Question Of The Week: Help Me Understand American Express Rewards
Our question of the week in this week asks for help in how to understand American Express rewards points. It’s not that the points are complex. Rather, the question is about what that number is that you see. How “up to date” is it? What other numbers can you see? Let’s jump in.
The Question
Our question of the week comes from Terrance in our Facebook group:
For Amex Gold, is the point showing on the reward summary bar accurate? Does this mean I spent $6248 in grocery so far this year?
There are basically 2 parts to this question:
- How current are those points / when do points post?
- Is there a way to check spending in a certain category?
Question 1 – When Do Points Post?
We previously looked at when your bonus points from a new credit card welcome offer should show up. We won’t cover that here, since today’s question is about ongoing spending in a bonus category. When I make purchases that earn extra points in a bonus category, how long is it until those points show up?
American Express has an answer for this:
When you earn Membership Rewards® points from spending with your Card, they initially appear on your billing statement as “pending.” These points will be added to your Points Balance and available for use if your minimum payment is received by the Payment Due Date, typically within 24–72 hours after the payment is applied to your Card account.
Thus, points from current spending are “pending” in your account. They will post to your account and become usable once you make the minimum payment / pay your bill on that card.
Thus, the number of points you currently see in your account is not very “up to date”. It only includes points that posted because of the payment you made. Basically, you’re one statement behind on points in your account.
Question 2 – How Do I Check Category Spending?
Now that we know the points aren’t current today, how do we check category spending? We want to know, up to present, how much we’ve spent in a certain category. Maybe a current promotion is ending or you’re trying to max out points before the end of the year. How’s how to check this.
Mark’s guide can get us through the “posted points” we discussed.
- Select your Gold Card in the top right.
- Click “Points Summary” (highlighted in the red box above)
- On the right-hand side of the next page, see how many points you’ve earned from supermarkets so far this year.
This is the point Terrance is at now. In our image, earning 41,792 points at 4x means $10,448 of spending (41792 / 4).
But…that’s not up to present.
You’ll need to do the math from the “pending” points we discussed above.
Luckily, American Express Membership Rewards are easy to understand here. They still indicate the 4X next to pending transactions. Add those up, and now you’re up to the present.
Final Thoughts
American Express Membership Rewards are very useful and well-loved in this hobby. It can be easier to understand how to use your American Express rewards points than understanding your earning totals. Today, we looked at when points post and then how to do the math “from there to present”. This way, you can have a firm grasp on your points earning and spend in certain bonus categories.
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No disagreement with your post but just wanted to add some additional details.
Many times you may have an Amex Offer of (1X, 3X, 4X, etc.) MR per $1 spent at a merchant. Or it may be spend $100 at the merchant and earn a bonus 1500 MR points etc. Those points are usually credited to your account after the transaction actually posts (no longer shows as pending for the charge). This pending on the charge is different from the pending on the points summary.