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Amex also has major changes in protection benefits effective January 1, 2020

11/17/2019

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After Citi's September overhaul and Barclay's November overhaul of their credit card protection benefits, Amex will also have some major changes coming on January 1, 2020.  Here are the breakdowns of the upcoming changes.
  • Trip Cancellation & Interruption: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant.  This covers trips cancelled or interrupted due to weather, terrorism, sudden illness or injury, jury duty, up to $10,000 per trip and $20,000 per year.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
  • Trip Delay: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, for flight delays more than 6 hours, up to $500 per ticket.  Also added to Gold Card (personal and business), Green Card, and Delta Platinum (personal and business), for flight delays more than 12 hours, up to $300 per ticket.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
  • Travel Accident Insurance: removed from all cards!
  • Roadside Assistance: removed from all cards!  For most cards it is not big deal, as the benefit only dispatches a service provider and you still have to pay for the service.  However, certain premium Amex cards such as Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant currently offer Premium Roadside Assistance which covers towing up to 10 miles and other incidentals for free, for up to 4 times per year, and this benefit will be gone as well!  Many cardholders including myself, actually use the Premium Roadside Assistance in lieu of AAA's basic plan, and in 2020 they have to look into alternatives such as Chase Sapphire Reserve (which unfortunately only covers up to $50 per use) or start paying AAA once again.
  • Return Protection: removed from all cards except for Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, Blue Cash Preferred, EveryDay Preferred, and Plum Card (business).
  • Extended Warranty: coverage will be reduced from two years of extended warranty down to one year.  Remember Amex actually just increased the coverage from one year to two years back in August 2018, and in 2020 the only card issuer that continue to offer two years of extended warranty is Citi (and only for certain cards).  What is more, this benefit will be removed entirely for EveryDay Card, Blue Card, Blue Cash Card, and Cash Magnet.
  • Purchase Protection: coverage will be reduced from 120 days back to 90 days.  The same story here - Amex just increased the coverage from 90 days to 120 days in August 2018.  The coverage usually covers only theft or damage, up to $1,000 per item and $50,000 per year, but Amex will add accidental loss and increase the per item limit to $10,000 for Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant. 

Overall, the changes are mixed - some gain and some loss - but not as bad as Citi's drastic devaluation.  The cards that benefit from the changes are probably limited to those with an annual fee at least $450 - Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant; the rest of the cards are generally considered to receive reduced coverage.  We think most cardholders will be unhappy about the changes.  We will update our Protection page once these changes kick in.
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Barclays credit card protection benefit cut kicked in on November 1, 2019

11/15/2019

2 Comments

 
Following Citi's drastic devaluation of credit card protection benefits, Barclays has also cut quite a few protection benefits on its credit card portfolio effective November 1, 2019.  The following benefits are removed from most of their credit cards:
  • Trip Delay
  • Price Protection
  • Extended Warranty
  • Purchase Assurance a.k.a, Purchase Protection
  • Satisfaction Guarantee a.k.a. Return Protection

At the same time, just like other MasterCard issuers, Barclays has added Cellphone Protection to its World MasterCard and World Elite MasterCard.  So after the devaluation, Barclays American Airlines Aviator Red Word Elite MasterCard, for example, will offer protection benefits such as Travel Accident Insurance, Travel Cancellation and Interruption, Baggage Delay, Cellphone Protection, Identity Theft, Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver (still secondary), etc.  For details of credit card protection benefits, please visit our Protection page.

Overall, the changes are not as bad as Citi's but still very bad for Barclays' cardholders.  BTW, American Express also has some major benefit changes on the way (kicking in as of 1/1/2020), which we will cover in the next post.  It seems like a trend in the industry, but we will see if other major players such as Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and US Bank will follow suit.
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Revamped Amex Green Card to offer 3x points on travel & dining and become one of the best cards for rewards

11/2/2019

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We never reviewed Amex Green Card because of the mediocre rewards (2x points on travel booked through Amex Travel, 1x everywhere else), until October 2019 when Amex had a major revamp of the card by increasing annual from $95 to $150 but enhancing travel & dining earning to 3x points and adding $100 CLEAR credit & $100 LoungeBuddy credit.  Please see our review for details.  It is now rated as one of the best credit cards for rewards.

The current signup bonus is 
45,000 points after spending $2,000 within 3 months of new account opening; you also receive up to $100 in statement credits for purchases made directly with Away (a travel luggage brand) within the first three months when you apply by January 15, 2020.  This signup bonus is not available to applicants who have or have had this card or any previous Amex Green Card. 

Our analysis: "The annual $100 CLEAR credit and $100 LoungeBuddy credit can't be treated at face value for most customers, so we will still consider the annual fee to be $150 for this card.  Using our current valuation of MR points at 1.5 cents a piece, you need to spend $6,000 a year in travel & dining combined to beat the $150 annual fee and 2% cashback provided by non-fee cards such as 
Citi Double Cash and Fidelity Visa, because $6,000 x 3 point/$ x 1.5 cent/point - $150 = $6,000 x 2%."

The 3x rewards structure is exactly the same as our favorite card Chase Sapphire Reserve which happens to have an effective annual fee of $150 after considering the $300 annual travel credit, and our current valuation of Chase Ultimate Rewards points happens to be the same at 1.5 cents per point.  In general, however, Sapphire Reserve is still a better card due to its travel perks, consumer protection, and enhanced 1.5 cent per point fixed value travel redemption.


Amex Green Card also pairs well with Amex EveryDay Preferred (EDP) to form a formidable MR combo.  We wrote, "with 30 transactions per month, EDP returns 4.5x points on groceries (up to $6K spent each year, = 6.75% rewards) and 3x on gas (=4.5% rewards), while Amex Green returns 3x points on travel and dining (=4.5% rewards).  As for general spending, EDP returns higher rewards at 1.5x (=2.25% rewards) and will be ideal for most purchases other than foreign transactions.  With this powerful combo, you can easily cover all five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, airfare, and non-air travel, with impressive returns - that is an incredible deal! 
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