Appears to be a new AMEX credit card (minimum $2k credit limit).
Earn a total of 80k Membership Reward points.
Purchases that don't qualify for Accerlerated Earn (e.g. supermarkets, government) earn 1 point for every $1.
Other benefits:
Referrer: 40,000 Reward Points
Referee gets 200,000 MR points. Referrer gets 150,000 MR points.
I’m not sure if it’s a part of the updated offer, but a while back my wife and I used a fee-free version of the Essentials Amex card to purchase our family’s iPhones. The card comes with complimentary screen insurance, covering you for a few screen repairs with a low excess. We’ve never had to use it but it was good peace of mind at the time.
Any churners or pros want to give me some advice.
Signed up for Explorer with 100K Bonus points. Got approved.
Next day i take a look at main amex website and went down to 50K.
Called up to ask them if i'll definately be entitled to 100K then they said "if it said 100 its 100 but we can't confirm this, its up to the marketing team".
Is there any T&C, PDS or some other red tape doc i should be looking at to confirm this or do i wait till i qualify for my bonus points and nag them over the phone?
You can take a screenshot to show them if they don't give you 100k points as proof that was the offer presented to you. You can try to make the page appear again to screenshot by using a different device, incognito mode or using a VPN.
Thanks mate, that's exactly what i did but wasn't sure if it would work.
Fingers crossed because its 50K v 100K so 50K discrepancy.
Any churners or pros want to give me some advice.
Always, always screenshot every credit card offer you apply for.
Hey all, so, thanks for your tips and advice.
I was eligible after my first statement (few days ago) to recieve the bonus points. They credited me 50K as i suspected they would.
Called them up and within 5 minutes of speaking to someone they advised me that i'll get an additional 50K within 2-3 business days.
No need to show any kind of proof just took my word for it.
The service through Amex from the get go is probably better then i've recieved at any other place that offers service (phone manner is top notch), only down side is navigating the automated answering bot to actually speak to someone.
Anyway- will screenshot any and all offers in future.
What can you do with the membership rewards? I saw Coles being mentioned but asked to login when clicked on link. Also I read the points are forfeited if you cancel the card. Will be ok if convert the MR to say Coles points then cancel card?
You can redeem points for gift cards for most of the major retailers, otherwise, you can transfer the points to various frequent flyer programs.
I don't think you can transfer the points to Coles (by that I assume you mean Flybuys?)
So, how many of these 'card points' = $1 if purchasing gift cards? And what is the conversion rate if you convert these 'card points' to Qantas Frequent Flyer points?
Looks like 10,000 points= $50 as this moment
I don't think you can transfer points from this card to Qantas. Amex has separate cards for Qantas FF(don't ask me why lol)
Ok I guess The Essentials card is no longer fees free….
Let's see when will Amex force people who are on the no-fees version over to this new one.
Usually, people are getting a targeted 40k bonus points to switch + the earn rate is relatively higher it depends. 40k = $200 vs $9 monthly fee so I would. You can always close in a month if you get the bonus, also even at 1pt/$ you only need to spend $1800 to break even with the fee, much lower if you dine out as you earn 5pts/$ so $360 on eating out would do.
Few months to go before I can churn Amex again.
Offer at glance does not have great appeal.
Can they do this ?
The only reason i have the basic card is because it’s free
Perhaps one to try for recent churners who have been declined for other AMEX credit cards. 80k MR points for 4 or 5 months $9 monthly fee.