American Express Cash Magnet® Card Review
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Editorial Note: The information related to the American Express Cash Magnet® Card has been collected by Credit Cards House and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card.
American Express recently added a new credit card to their lineup, the American Express Cash Magnet® Card. This no annual fee card comes with an attractive welcome bonus and a flat 1.5% earnings rate on purchases (see rates and fees). However, for some this new card might not stack up against the competition.
Let’s dig into everything the new American Express card offers and see what it’s all about.
Note: Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
What You Get
The welcome bonus you can receive from the American Express Cash Magnet<sup>®</sup> Card from American Express, a Credit Cards House advertiser, allows you the opportunity to earn up to $150 back. American Express has set it up with the following earning tier.
- You will earn $150 cash back after you spend $1,000 in purchases during the first three months you’re a cardmember.
When you use the American Express Cash Magnet® Card card, you will earn a flat 1.5% cash back on all purchases. The cash back earned can be redeemed for a statement credit, gift cards, and even merchandise.
The card also comes with an introductory 0% APR, which is great for anyone that might be planning a large purchase. You will receive 0% APR for 15 months on purchases from the date of account opening. After the introductory offer, a variable APR of 13.99% to 23.99% applies depending on your creditworthiness (see rates and fees).
American Express is also adding their Plan It℠ feature to this new card. This allows cardmembers to set up a payment plan on large purchases and instead of paying interest they would pay a fixed monthly fee instead.
The American Express Cash Magnet® Card also comes with several other benefits that cardmembers will find useful. You will receive car rental loss and damage insurance, purchase protection, and a ShopRunner membership (enrollment required).
American Express has a strict “once per lifetime” rule on all their credit cards. This prevents anyone from receiving a bonus on a card more than once. Because this is a brand-new credit card, this won’t affect anyone. However, American Express has been cracking down on people who sign up for cards, earn the bonus and then cancel the card. That means some people might not be eligible for the welcome bonus even though they have never carried the card before.
The last thing you want to do is apply for a credit card, have a hard pull on your credit report and then find out you don’t qualify for the bonus. To help alleviate this from happening, American Express launched a bonus qualification feature that will allow you to find out if you are eligible for a bonus before a hard credit pull is actually performed.
Learn more about the Best Cash Back Credit Cards here.
Disadvantages of the American Express Cash Magnet® Card
Earning 1.5% cash back with your credit card used to be a top earning rate for a credit card. Unfortunately, American Express is a little late to the party. The biggest competition for the American Express Cash Magnet® Card are the Chase Freedom Unlimited® card and the Capital One® Quicksilver® card, and they have been offering 1.5% for quite a while now. Additionally, the Citi® Double Cash Card offers up to 2% cash back on all purchases.
But where the American Express Cash Magnet® Card really misses the mark is by not offering a way to earn Membership Reward points. In comparison, the Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a cash back card, but it gives cardholders the opportunity to convert cash back into Ultimate Reward points when card holders also have a premium Chase card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Ideally, American Express would have given cardholders the opportunity to earn Membership Reward points if they also carried cards like The Platinum® Card. It includes a similar welcome bonus than both the Chase Freedom Unlimited and the Capital One Quicksilver, plus it would match their earning potential. Simply put, adding Membership Rewards to the equation would have made this a superior card.
The American Express Cash Magnet® Card should also be left at home if you are planning to travel outside the United States. Since it comes with a foreign transaction fee of 2.7%, it would be best if another card made the trip with you (see rates and fees).
Learn more about the Best Flat-Rate Cash Back Credit Cards here.
The Bottom Line
Overall, the American Express Cash Magnet<sup>®</sup> Card isn’t a bad card. It offers a similar bonus than other no annual fee cash back credit cards and it offers 1.5% cash back on every purchase. Its biggest downside is that it doesn’t offer the ability to transfer cash back to the American Express Membership Rewards program.
For rates and fees of the American Express Cash Magnet® Card, click here.
Note: This content is not provided by American Express. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashton Stewart is a Denver based freelance writer specializing in travel, credit cards and personal finance. With nearly 10 years of writing experience his work has appeared in many of the industries top publications. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics. He also runs OneSmartDollar.com. When not working Sean enjoys spending time with his wife, daughter and dog Charlie and can frequently be found on his bike or snowboard.
Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer.
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