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American Express (Amex) has restructured the rewards on its Membership Rewards Credit Card (MRCC) with effect from April 1, 2021. In an email sent to card members today, Amex announced the change. Let’s look at the details of the reorganization of this bounty to understand it better.
Change
As of April 1, 2021, the following changes apply to earning Membership Rewards Points on the Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card:
- Monthly Bonus Reward Points: Cardmembers will earn 1,000 Bonus Membership Reward Points on making 4 transactions of Rs. 1,500 or more in each calendar month. Earlier card members used to earn 1,000 bonus points for making 4 transactions of Rs. 1,000 monthly.
- Extra Bonus Reward Points: Cardmembers will earn 1,000 Bonus Membership Reward Points on spending Rs. 20,000 in a month. You need to enroll for this benefit This Form.
- Welcome Reward Points: Cardmembers will earn 4,000 Bonus Membership Reward Points on spending Rs. 15,000 in the first 90 days of card membership. Earlier new card members used to earn 4,000 Bonus Membership Reward Points for spending Rs. 5,000 in the first 90 days of card membership.
ground level
The table below summarizes the reward rates for redeeming 18,000 reward points for Rs. 7,000 Amazon vouchers from 18 ct gold collection:
| spends | Reward Points | reward rate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | bonus | Total | ||
| Rupee. 20,000 * 12 = Rs. 2,40,000 | 4,800 | 24,000 | 28,800 | 4.66% |
| Rupee. 6,000 * 12 = Rs. 72,000 | 1,440 | 12,000 | 13,440 | 7.24% |
As you can see from the table above, if you only pay Rs. 6,000 per month. However in this case you will have to pay the annual fee as you have to pay at least Rs. 1.5 lakh in a year for annual fee waiver. Plus you won’t be able to earn enough Reward Points to redeem from the 18K Gold Collection as it requires at least 18,000 Membership Reward Points. So I would suggest spending Rs. 20,000 per month to maximize profit. Note that the reward rate can be increased further if you redeem for Taj or Tanishq vouchers.
Though this is definitely bad news for those who used to spend just Rs. 4,000 per month to get bonus 1,000 membership reward points. Now they have to spend Rs. 6,000 per month to get 1,000 bonus reward points.
Overall I liked this reorganization as Amex Membership is providing more opportunities to earn rewards points. The 4.66% reward rate is impressive and even better than some of the premium credit cards available in India. I usually used to spend Rs. 1.5 lakh annually for fee waiver. Now I increase the annual expenditure to Rs. 2.4 Lakh to get 12,000 more bonus reward points.
What do you think about Amex’s change to earn monthly bonus reward points? Are you planning to change your strategy to get the most out of the Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card? Let me know in the comments below.
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