Update 8/2/24: Some are targeted for 30,000 Membership Rewards bonus for opening this account. Others got 20,000. Others are not targeted at all. You can see if you’re targeted in the ‘Offers’ section in the login on personal Membership Rewards-earning cards. (ht BleedBlue__)
Original Post 2/8/22:
American Express Checking
Direct link | Press Release
American Express is launching a new digital checking account with no fees or minimums and free Moneypass ATM withdrawals. The account will also come with a rewards-earning debit card (more on that below) and the ability to deposit checks, all with no fees.
The account will initially be reserved for American Express consumer cardholders. Amex already has previously a digital savings account, and also a digital checking account for businesses called Kabbage.
Interest Rate
The checking account will pay interest, currently offers .50% 1% APY interest.
That’s competitive with top savings account rates (including Amex’s own digital savings account), a rare thing to find in a checking account.
Membership Rewards
The account will come with a debit card which will earn 1 Membership Rewards point per $2 spent on the card.
Membership Rewards points earned are the same as those earned on American Express credit cards and can be combined with card points to maximize their value. Or they can be cashed out to the checking account at a rate of .8 cents per point ($8 per 1,000 points).
The thing that confuses me here is that traditionally there’s never been such a thing as an American Express debit card; prepaid cards like Bluebird run similar to how credit cards run and I don’t recall there ever being an Amex card that comes with a PIN. Perhaps Amex has partnered with Visa or Mastercard to run their debit card? Or perhaps this whole ‘debit card’ is a sham and it’ll function similar to how Bluebird works? I’m not sure.
Update: from the image I added above, it looks like a regular Amex card, so I’m guessing this will work like Bluebird and function like a credit card. The card is slated to have PIN which can be used at checkout or at the ATM, but it’s not clear that payment processors will recognize the card as a standard debit card for PIN or non-PIN usage purposes.
Our Verdict
This sounds like one of the best digital checking accounts out there as checking accounts rarely earn any interest at all. I’m doubtful the debit card will function as a debit card at all. The only usefulness I see in the rewards angle is for someone who refuses to use a credit card, this could be an interesting starter account for them to get into a normal credit card rewards program. Readers note that this might also be useful as a free way of keeping Membership Rewards points alive if you close out a fee-based Amex card. This also sets a floor for the cash value of MR points at .8 cents per point.
Regardless, the interest-earning checking account is still an interesting development. Would be more interesting if they add a signup bonus offer for this checking account, which is something possibly we can see in the future.