American Express' 'EveryDay' Card: How Good a Deal Is It? - East Idaho News
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American Express’ ‘EveryDay’ Card: How Good a Deal Is It?

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GETTY 3614 AmEx?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1394110924101TBE/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — American Express has introduced a new, cash-back “EveryDay” credit card that charges no annual fee and doesn’t require customers to pay their balance in full each month, and yet gives them a number of attractive perks.

But how good a deal is it compared to competing cards?

The card — which, according to AmEx, will become available by April 2 — rewards customers based on how often they use it, not just on how much they spend. If they use the card 20 or more times per month, they earn 20 percent extra reward points on those purchases, less returns and credits.

The company says it created the card with “busy moms” and other multi-takers in mind. Users get double reward points at supermarkets on purchases of up to $6,000 a year.

The card also incorporates advanced EMV anti-fraud technology, which uses a code and an embedded chip, rather than a magnetic stripe, to connect with retailers’ registers at check-out.

Asked by ABC News for his opinion of the new card, Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of CardHub, a site that helps consumers comparison-shop for card plans and features, calls it a good card with above-average features.

“But from a rewards standpoint,” he says, “it’s not anything that would make you say, ‘Wow.’”

He also calls the EMV feature “not a big deal.” Most U.S. merchants, he says, don’t yet take EMV-equipped cards because their registers haven’t yet been updated to accept that technology.

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