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New AmEx Essentials Card: $0 Annual Fee, $50 Credit after $500 Spend, 0% 12mo BT, Earn MR Points

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New credit card from American Express with no annual fees and quite a few benefits.

Here's a rundown of the features/benefits:
$0 ongoing annual fee
$50 credit after spending $500 in the first 2 months
0% balance transfer for 12 months
Can use with Apple Pay
Earn 1 Membership Rewards points per dollar, which can be transferred on a 4:3 basis (i.e. 0.75 points per dollar) to Virgin Australia Velocity, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.
Low interest rate as well for the folk who don't pay off every month at 14.99%. 55 days interest free.
Eligible for all the great Amex offers you see on OzBargain

Also a couple of nice-to-have insurance features:
Smartphone Screen Insurance for screen repairs if you accidentally break your Smartphone screen: we will reimburse you for the cost of the screen repair up to $500 with a 10% excess per claim
Purchase Protection - if an item is stolen or breaks within 90 days of purchase, it can be repaired or refunded up to $2,500 per claim, up to $10,000 per year and with a $50 excess per claim
Buyer’s Advantage - extends the manufacturer’s warranty by up to 12 months for up to $7,000 per claim and $7,000 per year, with no excess
Refund Protection - if you have a change of heart and are refused a refund on an unused item within 90 days of purchase, you will be reimbursed for up to $500 per claim and $2,000 per year, with no excess

Conditions:
Minimum $40k income requirement
Minimum $2k credit limit

Referral Links

Business Explorer Card: random (5)

Referrer: 40,000 Reward Points

Centurion Personal Charge Card: random (6)

Referee gets 200,000 MR points. Referrer gets 150,000 MR points.

Related Stores

American Express
American Express

closed Comments

  • +1

    Purchase Protection - if an item is stolen or breaks within 90 days of purchase, it can be repaired or refunded up to $2,500 per claim, up to $10,000 per year and with a $50 excess per claim

    lol @ excess

    Coles mastercard doesnt charge any excess.

    Also not worth risking your credit score for $50. Better wait for cards with 40 - 60K QFF Point's

    • EC, can you link me the coles mastercard you're referring to?

    • +1

      Doesn't earn frequent flyer points which is bit of a rarity in $0 annual fee cards, has a higher interest rate and misses out on a number of the niceties the amex card provides. Overall I think it works well as a spare, free Amex-issued Amex card for those who don't have one. $50 is an added bonus.

      • +2

        If your after the cash incentive, Better off with the Commonwealth bank $250 cashback (net $190 after annual fee) https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/217937

        Possible free annual fee with some accounts.

        • +3

          Amex does get to participate in the frequent Amex only promotions. I've saved a decent amount through those deals without purchasing anything we weren't looking to get anyway.

        • +1

          Same, the shop small one has been a nice bonus a few times too, and ive been able to combo that with NQR deals and such as well.

          Also, I signed up with the virgin 100k FF points, thats a nearly free return trip to LA for $350 (first years fee) which is worth it on it's own.

    • Coles Mastercard charges 1% on all purchases if you take up insurance though.

  • -3

    As pointed out by easternculture, there isn't a particular, time sensitive feature or offer associated with the card at present. Also unlikely to have big ones as it already has no annual fee and even the platinum edge usually only offers 15 000 points.
    Probably belongs as a forum post.

    • +1

      Technically the $50 credit and the 12mo balance transfer offers both expire on 2nd February 2016, added it to the post.

      • Earn 1 Membership Rewards points per dollar, which can be transferred on a 4:3 basis (i.e. 0.75 points per dollar) to Virgin Australia Velocity, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.

        But here
        http://catalogue.membershiprewards.com.au/l2Category.mtw?cat…

        it says 1 Membership Rewards point is equal to 1 Velocity/Etihad etc

        Am I missing something

  • +3

    Minimum $40k income requirement

    ..damn.

    • Those (Citibank Signature) lifetime yearly-fee free offers have all had a minimum income requirement of $75k

      • +5

        Actually I'm a full time student who works weekends, but thanks for assuming.

  • For people like me, it's better than my current Amex. And I want one amex for the $x off $y spend at Z stores offers.

    Having said that, most of those protections would be on items that I'd purchase on a 28deg or coles card. So, not useful. The phone screen protection would have been nice a few months ago. Having gone 6-8 years without damaging a phone (without phone cases), bad luck finally struck. Note they didn't say that you have to BUY the phone with Amex (unless it's in the fine print)!

    I'll consider cancelling my old amex and applying.

    • +7

      Clause 4:

      Smartphone Screen Insurance of up to $500 for screen repairs to your Smartphone when you pay for your phone or contract with your Essential Credit Card

      • All of your contract? What if you switch your contract payment method to the AMEX card?

