American Express Canada has introduced a new credit card in it’s large suit of products this week, the Cobalt card.
The American Express Cobalt card comes with a sign-up bonus of 40,000 points, but you won’t get all those points at once.
You’ll earn 2,500 points for each monthly billing period in which you spend $500 in purchases — up to 30,000 per year.
As part of their promotion, you’ll earn 10,000 points when you apply by January 1, 2018, and spend $3,000 within your first three months of becoming a cardholder.
As for earning on everyday spend, you’ll get 5x points on purchases at eligible bars, restaurants, grocery stores and food delivery in Canada, 2x points on eligible transit and gas purchases in Canada and other eligible travel purchases, as well as 1x points on everything else. The Cobalt Card comes with a monthly fee of $10, or a total of $120 annually.
I haven’t seen another card break down the fee monthly but whatever works!
You can no longer transfer points to Aeroplan or Avios (the airline travel partners) but they have some other transfers:
- Points that you earn can be redeemed through the Amex Fixed Points Travel Program. You can fly on a short-haul route from Toronto to New York in economy for 15,000 points round-trip, as long as the maximum base ticket price is less than $300.
- Transfer to Starwood Points. The points transfer to Starwood at a 2:1 ratio, effectively making the 5x food category worth 2.5x when transferred to the program. Meaning you would earn 2.5 Starwood points per dollar spent = 7.5 Marriott Points per dollar spent!
What do you think about this new card?
4 Comments
ME Here
The SPG redemption isn’t bad. It mirrors the existing welcome bonus for the Amex SPG card @ 20,000 Points… but you need to spend $9000 to get them over 12 months! That’s a pretty hefty price to pay, but I can see it useful for some people with high spends.
Seems a decent card to keep around for restaurant/grocery if the places you frequent take Amex. Considering I value SPG points at 2¢ each… it’s effectively a 5% back card on groceries. However, taking into effect the $10 carrying cost, I’m not sure.
Best Case Scenario of spending $9000 at groceries/restaurants in one year:
10,000 bonus
45,000 through spend ( $9000 @ 5x )
30,000 through bonuses
85,000 points. If you transfer to SPG it’s worth $850 ( to me ). Minus the $120 annual fee… and you’re getting 8% back including bonuses.
Assuming you can micromanage your affairs to actually make the monthly spend and have that spend be only on groceries/restaurants then it’s pretty decent… but it seems like a lot of micromanaging work unless you can automate it.
I think Amex should have included gas as a valid expense. Irritating that they did not.
Gurpreet Gosal
30,000 per year? I thought it was the first year only?
Bing
I am applying for a Amex Platinum Business Card. Where in the application do you indicate referral to yourself to qualify for the 25K points? I called Amex and was told that you cannot refer yourself! Do I get my $399 application fee back if card is not approved?
Thanks
Steven Zussino
Send me an email and I will let you know.
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