. Previously rumors indicated the annual fee would be $95 and it would come with an Amazon Prime membership, possibly some sort of partnership with Away luggage and also earn at the following rates:
- 4x points on gas purchases
- 3x points on streaming services
That is all unconfirmed at this stage, we should know more soon.
Approved with the 45k offer via incognito a few hours ago. Got to my card number and added it to my online account. First Amex offer was “Get 10% back on purchases of your cable or satellite bill, up to $10” AF already down to $140 😉
P2’s Green card has the new benefits online:
– $100 CLEAR credit per calendar year
– $100 Loungebuddy credit per calendar year
– 3X Membership Rewards® points at restaurants worldwide
– 3X Membership Rewards points on travel worldwide including airfare, hotels, transit, taxis, tours, and ride shares
– Can request a card that is made from ocean reclaimed plastic.
I can confirm this. Logged into my account tonight and checked on the benefits for my Green Card. Lrdx is correct on all above. It also makes mention that Pay Over Time Select is going away effective 04/30/2020; only Pay Over Time Direct will remain but that seems to make little difference and few on this board probably pay interest on these charge cards (or any cards for that matter) anyway.
Interesting note. A small picture of the AMEX Card appears for each card that I have (I currently have:
1) Green,
2) Optima (the old one from the early ’90s [first issued as the Optima True Grace Card – no interest in new purchases if you carried a balance; the “True Grace part went away a few years later]; hold onto it for nostalgia even though I only get 1x MR on everything),
3) Hilton Surpass,
4) Clear (another old one from the early 2000s that gives me a $25 AMEX “Treat” gift card for every 2,500 points I earn [$1 = 1 point]; (not connected to the MR program); and
5) Cash Magnet).
Anyhoo, the new brighter green card now shows up in the mini-picture. With this and the benefits now showing, I would expect that the announcement is really close.
As noted above, travel does not include gas. No mention of annual fee yet. My card renews in November and I received a notice that it would renew in November at the current $95 annual fee so I will hold on to it for at least one more year as long as it stays at that rate. I will not pay $145 or $150 or whatever seems to be coming if the stated benefits are all that they are giving. I held onto it at $95 for nostalgia’s sake but I can’t afford to pay anymore for such a card. 3% on restaurants and travel is available from Costco and Sam’s Club and I make little use of air travel for any of the rest to be worthwhile.
Super disappointing. They could have done something special with this card but chose to do a scaled-down version of the Gold Card. I suppose that as long as people continue to pay these escalating annual fees, they will continue trying to see what they can get away with but there are too many good alternatives out there, including their own no annual fee credit cards.
Green card fee is now $145. GF PCed from the gold card today. Was told $95 on the phone but was charged $145. They wouldn’t change it so now they’re going to the tape. No word on new benefits.
Interesting
This is actually a weird move. It looked as if Amex was trying to make all their charge cards have their own niche – Platinum for travel; Gold for dining and groceries. It’s odd that the green card has both dining and travel, but doesn’t do either as well as the Gold or Platinum. I figured they would do something with gas and streaming on this one – I was never sold on including Amazon Prime. I felt like that would be stepping into Chase’s territory too much. This new card leaves the Gold is a weird place, imo, given both are decent for dining spend. Now that I can’t easily use the gold card credits, it’s harder to get as much value from it.
What a real missed opportunity for AMEX. The hole in their charge card line-up is clearly a solid card for all-around spend (i.e. a personal version of the BBP), and the green card is such a classic that it’s ideally suited for the role.
But it seems like the management over there wants to go in a different direction, with random spending categories and worthless “credits”, and cards that are far more attractive to churners than members.
I agree with you Doc. This card is definitely not a long term hold unless it offers amazon prime. They may add it as AMEX currently offers two Amazon business credit cards which would make a good tandem with this new card and having one of the two above mentioned business cards.
If accurate, swing and a miss for me.
CLEAR is garbage; available at 5 handfuls of airports, gives another private company access to biometric data, and the credit doesn’t even pay for all of its “convenience.”
Loungebuddy doesn’t really seem like much of a benefit when every luxury card and its mother has some form of pass access.
The point multipliers aren’t anything special.
The only interesting thing is the friggin’ luggage credit, because Away admittedly makes some nice stuff. But when you’re talking $200+ for a single carry-on bag, it doesn’t get you very far, either.
You can get the Clear bill down to $99 per-year if you sign up through the Delta promo, so this card’s AF would cover that. I renewed my Clear service and it’s sticking at $99 for renewal every year.
I still have no idea how to justify the other $50. I think I’m going to buy some luggage and cancel this card… Assuming that Away’s entire inventory doesn’t sell-out immediately.
I was sure that the Amazon Prime thing was 100% bs. I think someone got confused about BCP’s new point earning on streaming services, and was also high.
