Pros
- 60,000 points initial bonus offer
- No foreign fee
Cons
- $150 annual fee
- No preset spending limit
American Express® Green Card
Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Plus, earn 20% back on eligible travel and transit purchases made during your first 6 months of Card Membership, up to $200 back in the form of a statement credit.
Rewards Details
- Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Plus, earn 20% back on eligible travel and transit purchases made during your first 6 months of Card Membership, up to $200 back in the form of a statement credit.
- Earn 3X Membership Rewards® points on travel including airfare, hotels, cruises, tours, car rentals, campgrounds, and vacation rentals.
- Earn 3X Membership Rewards® Points on transit purchases including trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses, and subways.
- Earn 3X Membership Rewards® points on eligible purchases at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the US.
- $189 CLEAR Plus Credit: Receive up to $189 per calendar year in statement credits when you pay for your CLEAR Plus membership (subject to auto-renewal) with the American Express® Green Card.
- $100 LoungeBuddy: No airport lounge membership? No problem! Purchase lounge access through the LoungeBuddy app using the American Express® Green Card and receive up to $100 in statement credits annually.
- Terms Apply.
Additional Info
- Payment Flexibility: When it comes to paying your bill, you have options. You can always pay in full. You also have the flexibility to carry a balance with interest or use Plan It® to split up large purchases into monthly payments with a fixed fee, up to your Pay Over Time Limit. You may be able to keep spending beyond your limit – you’ll just need to pay for any new purchases in full when your bill is due.
- Trip Delay Insurance: If a round-trip is paid for entirely with your Eligible Card and a covered reason delays your trip more than 12 hours, Trip Delay Insurance can help reimburse certain additional expenses purchased on the same Eligible Card, up to $300 per trip, maximum 2 claims per eligible account per 12 consecutive month period. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Coverage is provided by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees: No matter where you’re traveling, when you use your American Express® Green Card there are no foreign transaction fees.
- $150 annual fee.
- This American Express Card has no preset spending limit, giving you purchasing power that adjusts with your use of the card. No preset spending limit does not mean unlimited spending. Your purchases are approved based on a variety of factors including spending patterns, your payment history, your credit history, and financial resources known to us.
- More Details & Reviews About American Express® Green Card
American Express Green Card Review Summary
The American Express® Green Card is a card for people with good or excellent credit who want to earn extra rewards on travel expenses and at restaurants. It is best for high-spenders who plan to pay the bill in full each month and anticipate spending enough to more than cover the cost of the card’s $150 annual fee via rewards earnings.
The Amex Green Card’s best features are its bonus rewards and travel benefits. New applicants can earn an initial bonus of 60,000 points by spending $3,000 within 6 months of opening a new account. All cardholders earn 3 points per $1 spent on travel, transit and restaurant purchases. And that’s supplemented by hundreds of dollars in credits annually.
The Amex Green Card’s worst features are its $150 annual fee and its lack of a clearly defined spending limit.
You can learn more about American Express Green Card below.
Advantages of the American Express Green Card
60,000 Points for an Initial Bonus
Those bonus points, which new cardholders can earn by spending $3,000 in the first 6 months, are worth an average of $402 when redeemed through American Express Membership Rewards based on our calculations. On average, credit cards offering an initial bonus in the form of points or miles give roughly 29,788 (worth around $231).
So, based on initial points alone, Amex Green’s welcome bonus offer figures to be better than average. Fortunately for applicants who time things right, bonus points might not be the only thing in your welcome wagon. You can also earn 20% back on eligible travel and transit purchases made during the first 6 months, up to $200 back in the form of a statement credit.
Extra Rewards on Travel, Transit & Dining
Amex Green gives 3 points per $1 spent on all travel-related purchases as well as all purchases made at restaurants around the world (including takeout and delivery in the U.S.). That works out to about 2.31% cash back, on average.
Travel includes everything from airfare and hotel reservations to cruises and car rentals, whether booked directly with a travel provider or through a third-party travel comparison website. Transit purchases (including trains, taxi, rideshare services, tolls, buses, and subways) also yield 3 points per $1 spent.
Annual Travel Credits
Amex Green cardholders are eligible for a pair of yearly bonuses that can help make travel more efficient and more comfortable. There’s up to $189 in credits annually to reimburse cardholders for membership fees for the airport screening service CLEAR. In addition, there’s up to $100 per year in credits for airport lounge access via the service LoungeBuddy.
If you fly frequently and don’t already have access to savings on those services, that’s great news. But if you’re unlikely to use them often, don’t give these features too much emphasis when deciding which card to apply for.
Disadvantages of the American Express Green Card
$150 Annual Fee
For context, the average annual fee on a credit card is roughly $21.65. In other words, the American Express Green Card is about seven times more expensive than the average credit card. That doesn’t necessarily mean Amex Green is a bad deal. Rather, it just has an uphill climb to prove it deserves a spot in your wallet.
