2026.1 Update: The new offer is $250.
2025.3 Update: The new offer is $250. Offer expires on April 15, 2025.
2023.9 Update: The new offer is $250. Offer expires on Oct 31, 2023.
Application Link
Benefits
- $250 welcome offer. See below for the requirements to get this bonus. Offer expires on 2026.1.31.
- Earn 1x Membership Rewards (MR) points for every $2 debit card purchases.
- MR points are worth about 1.6 cents/point, therefore a 0.5x earning rate is equivalent to about 0.8% in return.
- Earn 0.50% APY on your balance. That’s a good APY even compared to savings accounts.
- $0 monthly fee. No minimum balance requirement.
This account does not support wire payments, overdraft protection, or online bill payment for now. It also does not support Zelle yet.[Update] They have all these features already now.- AmEx is very new to the debit card market so we don’t know its acceptance rate yet.
- You can only open this account if you have an AmEx credit card for more than 3 months.
- If you only have this account, you can’t transfer your MR points to its partner mileage programs, you can only redeem it towards cash at a very poor rate. If you have a credit card that earns MR, then you will be able to transfer the points that you earn from this account.
Bonus Requirements
- You are not eligible for the Welcome Bonus if you have an existing Rewards Checking Account.
- Direct Deposit (DD) requirement: Receive a total of $5,000 or more of Qualifying Direct Deposit(s) within 90 days.
Summary
Finally AmEx has its own checking account. Earning MR points on debit card purchases is a good feature, even though the rate is only 0.5x.
Application Link
If you like this post, don’t forget to give it a 5 star rating!
[Total: 6 Average: 4.2/5]
