Card Comparison: 15,000 vs. 10,000 Rewards Bonus Points from American Express Charge Cards

brady — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:12:56 +0000

American Express has recently rolled out a new charge card called Premier Rewards Gold Card that is targeted to people with excellent credit history. It’s basically a better version of its sister charge card Preferred Rewards Gold Card. To better help you understand the difference, I compare them below, and highlight the relative benefits in green, and drawbacks in red.

American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card

Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards® bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership
Earn Membership Rewards points up to three times as fast: You can earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else
Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $30,000 per calendar year.
Annual fee: first year free, then $175 per year
Requires excellent credit

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card

Earn 10,000 Membership Rewards® bonus points when you spend $500 in 3 months – redeemable for a $100 gift card!
The Membership Rewards® program – Earn 1 Membership Rewards® point for virtually every dollar you spend and redeem for your choice of travel, shopping, and entertainment
Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60 seconds.
Annual fee: $125 per year
Requires excellent credit

Membership Rewards Bonus Points can be redeemed to frequent flyer miles at 1 point:1 mile ratio and to gift cards at several stores like Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, or Macy’s at 100 point : $1 ratio.

With these card features, Premier Rewards Gold Card is a better card. There are two ways to take advantage of its benefits depend on what you want to get out of it. If you want to avoid annual fee, then you can spend $1000 in first 3 months, get 15000 MR bonus points up-front, then cancel the card. If you are a big spender (spend more than $30,000 per year), then you can keep the card, since the annual bonus for spending $30,000 could almost offset annual fee.

Card Comparison: Charge Cards Are Credit Cards Without Revolving Debt

brady — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:29:50 +0000

Many people use the terms credit card and charge card interchangeably, but there are important differences. In general, a credit card lets you make purchases for which you are billed later. Most credit card accounts allow you to carry a balance from one billing cycle to the next; however, you have to pay interest on that balance. Usually, you have to pay at least a certain amount of your balance each time you receive a bill.

A charge card is a specific kind of credit card. The balance on a charge card account is payable in full when the statement is received and cannot be rolled over from one billing to the next. Because you cannot carry a balance, a charge card doesn’t have a periodic or annual percentage rate, so there is no rate for a charge card issuer to disclose.

Here are the major charge cards on the market:

Card Name	Benefit	Requirement
American Express® Preferred Rewards Gold Card	No pre-set spending limit ; Earn 1 point for virtually every dollar you spend on Card purchases ; Instant Approval	Credit Required: Excellent Credit; Annual fee: 1st Year None; $125 Thereafter
New Millennium Bank Secured Platinum Visa®	Operates on Visa Inc. network; When you apply, you get 1. Free companion air ticket valued at hundreds of $$$, 2. Membership in The World’s Best Travel Club, 3. Cash rebate of $69.00 on your first condo booking	Credit Required: Bad Credit; Annual fee:$59; Your credit line will be equal to and secured by your New Millennium Bank Savings account
New Millennium Bank Secured Platinum MasterCard®	Operates on MasterCard network; When you apply, you get 1. Free companion air ticket valued at hundreds of $$$, 2. Membership in The World’s Best Travel Club, 3. Cash rebate of $69.00 on your first condo booking	Credit Required: Bad Credit; Annual fee:$59; Your credit line will be equal to and secured by your New Millennium Bank Savings account

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Card Comparison: 15,000 vs. 10,000 Rewards Bonus Points from American Express Charge Cards

Card Comparison: Charge Cards Are Credit Cards Without Revolving Debt