      • Cheers

        Could still be worthwhile.

    • You are eligible to receive reimbursement of the repair cost of up to $500 each time Your Mobile Phone
      Purchased with Your American Express Essential Credit Card account suffers screen breakage resulting from
      an accidental drop or impact, whilst Your American Express Essential Credit Card is active.

      in https://web.aexp-static.com/au/content/pdf/essentialinsuranc…, page 10

  • +2

    This is pretty good for a fee free card. I don't think it's fair to compare to the full featured bank issued cards that give you no annual fee for first year only. There's plenty of people who either can't be bothered, or have been playing the annual fee card swapping game for too long that would be interested in this card.

    • +1

      As an AMEX, it seems to fall outside of the general 'card-swapping' game and be something which stays in your list of accounts for life.

      Especially the Platinum Edge, if the 'complementary' yearly flight is useful to you.

      As long as you jump on a good 'New Customers Only' offer for your first AMEX-direct issued card, the ongoing benefits seem to outweigh cancelling and waiting a year for another offer.

  • If you're interested in points, its Membership Rewards Gateway - which has a lower conversion rate than the standard Membership Rewards Ascent.

  • Are you allowed to have 3 different products with amex?

    I already have 2 with them.

    • You can have as many products as they'll let you have.

    • Amex will let you have three cards, if one of them is a charge card. You can't have three credit cards, as I found out when I already had two, and applied for a Platinum Edge. I had to cancel one of the others before they'd let me have the PE.

      • +1

        Don't suppose you know if a work issued (and paid) card under my name counts ?

    • -1

      You can only have 2 AMEX issued AMEX card.

  • -1

    Is this a charge card or credit card

    • -5

      looks like a charge card

      • +5

        it has Credit Card in the name…shouldn't they say "Charge Card" if it's a charge card?

        • -1

          i didnt see that.

  • +2

    Earn 1 Membership Rewards points per dollar, which can be transferred on a 4:3 basis (i.e. 0.75 points per dollar) to Virgin Australia Velocity, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.

    The $0 annual fee Velocity Amex is better value if you're intending to transfer to Velocity.

  • +2

    Canstar have an overwhelming but thorough report on rewards cards brokend down by how much you intend to spend on the card annually.

    http://www.canstar.com.au/reports/credit-card-rewards-star-r…

    Click the 'download report' link on the right for the 100+ page report.

    • And yet Canstar isn't thorough enough.

      Jetstar isn't really "never expire" it's six months, as best I can read how it works.

  • +1

    Sounds better than the Qantas Discovery card, also $0 annual fee.

    • Why?I remember one qantas point has greater value than one Amex point.

  • Do they ask for proof of 40k income if you apply? I'm only on a pension so saving money and extra warranty etc sounds useful. I don't currently have any credit cards.

    • Yes, they do ask for proof of income.

    • They have never asked me for proof of income - doesn't mean they won't though

      Must say, I like the design of this card

      • From memory I wasn't asked when I got a platinum edge earlier in the year (although maybe I'm mistaken). No doubt they did a credit check but, and the outcome of that might determine whether they ask for additional information.

        • I think AMEX rely on your credit score a lot. I was rejected last year when my score was in the 500s, then this year got approved when it had risen to high 700s

  • +1

    Points are 1:1 can't find anything about 4:3

  • is this better than the commonwealth bank diamond amex?

  • +1

    The usual 1:1 is on membership rewards…. This card gives you only 4:3 on membership rewards gateway… Read more details here: https://catalogue.membershiprewards.com.au/getWebImage.mtw?l…

    • I already have a platinum edge in addition to this card (grabbed as a spare for offers and insurance), amex just pools the points balance to the platinum edge account so you can get 1:1 that way.

  • +1

    This would be quite handy as a spare amex to use for bonus offers.

  • Good card for Apple Pay in the interim while the banks get their shit together.

  • I easily spend $500 a month on groceries and maccas :D Have I anything to lose by using it for a few months, getting the $50, then cancelling?

    • credit score

  • What happens when to the item when you use the refund protection? What if the store doesn't take it back, because if they don't, i can see an easy way to take an advantage.

    Refund Protection - if you have a change of heart and are refused a refund on an unused item within 90 days of purchase, you will be reimbursed for up to $500 per claim and $2,000 per year, with no excess

    • Terms and conditions say you return it to Amex.

  • -6

    Average card, that can only be used by a few merchants in Australia… Pass!

  • $50 credit received 1 day, yes ONE day, after meeting spend criteria.

    Commbank could learn a thing or two from Amex it seems!

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