AMEX Membership Banking - 10,000 MR Points
January 6th, 2009American Express, obviously jealous of Net.B@nk's success and eager to get its share of on-line banking, is launching its own on-line bank. Today, I've received an account application with two "exclusive Cardmember offers" -- No monthly account fees for six months and up to 10,000 MR points.
In essence, there are two types of accounts: Money Market (currently earning 5.00% APR) and Interest Checking (2.00% APR). Both provide free check-writing; checks are returned free-of-charge; free unlimited on-line access (how generous..); an ATM card (MAC/HONOR/Star/Cash Station/PULSE/The Exchange/NYCE/TYME-system compatible); free first set of checks; minimum opening balance $100. In addition, Interest Checking has an overdraft protection facility and rebates up to 4 ATM surcharges per month. After the initial 6 months, Money Market will carry a fee of $5/month, waived for balances of $5,000 or more in this or all combined accounts, and Interest Checking will carry a fee of $7.50/month, waived if balance in this account is higher than $2,500, or if combined balances in all accounts exceed $5,000.
Now, it gets interesting. If you open an account with initial deposit of $5,000 or more, you will get 10,000 MR points (credited in 6 to 8 weeks after your Membership Banking account had been approved and reported to IRS as taxable interest income, thank you very much and twice on Saturday night). For an initial deposit of $2,500, one will get 5,000 MR points. Account(s) must remain open for at least 6 months, or the points will be forfeited.
The letter said that additional details and a demo will be available at www.americanexpress.com/banking; (http://www.americanexpress.com/banking;) however, this does not seem to be working yet.
I suspect that I received this promotion (1)either by some mistake before most people did, and that never happens, normally http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif, or (2) because I paid some of my bills via AP from Net.B@nk. The letter stated 1-888-356-1006 as a contact number for inquiries; it also carried a Bonus ID # 7169 -- so, it is definitely worth trying to give AMEX (or, rather, the American Express Centurion Bank -- this name never fits on MS Money line for Payee..) a call and try to get this offer. Probably, the Gold / Platinum members will get an even better deal, compared to us, poor Student Cardmembers...
Alas, another development in my love-hate relationship with American Express.
Best luck, guys.
Vlad
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Dan
They told me that since I was not in their database, if I would fax them a copy of the letter, then I could receive the 10k membership rewards points.
This may extend AMEX's life in my wallet for another year, even with the $150 annual fee on the Rewards+Gold card. I had previously calculated that with my spending patterns the AMEX Rewards+ card offered me 9000 more points/year (with the 1.5 miles/$) than the Starwood AMEX (including the 20K->25K redemption deal). Coupled with the 10,000 points from the above banking offer plus a few thousand points from various promos AMEX runs during the year, I figure I'll be getting 20-25K miles for $150. That's decent, but unfortunatly not enough.
However, the good luck is upon us -- it's alive? it's alive!
I am not going to pay $150 for the privilege of giving them my business.
VladdieD (the flyer previously known as Vlad) http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
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Dan
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