Disappointed they aren’t going with the originally rumored benefits of 4x MR on gas and amazon prime credit. Don’t really see any reason to keep the card now (after earning the SUB ofc).
If this is correct I might wait for a higher points sign up bonus as It isn’t a keeper card for me.
Wasn’t 30k the previous ATH for old green?
No it was 5,000
We are both wrong according to USCCG. 25k incognito sounds right. https://www.uscreditcardguide.com/amex-green-card/?mobile=
Aimed at millennials, it seems. CLEAR and Loungebuddy are so much cooler than PreCheck and Priority Pass, amirite? And the whole recycled plastic thing.
On a more serious note, compare a Green/EDP* combo ($245 AF):
4.5X groceries
3X gas
3X dining
3X airfare
3X hotels
3X transit
2.5X Amex Travel
1.5X everything else
$100 CLEAR credit
$100 Loungebuddy credit
…with a Gold/ED* combo ($250 AF):
4X groceries
4X dining
3X airfare
2.2X Amex Travel
1.2X everything else
$100 yearly airline fee credit
$10 monthly dining credit
[*assuming you reach the required number of transactions/month]
That’s not how you add a card to my wallet, it’s how you get me to downgrade one card and upgrade another.
It’s obvious that they’re courting cardholders of, or prospective applicants for, Citi’s and Chase’s travel cards. I gotta wonder, though, how much they’ll lose from the MR-heavy wallet holders they’re cannibalizing* in pursuit of CSP/CSR/Premier/Prestige cardholders. And whether they’ll even make money at all on the latter, with the low AF and 3X earn rates (the bulk of the spending that someone dropping a Chase or Citi card would put on it would be dining and travel).
[*If it makes sense to switch from the bottom to the top, it’s because the top pays out more – i.e. a net loss for Amex]
This is a really good analysis. Thanks!
Are people really going to pay $150 for 3x when you get 2x for $0 AF w/ BBP. Anyone serious about accumulating MR has one…
I don’t have a legitimate business; do you?
Not. Everyone. Wants. A. Business. Card.
Yes… Aslong as they keep offering points, I’m in business and business is boomin’
I don’t either have a legitimate business either, but I have a handful of business cards from several banks (including Amex). In fact, at many banks, even if you have a business, it can be easier to get approved by applying as if you don’t have a business (your name as the business name, your address as the business address, your phone as the business phone, sole proprietor, 0 years in business, $0 business income, 0 employees) than by applying with your real business info, because the former way they don’t have any questions to ask you and can approve you without asking them, but the latter way you can get hung up when they try to ask you hard-to-answer questions and deny you because they didn’t like the answer.
CLEAR is only cool if the airport entrances you use the most support it. I almost never see CLEAR because of where I fly and how I fly. (At LAX, my home airport, CLEAR is not available for PreCheck, which I have, except at the Southwest terminal 1, which I haven’t used in two or three years.)
Btw, my PreCheck costs $50 once every 5 years, and comes with GE included for that price, because what I have is NEXUS (USA/Canada-crossing bi-directional air + land including exclusive bridges / lanes), which only costs $50 yet include GE (which costs $100 by itself) and PreCheck (which costs $85 by itself). I’d rather have NEXUS + GE+ PreCheck for $50 out of pocket once every 5 years than get reimbursed for PreCheck alone by a credit card.
And where I do see CLEAR (at an airport coming back from somewhere), it’s usually right next to empty PreCheck lines that I’m breezing through. So what’s the point if I have PreCheck already?
And why would LoungeBuddy be cooler than PriorityPass, when LoungeBuddy seems to have only a SUBSET of the VERY SAME lounges, on a per visit charge, that Priority Pass let you in for free? Did you not see my post on that below?
Finally, are you sure it’s going to be 3x gas on Green? So far that’s only speculation, and far from everyone seems sure about that.
Sorry, I meant it’s “hip.” That wasn’t really meant to be a serious statement, more taking aim at the trend of “pandering to millenials.” They have:
– – – CLEAR – the cool man’s PreCheck. Or “ooh, shiny!”
– – – Loungebuddy credit – easy to understand, easy to trick oneself into thinking it’s $100 in value
– – – AF $55 more than PreCheck-only cards – anchoring strategy: $95 AF is “normal,” a little more gets you so much more!
– – – the recycled plastic bit – yay environmentalism!
– – – intro credit for luggage – “fashion” AND “travel”? How can you resist?
Yup, sounds like they got us millenials all figured out! Ugh.
The 3X in my post came from the EveryDay Preferred’s 2X on gas + 50% bonus from 30+ transactions/month.
3x on travel does not include gas. Hotels, air travel, taxis, “rideshare” (I assume Uber, Lyft, etc.), tours. I may have held it at $150 if gas was included (even though I can do better with Sam’s Club and Costco credit cards) but 3x on non-gas travel and restaurants is not enough to make it worthwhile.