Below-Average Base Rewards Rate
Purchases that fall outside of the bonus rewards categories yield just 1 point per $1 with the Amex Green Card. That’s pretty standard for a rewards card, but most credit card points are worth a penny each. Amex points get you a bit less than that, on average.
No Preset Spending Limit (NPSL)
The American Express Green Card does have a spending limit; you just won’t know exactly what it is at any given time. The limit may vary over time, based on your spending and payment history as well as broader market factors. And American Express probably won’t communicate such changes to you proactively.
As a result, you won’t ever really know how close you are to maxing out your card. That could make it difficult to rely on Amex Green alone.
Limited Financing Capabilities
Amex Green is a hybrid card, which means cardholders must pay off most charges by the due date each billing period in order to continue making purchases the next. However, a certain portion of your balance will be eligible to be paid off over time, with interest. The APR for such a balance depends on your creditworthiness and other factors.
Cardholders will have the option to choose specific recent purchases for longer-term repayment, through Amex’s Pay Over Time feature. Eligible purchases will automatically fall into the longer-term repayment bucket, up to a certain limit. All charges not added to a Pay Over Time balance must be paid in full each month by the payment due date. Also, cardholders can still pay their balance in full by the due date with no limitation.
Other Features of the American Express Green Card
Instant Card Number
If American Express can instantly verify your identity and decides to approve you for an account, you won’t have to wait for your physical card to arrive in the mail to begin making purchases. Amex will give a so-called instant card number that you can use in the meantime. You may not have access to your full credit line until the card arrives, however, which should happen within 7-10 business days of approval.
Made From 70% Recycled Ocean Plastic
The American Express Green Card is largely made from recycled plastic that was reclaimed from oceans, beaches and coastal areas. So, the card isn’t just green in name and coloring alone; it’s eco-friendly, too. Amex has partnered with the organization Parley for the Oceans for this effort.
No Foreign Transaction Fee
The American Express Green Card’s 0% foreign transaction fee makes it suitable for international spending. But American Express cards are not accepted in as many countries as other major card networks.
Assorted Amex Perks
Cardholders get access to special deals on tickets to things like sporting events and concerts, along with offers for everyday savings opportunities and various other benefits available with any American Express card.
Applicants Need Good Credit or Better
We recommend a credit score of 700+ to comfortably satisfy the American Express Green Card’s credit score requirement. If you don’t know where you stand, you can check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub.
In addition to good-to-excellent credit, the American Express Green Card’s requirements include being 18+ years old, having a Social Security number, living in the U.S., and earning much more income than you spend on debt payments and other major expenses, among others.
American Express Green Card vs. the Competition
In order to help put the American Express® Green Card into context, we compared it to some of its most popular competitors.
Info | American Express® Green Card | American Express® Gold Card | The Platinum Card® from American Express | Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express |
---|---|---|---|---|
Annual Fee | $150 | $250 | $695 | $0 intro 1st yr, $95 after |
Bonus Offer | 60,000 points | 60,000 points | 80,000 points | $250 |
Rewards Rate | 1 - 3 points / $1 | 1 - 4 points / $1 | 1 - 5 points / $1 | 1 - 6% Cash Back |
Purchase Intro APR | N/A | N/A | N/A | 0% for 12 months |
Transfer Intro APR | N/A | N/A | N/A | 0% for 12 months Transfer Fee: 3% (min $5) |
Regular APR | See Pay Over Time APR | See Pay Over Time APR | See Pay Over Time APR | 18.99% - 29.99% (V) |
Editors' Rating | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3 | 4.7 |
Details, Rates & Fees | Learn More Rates & Fees Terms Apply | Learn More Rates & Fees Terms Apply | Learn More Rates & Fees Terms Apply | Learn More Rates & Fees Terms Apply |
American Express® Green Card Review Methodology
This American Express® Green Card review is based on WalletHub’s proprietary 100-point credit card rating system. By using a consistent methodology to evaluate the American Express® Green Card and all other cards, WalletHub’s credit card experts make it easy for people to compare their options and find the best credit cards for their needs.
The WalletHub rating system uses 16 key metrics grouped into seven categories: Fees, Rewards, Two-year Cost, Interest Rates, Approval Requirements, Special Features, and Reviews. Each metric has a maximum number of points allocated to it, based on the metric’s importance as determined by our editors. The points are added up to create an overall rating for the American Express® Green Card out of a maximum of 100 points, which is then converted to a 5-point scale.
Ratings for each category reflect how close Amex Green card is to WalletHub’s definition of a 5-star credit card, which is based on market conditions and what we believe are reasonable terms. We compare Amex Green card to that standard to give a numerical approximation of how reasonable and competitive its terms are compared to other cards.
To learn more about how WalletHub rates credit card offers, check out our full credit card review methodology.