U.S. Bank to Release Two New Credit Products Soon – Flexperks Amex and Cashback Amex

MyFico member 14Fiesta is reporting that US Bank is set to release two new credit card products on June 20th.

Cashback American Express Card

Update: card is now live.

There will be a new US Bank Amex card that will earn a flat 1.5% cashback on all purchases, with no annual fee.

US Bank currently has the Cash Rewards card which earns 1% cashback everywhere and the Cash+ that earns 1% everywhere with the added 5% categories. Both of these cards are Visa cards. The new cashback card will be Amex and will earn 1.5% everywhere with no categories, apparently.

The new card will not replace the Cash+ card, it’s an additional card.

Flexperks American Express Card

Update: card is now live.

The other new card to be launched on June 20th is a new Amex Travel Flexperks Card. Card will have an annual fee of $85.

It will have the following category bonuses:

  • 3 Flexpoints on Dinning
  • 2 Flexpoints on gas and air travel
  • 1 Flexpoint on everything else

And it will have these other benefits:

  • A 30,000 Flexpoints signup bonus (worth up to $600 when redeemed for travel)
  • TSA Precheck credit ($100 value)

US Bank currently already offers two Amex Flexperks card, a no-annual-fee card and another one with a $49 annual fee (waived the first year). This new card sounds to be in the ballpark of the annual-fee card, and will likely replace it going forward (my guess).

Let’s compare the new Flexperks Amex card versus the current one:

Annual Fee: New card will be $85 instead of $49. Unclear if annual fee will be waived the first year, as is the case with the current Flexperks Amex card.

Bonus Benefits

  • Current card gets 20,000 points bonus, the new one will get 30,000 points. Okay, no big deal here, signup bonuses can go up and down.
  • TSA Precheck credit – $100 value. This is a new benefit, but the current card has a $25 airline credit toward baggage fees or in-flight food and drinks, per award ticket. Unclear if the new card will have that benefit too or if the Precheck is instead of that.

Point Earnings

The current card earns 2x on restaurants and either gas/airline/grocery, whichever you spend most. Also 2x on cell and 3x points only on charities. The new card will earn a whopping 3x on dining. It will also earn 2x on gas AND travel.

Basically, according to the reports we’re hearing now, the new card will have these changes:

  • Dining goes up from 2x to 3x – this can be huge for some people
  • The 2x category will be set at gas AND travel, so we’ll lose grocery but we’ll get both gas and travel (not one of the two)
  • The charity category is apparently dropped
  • The 2x cell category is apparently dropped

Final Thoughts

The 1.5% cashback card doesn’t sound too interesting, aside from the fact that it’s a no-annual-fee Amex card for Amex Offers.

The biggest change is probably getting 3x on dining on the Flexperks card. There are some 5x rotating categories to get bonus dining points, and some other cards that give bonus dining, but 3x Flexperks year-round with no cap could make it a great card.

The higher signup bonus of 30,000 points is also a big plus, but not so much if they charge the $85 annual fee first year (not clear if they will or won’t).

[Read: How Much Are FlexPerks Points Worth?]

We’ll have to wait until launch to see more exact details and see which cards get phased out.

Another change coming on June 20th is that all Cash+ applicants will get the 5% categories, we posted about this in a separate post.

Hat tip to Millionmilesecrets

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gnutello
gnutello (@guest_270914)
June 27, 2016 12:24

Does the Flexperks Amex replace the Flexperks Visa, or can you get both?