today we're going to take a look at the brand new american express rewards checking account
where we're going to run through all of the features that this new product offers
talk about how you can earn american express rewards points with a debit card
and i'm actually going to talk about why i feel you should avoid this product and what
you should look into as an alternative instead alright let's jump right into it
what is going on everyone i hope you are all having a fantastic day so you all know that i
am a big fan of american express and specifically their credit card products and the gold card up
until recently was actually my daily driver on the credit card side of things but just recently
american express unveiled a brand new rewards checking account that offers the ability to
earn american express rewards points with a debit card so we definitely have to talk about that now
american express has had banking products for a while including their high yield savings account
cds business checking options and several others but the fact that they are now offering a rewards
checking account on the personal side of things in banking is entirely brand new and is really
cool but like i said earlier it leaves a lot to be desired so what do you get with this product well
right now they're offering 0.5 apy which doesn't sound that great but remember this is a checking
account so that's actually not that bad plus this account also has no monthly fees or minimum
balance requirements or anything like that and of course you've got that ability to earn those
membership rewards points on a debit card which again we'll talk more about in a second with this
product you're also going to get the same zero liability fraud protection that comes with some of
the american express credit card products as well as purchase protection on eligible purchases up to
90 days after the purchase date and of course the same amazing 24 7 customer support that american
express offers with all of their products across the board in terms of atm withdrawals they are
unfortunately on the money pass network which is a little bit smaller than things like all point for
example however this does still give you access to over 37 000 free to use atms so depending on
where you live this might not be that big of a deal and you can also check out the american
express atm locator website to see if there is a money pass atm near you and of course you're also
going to get that american express debit card which i have to say actually looks really cool
and appears to have a similar pattern as the gold and platinum cards the debit card gives you the
ability to make those in-person purchases with tap to pay as well as the ability to add this to
your digital wallets like apple or android wallets which is a feature that they plan on adding really
soon okay so all in all nothing too groundbreaking here but obviously the big headline is the
fact that you are able to earn american express membership rewards points with a debit card which
don't get me wrong that sounds amazing but it's not actually that great and here's why for the
time being you're going to earn one membership rewards point for every two dollars that you
spend on eligible debit card purchases which is basically a slightly confusing way of saying that
you're essentially getting 0.5 percent unlimited cash back again that might sound great but when
you compare this to some of the other cash back debit cards as well as the free american express
products that they offer on their end it does leave me scratching my head wondering what the
true value of this product really is now before we get to those comparisons i will mention that these
membership rewards points are exactly the same as the membership rewards points that you earn with
any other american express credit card meaning they can be redeemed in the exact same way either
directly towards purchases used on the american express travel site or even better transferred to
one of their 17 different travel partners in order to maximize the value of those points the reason i
say half a percent cash back however is that i'm assuming a bare minimum redemption value of one
cent per point but depending on how much time and energy you're willing to put into maximizing your
point value you should pretty easily be able to get three or four cents per point when redeeming
for travel and if you are really extreme and spend a lot of time searching for those high
value rewards flights i've actually heard of people getting 15 cents or more per points when
booking first class and business class flights through those various travel partners they don't
make this crystal clear on the product landing page but it does say that if you already have a
membership rewards enrolled card like an american express credit card then you can choose to redeem
these points in the same way that you always have which would sound nice because you're able to lump
all of those different points and all of those different products under one american express
accounts but again i would say if you already have an american express credit card then you're
probably going to use that for your purchases anyways rendering this debit card product
completely useless all right but enough about all of that just so we are comparing apples to apples
here if we look at something like the american express blue cash everyday card this has no annual
fee just like this new debit card product but the blue cash every day card gives you a 200 cash back
bonus when you spend two thousand dollars in the first six months plus it's also going to give you
a three percent cash back at supermarkets on up to six thousand dollars of purchases each year
and two percent cashback at select department stores and gas stations again it's a little bit
difficult to do a direct comparison because we are comparing points to direct cash back so again
assuming you're getting that bare minimum of one cent per point on the rewards debit card this free
blue cash everyday card absolutely blows the rewards checking account product out of the water
and even if you were to get a higher redemption value on your points of say three or four cents
per point which should be pretty realistic for most of us the blue cash everyday card
still comes out way ahead plus gives you that two hundred dollar cash sign up bonus when you spend
just two thousand dollars in the first six months and again that's just one example but they also
have things like the cash magnet card which again has no annual fee and gives you unlimited 1.5 cash
back and the same 200 sign up offer i do want to clarify that obviously we are comparing a credit
card which is strictly used for spending to what is really a checking account product which is used
for actually holding your money and also spending it but when we are comparing the spending side
of the checking account with the rewards to the credit card products that i just mentioned trust
me the credit card products almost always come out way ahead stepping outside of the american express
ecosystem however you've also heard me talk about the point cashback debit card many times before
and this is by far the best cash back debit card that is currently on the market in my opinion now
in fairness the new point neon card does have a monthly fee of 10 per month while the american
express rewards debit card is completely free but even despite that difference in price the point
neon card gives you five points or five percent equivalent cash back on subscriptions three
points on ride share and delivery services and one point on everything else not to mention the insane
point multipliers that go as high as 20 points per dollar or the equivalent of 20 cash back
at certain retail locations plus a ton of other fantastic benefits again the point card does have
that small monthly fee but even if you're just looking at the equivalent 0.5 points per dollar of
the amex card and comparing that to the point neon card which gives you a bare minimum of one point
per dollar it is not even close plus the point card will currently give you a 100 sign up bonus
when you open your account and make your first purchase which essentially covers the monthly fee
for the entire first year so you all probably get the point but lastly if we just look at the
benefits of the checking account itself and that 0.5 apy again it's just not that great considering
many other platforms like sofi money for example have recently increased their apy payout to one
percent with some platforms going even higher than that so it is very very rare that i even bother
making a review on this channel if it is not in a positive light because i usually only want to
share products that i feel are a good fit for my viewers but when a massive company like american
express launches a new product that starts getting a lot of attention i feel like i should least talk
about it and explain why i feel this product might not actually be the best product for
you again though that is just my opinion so i would love to know what you think of this new
american express rewards checking account down in the comments section below and why you feel it is
either a good or bad financial tool for you as always if you did get value out of this content
and you want to help support me the easiest way to do that is actually by checking out some of my
favorite financial tools down in the description below including that offer from the point cashback
debit card which again will currently give you a 100 signup bonus when you sign up and make your
first purchase so definitely check that out using the link down below also for anyone who cares this
is actually my 300th video on this channel which is insane so i do just quickly want to say thank
you all so much for continuing to support this content and allowing me to do what i love and
hopefully help you find the best financial tools for you be sure to hit the like button
and subscribe to the channel for more content like this in the future and of course thank you
so much for your time i really do appreciate it so much take it easy and i'll see you in the next one
you