My American Express Everyday Preferred Upgrade Offer
Update: more people have been targeted per comments on Mark’s recent article (8/10/20).
I have held the American Express Everyday card for about 18 months. For a little over six months, I’ve actively watched this card in my online account in the hopes of obtaining an upgrade offer to the American Express Everyday Preferred card. Since I held the Preferred years ago, an upgrade offer was my only (slim) option for obtaining another bonus. Without luck in my online account for six months, I decided to call Amex.
American Express Everyday Preferred Upgrade Phone Call
I called the number on the back of my Amex Everyday card, said “representative” about 17 times, and eventually heard a cheerful CSR. After pleasantries, I described how I hadn’t used my Amex Everyday card in several months. I matter-of-factly asked if there were any offers available to upgrade to the Amex Everyday Preferred card. Fairly quickly, he confirmed an offer was available. The CSR offered the following:
- Earn 25,000 Amex Membership Rewards points
- Must make $2,000 of new purchases on the card within the next three months
- The $95 Annual Fee is pro-rated for the remainder of my cardmember year (about six months)
- This upgrade is a product change rather than a new card application
- The CSR stated that the points could be removed from my account or my Amex accounts could be closed if I downgrade or cancel the card within 12 months. I wasn’t surprised to hear this, considering the latest moves from Amex.
After confirming the above information, I accepted the upgrade offer.
Crunching the Numbers
For the next 12 months, I determined I could earn a considerable amount of Membership Rewards points for the relatively low annual fee. Let’s take a look:
- Upgrade Bonus: 25,000 Membership Rewards points
- 2020 Grocery Spend: 27,000 Membership Rewards points ($6,000 limit earning 4.5 Membership Rewards points when meeting 30 transactions in a statement cycle)
- 2021 Grocery Spend: 27,000 Membership Rewards points (same math as above)
- Total: 79,000 Membership Rewards points
Final Thoughts
I happily accepted the offer, considering I did not receive this option in my online account previously. Also, I actually appreciated hearing the warning language from the CSR. While stringent, it gave me a clear understanding of what I can and cannot do in order to avoid clawbacks (or worse). So give Amex a call and see what offers are available. It doesn’t hurt to ask!
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You could have received most of the grocery points with you original card, so to me these figures seem inflated. The figures show the benefit, rather than the added benefit.
I get a lot of groceries at places Amex doesn’t recognize as grocery stores, so the $12,000 grocery spending is a stretch for me. I’m also retired and live a bit off the beaten path, so 30 transactions is out for me, unless I do special machinations.
I got the offer and am on the fence. What do you value the points at?
You stated, “The CSR stated that the points could be removed from my account or my Amex accounts could be closed if I downgrade or cancel the card within 12 months.”
Will they remove the upgrade points only or all points you’ve earned with that card including bonus category points if you downgrade too early?
P,
I do not know – the CSR did not specify which points would be removed. I don’t plan to put myself in a clawback situation, and I wouldn’t recommend it.
I got this same offer last month when I was calling amex about a different cc. I took them up on it.
I’m not overly familiar with this card. The 30 transactions / $6k – what’s the rule for maximizing this? You need 30 transactions every month to get the max at the end of the year or…?
Ryan S,
The Amex Everyday Preferred card earns 3x Membership Rewards on the first $6,000 of grocery spend per calendar year. When a cardholder has at least 30 separate transactions within a statement period, each transaction is given 50% more Membership Rewards. Therefore, grocery spend would go from 3x to 4.5x. Gas is another bonus category, normally earning 2x which would go to 3x. All other transactions would go from 1x to 1.5x. There is no cap on the gas bonus category. However, the Amex Business Gold is superior for the gas category – 4x.
I believe the PREFERRED version of the Everyday card only requires 20 purchases a statement period. At least that was the deal when I had it.
Carl,
The Everyday Preferred is 30 purchases required to get 50% more points in a statement period. The Everyday is 20 purchases required to get 20% more points in a statement period.
Ah, yes. I had it exactly backwards in my head. I will blame the time change. Apologies for the error.
so theoretically I could just do 30 grocery transactions in a month, totaling $6k, and hit my max?
Yes, that’s one way of doing it!
Most excellent!! Thanks for the reply! I shall do that!
Carl
Good luck! Let us know how it goes!
Query: Have you EVER had the American Express Everyday Preferred card before? I have had it before but not now. I have the regular everyday. Not sure I want to ask them yet but wondered if you are repeating a card?
Carl,
Yes, as I stated in the article, I had the Amex Everyday Preferred previously. I received a welcome offer bonus at that time. Years later, I opened an Amex Everyday and received a welcome offer bonus – this is the card I upgraded. You might want to call and give it a shot, particularly if you’ve held your regular Everyday card for over 12 months.