I’m frequently asked why my favourite credit card is American Express Air Miles Platinum card. And if I claim to be such a cheapo, then why do I pay an annual fee when I could easily use a card that’s free? Of course, my number one reason is the bonus Air Miles, but there’s many more benefits to an American Express card.
First of all, I’m a music lover. I don’t go out much because of the kids, but there are still times when I want to see certain artists live. “Front of the Line” events allow American Express card holders to buy their concert tickets before they go on sale to the general public. There is nothing worse than getting called into a meeting at work or having to deal with a poopy baby right when the Ticketmaster online sale starts!
Apparently American Express loves music too! An AMEX sponsored event last month was an online concert by the British band Coldplay. Pretty cool…
Who doesn’t love Chris Martin and Coldplay?
From time to time, American Express gives their credit card holders who have registered their email address the opportunity to enrol in special offers. I haven’t figured out why they can’t do this automatically for all of their card holders but of course, I always sign up for anything that is available. In the summer, there was an offer for American Express Air Miles Platinum Credit Card holders to earn double the Air Miles reward miles on additional purchases after spending a minimum amount stated on your personalized email. Ohhh…bonus miles…
The latest offer that I received is perfectly timed for holiday online shopping. All you have to do is enrol and spend a total of $100 CAD or more online at the specified participating retailers (including Old Navy, Toys R Us, and Best Buy). These purchases must be made between the dates October 17, 2011 to December 31, 2011 and charged on your American Express credit card in order to receive a $25 American Express Gift Card. Spending $100 for Christmas presents or during the Boxing Day sales won’t be hard to do.
Last but not least, American Express is the only credit card accepted at Costco. Costco and American Express offer a no annual fee card called TrueEarnings. This card gives cashback at the end of the year instead of accumulating points. It is a shame to waste Air Miles or TrueEarnings if you are a Costco member and you pay in cash. This is easily the most popular card choice in my network of friends and colleagues due to the Costco incentives.
What’s your favourite credit card and why? Please leave your comments below!
My favourite credit cards are the Platinum Air Miles AMEX and PC Mastercard. I use the AMEX as my first choice but if a store doesn’t accept it, out comes the PC Mastercard which seems to give me free groceries every month! Only 20,000 points will get you $20 in groceries and after that you can redeem in increments of 10,000 so you can save $30 with 30,000. One time I opened up an envelope notifying me that I had $120 of groceries waiting for me! Happy Holidays! 🙂
Super! My alternate card is BMO AirMiles Mastercard so I can focus my energy on just one loyalty program. The PC card only makes sense if you shop at the Loblaw family of stores frequently, which I don’t. I’ve been told that if you bank at PC Financial you can earn even more PC points.
I would love to hear more about air miles and how people can benefit from them…I am sure my readers would too! 😉
Martilyo, the AirMiles program in the US was an epic fail but two-thirds of Canadian households have an AirMiles card! Is there another program where Americans can earn frequent flier points in a similar way?
We recently took the plunge and got a credit card with an annual fee was well. We went for the CIBC Infinite Aerogold Visa because I found that I was accumulating Aeroplan miles at a much faster rate than Air Miles due to where we shopped and who we travelled with (to my dismay, we seem to end up on Air Canada a lot).
Also, when we signed up, we received an automatic 40,000 bonus miles, and I already had about 40,000 on my own. With the miles we accumulate over the next year, and the balance I already had, it looks like our flights for our wedding will be covered purely on points. This made the annual fee worth it.
I did look at the Air Miles cards, and I used to have an American Express (which I loved), but our default rewards plan ends up being Aeroplan all the time.
That’s awesome! I like to hear what the other credit card incentives are. The AMEX works for me because of where I shop and gas up today but in the past, I used a no-fee Esso points Visa card. Do you take full advantage of your card by using Visaperks.ca, the Aeroplan PIN codes on Tropicana orange juice, shopping at Sobeys, etc.?
I have taken advantage of the Tropicana promos in the past. I don’t shop at Sobeys yet since to me, it seems pricey. What is your impression of Sobeys?
I haven’t used Visa perks yet but I probably will use the Aeroplan “store” and do some online shopping through them to get extra points.
Sobeys isn’t my first choice because of location and prices. However, their meat is decent and if you hit a sale, it is worthwhile going. Club Sobeys is the only loyalty program that I do not participate in.
I just recently got an American Express Gold Card, detpsie the fact that I highly dislike annual fees (the first year is free and I’ll cancel it before I pay the next fee). When I’ve spent $500 I’ll get Halo 4 and two years of XBox Live. At undiscounted prices, that’s over $200 with tax. It’s literally the two things I wanted for myself for Xmas, and I’m getting them for free. Yeah I’m kind of hard to buy for.