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American Express Credit Cards
Do you have excellent credit? Have you done your best to establish a clean credit history without fail? If so, then your reward is applying for an American Express credit card. These offers are for those who want to take advantage of rewards programs and who have excellent credit histories. Though many other issuers have caught up after years of trailing with their rewards programs, the Membership Rewards program from American Express is still viewed by many as first in its class. When browsing through these products there are two different varieties to be aware of, credit cards and charge cards. The American Express business model as it applied to consumers was originally based on the charge card variety which required and still require consumers to pay their bills in full at the end of every cycle. Though these cards come with annual fees, waived for the first year at times, they are still worht it due to the sophistication of the Membership Rewards program that they work with. With the emergence and popularity of partnerships and rewards cards, American Express began issuing standard credit cards which allow the flexibility to pay over time. These two come with rewards programs, general and partner-specific.
Best American Express Cards
Two different varieties of cards: Which is the best American Express Card, the charge card or revolving balance? It depends on your financial situation and how good you are art paying off your bills. If you are in a good position monetarily, and you can pay your balance off every month and are considering applying for a revolving balance card, why bother? The only time we would suggest doing this if it applies to you is if you are looking at a card with a specific rewards program, like an airline card. Even still, if accruing miles to be used for vacations or flights on a specific carrier, you can still accomplish the same with the general points programs offered by Amex and you can deal with Amex Travel which is just about as sophistaicated, if not more, than most of the other consumer comparison tavel portals.
The advantages to certain revolving cards like the one that allows for Delta miles to be earned is if you live in Atlanta, Delta's hub and this is the airline that you travel on almost exclusively. Additionally, if you are looking for a non-points based incentive card, like a cashback card, you don't have the option of a charge card. The advantage that most like about general American Express cards is that they don't come with the fees that the charge cards do. This and the proactive approach to the possibility of not being able to pay the balance off for one reason or other at the end of a billing cycle make cards like the American Express Blue Card attractive. In our opinion, this is probably the best American Express card that isn't a straight charge card.
One advantage that the charge cards do come with are the promotional deals and the ability to access several airport lounges. Some of the promotional deals that you may come across and miss out on if you carry a different card are discounts, concierge services, and in the case of a few years ago during the holiday season, free gift wrapping at select shopping malls upon presentation of your American Express Gold or Platinum. Granted, these are not things that are overly prevalent on a day to day basis, but when you come across these types of deals, it can be quite nice to have the ability to take advantage of them, especially the example of free gift wrapping which can be extremely time consuming.
Either way, you won't be disappointed. The best American Express card will be determined by how you use it and how well you take advantage of the things it has to offer. If you use it as a tool to earn from purchases, it can be a very useful vehicle to provide yourself with certain things that you normally have to pay for, all for free. This includes, meals, tickets, merchandise, or even cash in the form of Amex gift cards. Be careful to keep your account in good standing as the points structures are typically a billing cycle behind and failure to keep current with your offer may result in forfeiture of your pending rewards. On the other hand, there is the flexibility to get a point advance if there is something you need more points to buy that you don't currently have access to.
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