Card Features and Benefits:

American Express has relaunched the Green Card to more directly compete with high performing mid-tier cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offering a bit more than each of them in exchange for a $150 annual fee (vs. $95 on those other cards).

3X Membership Rewards on Travel and Dining

The biggest feature of the American Express® Green Card is 3X American Express Membership Rewards points on Travel, Transit and Dining (globally), besting the 2X offered on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and equaling the 3X points offered by the Chase Sapphire Reserve (albeit with a $550 annual fee / $300 travel credit on the Reserve, making that card essentially the same $150 fee but feeling like more).

What Counts as Travel?

Amex counts airfare, hotel, cruises, and car rentals as travel. Gas is not included in this bonus category.

What counts as Transit?

• Trains
• Taxi cabs
• Ride share services
• Ferries
• Tolls
• Parking
• Buses
• Subways

The new Amex Green card also comes with a few annual credits:

• $189 credit towards a CLEAR membership for expedited airport security lines (Enrollment Required).
• $100 credit to Lounge Buddy (airport lounges - a competitor to Priority Pass lounge access (Enrollment required).

Overall, Amex has substantially upped the game compared to the legacy Green card and it gets even better if you can use the multiple $100 credits offered.

Note that while this is a great way to earn the 3x points on travel, you would do even better on dining (4X) with the American Express Gold Card.

The Amex Green Card Functions as a Credit Card

The new Amex Green card is part of the same family of Amex proprietary cards formerly referred to as charge cards. However, the Green Card has a built-in Pay Over Time feature, making it function in many ways as any other standard credit card. Unlike a typical credit card, the Green Card allows you to carry a balance for certain charges, although not all.

What this means: Amex generally limits a cardmember to 4 credit cards (personal and small business combined), while they have no limit on proprietary Amex cards (formerly known as Charge).  This means that even if you already have 4 Amex credit cards, you would still be eligible for a Green Card.

Bonus Eligibility: They still state that if you had the Green Card before, you are not eligible for a welcome bonus on this card. So you'll be eligible if you have less than 5-6 Amex charge cards and have never had the Amex Green card before.

More American Express credit cards

Note: All information about the Green Card has been collected independently by Your Best Credit Cards. The American Express® Green Card is no longer available as an affiliate offer but another offer link is being provided for your convenience.