When I posted about the fact that American Express & Lowe’s had extended their co-branded credit card partnership readers had several questions regarding this card so I thought I’d review it in detail so those questions could be answered.
Contents
Card Basics
- No annual fee
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x points on US restaurants, US office supply stores and on wireless telephone services purchased directly from US service providers
- 2x points at Lowe’s
- 1x points on all other purchases
- 5% off Lowe’s purchases
- 5,000 points after $100 in spend within the first 30 days. As far as I know this is the best sign up bonus on this card, if anybody knows of any others please let me know.
What Card Points Be Used For & How Much Are They Worth?
This card does not earn American Express Membership Rewards points. It earns Lowe’s Business Rewards points and these can be redeemed for the following:
- Lowe’s Gift Cards
- American Express Gift Cards
- Gas Rewards Cards
- Outdoor Rewards Cards
You need to redeem a minimum of 2,500 points at a time. The value you get depends on what you redeem the points for, for example:
- $25 Lowe’s, Gas, Outdoor Rewards gift card = 2,500 points (1¢ per point)
- $25 American Express gift card = 3,500 points (0.714¢ per point)
You can view the options here.
5% Off Lowe’s
In addition to earning 2x points at Lowe’s, this card also lets you earn 5% off Lowe’s purchases. It’s important to note that you can’t use this with:
- any coupon;
- Lowe’s military discount;
- Lowe’s employee discount;
- Lowe’s low price guarantee;
- Lowe’s volume or special discount programs such as, but not limited to “QSP”; manager discretion price adjustments; contractor packs;
- or any other offer which expressly states it can’t be combined with any other discount credit offer.
Can also not be used on the following products and/or services:
- extended protection/replacement plans;
- shipping, delivery or assembly charges;
- fees or taxes;
- gift cards;
- Dacor,
- ICON,
- Fisher & Paykel,
- Monogram,
- Smeg or Liebherr appliances (some brands not available in all markets/stores);
- or Weber or Kichler products.
It’s possible to get 10% off Lowe’s coupons fairly easily. The two easiest ways are as follows:
- People sell them on eBay, usually not terribly expensive
- You can get them in USPS moving packs when you change your address
Because of that I think the 5% off discount is fairly/entirely useless.
Our Verdict
Points are worth a maximum of 1¢ and there are better options for dining & office supply store purchases. In addition there are a lot of cards that earn at a higher rate on all purchases than this card does on just Lowe’s purchases. The sign up bonus is also exceptionally small (you can view better offers here). Because of all these factors I don’t recommend anybody signs up for this card. You can learn more about American Express cards and their policies by clicking here.
