American Express announced a digital personal checking account that earns Membership Rewards in February. It looks like they are considering a business version of this account that would offer the following:
- 20,000 Membership Rewards sign up bonus
- Card earns 1 Membership Rewards per $2 spent
- Account earns 1.1% APY
- $0 monthly fees
This basically mirrors the American Express business checking account but with a 20,000 point bonus instead of $300 and the rewards on debit card spend.
Hat tip to VFTW
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just got email: Open an American Express® Rewards Checking account and receive a $200 deposit bonus after you complete the steps listed below.* Deposit $5,000 within 30 days and keep it there for 90 Days. Offer expires 11/4/22.
this is not a business account BTW
Opened account same day online, linked another account, and ACHed in 5K. Took minutes. Easy as pie and no DD nonsense.
Decent offer for the sign up bonus and interest checking, but the debit card (half MR point per dollar) is weak compared to BBP (2 MR points per dollar) with no annual fee.
I know it is a $300 bonus & a great interest rate, but IMO Amex still does not have their act together in business banking. Disclosures & service has been poor to date. Only took 3 phone calls & 6 emails to close Kabbage account when I refused to provide user name & password to business checking when opening. This was 6 months ago & still not clear if my account was closed. Which genius thought using Yodlee (or Plaid) was a good idea for business account verification? You have zero protection (if something bad happens to your account) from Amex or your bank on a business account, if you provided you user name & password to anyone, under any circumstance. This is not great idea on a personal account either, but at least you have some legal protections as an individual
I wish I could be done with my Kabbage account. 9 months in and I currently cannot log in and best of all I still get notices that I have monthly statements. Each month I stupidly try and close it again and waste another hour of my life. At least it seems I finally have managed to get the entire balance out of the account when they sent a paper check for a few cents of interest back around the end of the year. Merry Christmas to me.
Kabbage and Amex Biz Checking are run by different banks and different customer service teams. Yes they are both Amex products, but Kabbage is Green Dot Bank, Amex Biz Checking is Amex Bank. Amex Biz Checking is night and day better than Kabbage. In my experience, in October 2021 on the first day that you could open an account, I asked a question through the chat and was given an answer. About 2 hours later, a get a phone call from a US based supervisor with an apology that the chat agent gave me the incorrect response.
What’s your suggestion on a good business banking account then?
1 cent per 1 MR redemption would be nice too, if only.
Is Amex debit (and discover debit) work same way where Visa/MC debit cards work?
Yes! - The first time I used my Amex Biz Checking debit card it I was immediately prompted to enter a PIN and I couldn't bypass the PIN. Other times it went through like a credit card purchase - no pin needed. It may have also been because that was my first purchase.
Would it be wise to close the other AmEx business checking now to qualify for this?
No, I would wait. Back in October 2021 in the original press release, Amex announced that the Biz Checking would earn Membership Rewards sometime in 2022.
Also wondering about this
They will have to get their act together before they do this.
1. No alerts on the Biz Chkg.
2. Not able to put a beneficiary or POD on the Biz Chkg.
3. Not able to download to Quicken on the Biz Chkg.
Agree with TKB, no business accounts let you do POD. Thais why I hate minimum balances. I keep a signed check to my spouse for the minimum balance in the safe for that reason.
Not having a beneficiary on the business makes sense. It was explained to me once that since businesses don't "die" there isn't anything to pass along they just get new owners who aquire the assets. Are there any business accounts who allow POD's or Beneficiaries?
Fix transactions description too.
You'll still have to pay tax on points earned as interest. For this reason alone, it doesn't seem like a good deal.
Not sure how much 20k is, but you have to pay taxes on regular bonuses too. If 20k is equivalent to like 200 bucks, it sounds good to me.
I hope they'd just convert the Kabbage checking to this
Don't count on it. Kabbage is run by Green Dot Bank and offers a MasterCard business debit card. Amex Biz Checking is run by Amex Bank wtih an Amex Debit Card.
Why? Collecting bonuses for both Kabbage & AmEx is (was?) a fairly low-hanging $600.
That's a free 30 mins in the champagne with Kristal with a "K" ;)
How much for Cristal with a "C"?
They probably won't since Kabbage is different. But think big, we want another SUB