Amex to attract the masses has launched American Express SmartEarn Credit Card. This is an entry level lifestyle credit card with lower joining/renewal fees and lower threshold for spend based annual fee waiver. This is targeted towards beginners who want to add an Amex card to their wallet and yet don’t want to spend a lot on fees.
Rewards & Benefits
American Express SmartEarn Credit Card provides accelerated reward rate of up to 10X on spends at partner merchants. Below table summarises the reward rate for different partner merchants for accelerated rewards:
| Merchants | Reward Rate | Max. Cap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10X Rewards | Flipkart, Uber | ~5% | 500 points per merchant per month |
| 5X Rewards | Amazon, Myntra, Swiggy, Jabong, BookMyShow, PVR, Reliance Fresh, More, Big Bazaar, DMart & Grofers | ~2.5% | 250 points per month |
Apart from above merchants, spends on other merchants will earn 1 reward point per Rs. 50 spent which translates to a reward rate of 0.5%. Also Amex is providing a welcome bonus of Rs. 500 cashback on spending Rs. 10,000 in first 90 days of card membership.
Features
Given that SmartEarn Credit Card is an entry level card, the features are really limited. Some notable features of this card are below:
- Convert big purchases to EMI
- Fuel Convenience Fee waiver at HPCL petrol bunks
Fees
Amex has set following joining and renewal charges for SmartEarn Credit Card:
- Joining Fee: Rs. 495 + GST
- Renewal Fee: Rs. 495 + GST
Renewal fee is waived off on spending Rs. 40,000 and above in the previous year of card membership.
Eligibility
The eligibility of SmartEarn Credit Card is similar to other entry level cards from Amex:
- Personal Annual Income of Rs. 4.5 Lakhs and above
- Resident of Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Indore, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Surat & Vadodra
How to apply?
You can apply for SmartEarn Credit Card on Amex website by filling the following application form:
Bottomline
Clearly Amex is getting aggressive on tapping the entry level market and this card is a step in that direction. However entry level segment is more comfortable with direct cash backs than reward points. Also low cap on maximum rewards per month is another disappointment. You should go for this card only if you want to have an Amex in your wallet to enjoy card offers, but can’t spend enough to get annual fee waiver on other variants.
What do you think of American Express SmartEarn Credit Card? Let me know in comments below.
