snic

Precisely why Amex is losing the battle. Chase's benefits are easy to use; Amex's are a PITA. That's why I've reamed Amex for sign-up bonuses and then closed the card, whereas I've reamed Chase for sign-up bonuses but then kept the card and spent a lot of money on it.

The one exception is the EDP... almost. At least the reward structure is simple. If that card offered 2x points per dollar instead of 1.5, AND Amex were more universally accepted (there are still plenty of small businesses that don't accept it), that could potentially become my go-to card.

tmiw

Speaking of AmEx and other banking products, wasn't Serve and Bluebird supposed to be part of their foray into those? Granted, prepaid cards aren't full replacements for checking accounts and they still don't issue mortgages and such.

Troopers

Or until Amex offers a whopping 200k MR signup bonus. The most popular card will be the card with the most generous signup bonus. CSR is old news.

STS-134

That'll drive signups. But few of those new members will actually keep the card past the first anniversary without compelling rewards points earn rates and easy to use benefits. Chase nailed all of those, with the 100k UR points bonus, benefits that are easy to use, and high rewards points earn rates on categories of spend that Millennials care about: dining and travel. And Amex continues to go down the path toward irrelevance, rolling out yet another annoying to use benefit. You think I actually want to order a cheap lunch from UberEats every MONTH, as opposed to doing maybe 3 dinner orders from nice restaurants over the course of the year? I'll do it, to make it worth paying the AF, but it's really annoying.

josephstern

Partially - and also partially a play to get a different demographic into their ecosystem.

But they got the MSers and the 'underbanked' with those products, and gave up, largely.

They don't seem to have or want a middle ground deposit banking option.

Troopers

The CSR certainly wouldn't be as popular today had it not offered 100k bonus day one. And it's TBD if card holders will renew. The CSP is the better card for the average person.

mhdena

From the reports of people who cashed in the 100k points, probably half of the original CSR signups will/have cancel/ed before they pay another fee.

josephstern

That's FTers.

Many, many will keep it out of inertia.

mjgoldstein9

AMEX should have given consumers a 5x dining category instead of hotels booked thru amex travel. They did that because they get a kick back on all bookings made thru their portal. They also need to make points be worth 1c for cash. With miles inevitably becoming obsolete they need to reinvent the value of a MR point.

I like how they Schwab Platinum card can be used to invest a MR as 1.25c into a brokerage account. That is pretty cool, but the 50% refund on points on a personal card would make it a game changer.

Troopers

Ah, aren't millennials the most frequent Uber users? And it's quite easy to use.

STS-134

Oh? So long as one spends enough on the CSP to justify the AF on that card, and as at least $300 in travel expenses a year, one will be spending enough to justify the AF on the CSR (only $55 more) based on the increased earn on UR points in travel/dining (1 extra UR point/$). If you do the math, the CSP is only better if you don't have enough travel expenses to use the travel benefit. I don't know very many people who don't spend at least $300 in travel a year.

Probably. I'm a bit unusual for Millennials I guess. I have a car and I drive it almost everywhere, and I have no intention of ever giving it up. By contrast, some of my friends live in the city and don't even own cars. The whole Uber thing is probably either very good or very bad, depending on the individual. I know of few people who use Uber and only use it once a month. If people use it, they typically use it frequently, and if not, it's either rare to never.

BlueEngineer

Yes, the Uber offers are easy to use, but it feels like Amex is really only trying to offer these travel discounts in name only- making them more difficult to use than need be.

I really appreciate that Chase lets me decide where to best use my "Travel Credit" at anytime during the year. Yes, I can usually use up my Uber credit, but this month for example, I have almost exclusively been using Lyft. On my CSR, that's no problem burning through the credits, with my Amex credit, it's just another thing I need to watch out for.

Most of my millennial friends who are interested in Plat/CSR type products have swayed towards the ease of use for the CSR credits.

mikesyr18

I do agree with you there, though. AMEX is old school, but I do like their superior dispute resolution, and they don't have a 5/24 rule which disqualifies me from getting any of their Ultimate Rewards cards.

I ordered Pizza Hut and they did anything they could to not make me happy... Ignored me on social media, false advertised, said the oven wasn't up to the proper temp so the order would be delayed, etc.

In the end I got my $17.80 back no questions asked.

mikesyr18

Even the EDP rewards structure isn't simple.

You need 30 transactions a month to get the 50% bonus, and then they add in little asterisks like how warehouse gas stations don't count as grocery stores or gas stations.

I also explained earlier about the month-long lag in rewards, which is ridiculous to say the least. The rewards should be available once the statement hits at the end of the cycle.

crimsona

That lag is a very US centric issue. Canadian membership rewards are usable once the transaction posts, no need to even wait for statement to post. Sign-up bonuses post and are usable once the threshold transaction posts (usually. Otherwise wait 8 to 10 weeks for a manual sweep)

Sadly Chase Canada is all but out of the country, down to just one card (Marriott), having sold or discontinued everything else. No ultimate rewards here for the foreseeable future