Already have a charge card and a credit card from American Express, so was somewhat surprised to get an email from them the other day about lifetime complimentary membership to the American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card.

Turns out this would be linked to my existing American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card. I recall they had launched this card with much fanfare around 2017 and back then, they were offering this card as a companion card to the Gold Charge Card.

Last year, during a phone conversation I was asked if I’d be interested in the American Express Platinum Card – a metal card which was a charge card. The benefits on offer were quite tempting but somehow I wasn’t quite able to justify paying an annual fee of Rs.60,000 + taxes when all my other cards are lifetime free. Maybe I’ll try it out for a year, some day

Ok, so coming back, some of the basic features of the American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card are:

– Annual Fee: 1st Year fee is Rs.1,000 plus taxes, 2nd Year onward it is Rs.4,500 plus taxes
– Reward Rate: 1 Membership Rewards Point for every Rs.50 spent except for spend at Fuel, Insurance, Utilities and Cash Transactions
– 5,000 Membership Rewards Points upon First Year Card Renewal, on payment of annual membership fee
– Welcome Gift of 4,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points (only in the 1st year on payment of annual fee and spending Rs.2,000 within 60 days of getting the card.

However, as per the offer, this American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card would remain lifetime free so long as I continued to keep the Platinum Travel Credit Card active.

What I found interesting was the offer of earning 1,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points for using the card 4 times on transactions of Rs.1,000 and above every month, thereby getting 12,000 bonus points in a year. You can check some of the features of this card here. This is the same offer which has been applicable on the American Express Gold Charge Card.

For a moment I thought this “linking” would be similar to the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank credit card. However, there is a difference:
– the credit limit on this Membership Rewards Credit Card is separate from that on the Platinum Travel Credit Card
– there was a credit inquiry with the credit bureau due to this

I’ve been an American Express customer since 2002, and the experience has been a pleasant one, right from their very first Green charge card to their first credit card, then the American Express Kingfisher Credit Card which was converted to the Platinum Travel Card and so on. Looking forward to maximising usage of the American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card as well now.

Have you used an American Express credit or charge card? How has your experience been?