AmEx Green Review: Triple Points on Dining and Travel, Plus Credits
The Bottom Line
3.4
This card is a great fit for travelers who can make use of its valuable transfer partners, rich rewards and generous credits. Doing so takes some time and effort, though, and cheaper options exist.
Rates, fees and offers
Annual fee
$150
Rewards rate
1x-3x
Bonus offer
Earn 40,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
Intro APR
N/A
Ongoing APR
APR: See Pay Over Time APR
Cash Advance APR: 29.99%, Variable
Balance transfer fee
N/A
Foreign transaction fee
None
More details from American Express
- Earn 40,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Earn 3X Membership Rewards® points on travel including airfare, hotels, cruises, tours, car rentals, campgrounds, and vacation rentals.
- Earn 3X Membership Rewards® Points on transit purchases including trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses, and subways.
- Earn 3X Membership Rewards® points on eligible purchases at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the US.
- $189 CLEAR Plus Credit: Receive up to $189 per calendar year in statement credits when you pay for your CLEAR Plus membership (subject to auto-renewal) with the American Express® Green Card.
- $100 LoungeBuddy: No airport lounge membership? No problem! Purchase lounge access through the LoungeBuddy app using the American Express® Green Card and receive up to $100 in statement credits annually.
- Payment Flexibility: When it comes to paying your bill, you have options. You can always pay in full. You also have the flexibility to carry a balance with interest or use Plan It® to split up large purchases into monthly payments with a fixed fee, up to your Pay Over Time Limit. You may be able to keep spending beyond your limit – you’ll just need to pay for any new purchases in full when your bill is due.
- Trip Delay Insurance: If a round-trip is paid for entirely with your Eligible Card and a covered reason delays your trip more than 12 hours, Trip Delay Insurance can help reimburse certain additional expenses purchased on the same Eligible Card, up to $300 per trip, maximum 2 claims per eligible account per 12 consecutive month period. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Coverage is provided by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees: No matter where you’re traveling, when you use your American Express® Green Card there are no foreign transaction fees.
- $150 annual fee.
- Terms Apply.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Transferable points
High rewards rates
No foreign transaction fee
Cons
Has annual fee
Some low-value redemptions
Detailed Review
Among travel credit cards, the $150-annual fee American Express® Green Card is a strong choice.
It earns Membership Rewards — AmEx's versatile rewards currency, which can be transferred to several different loyalty programs — and features high ongoing rewards rates on travel and restaurants worldwide. You'll also get some potentially valuable travel credits, not to mention an impressive welcome offer: Earn 40,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
Cheaper options exist. But for travelers and folks who can take advantage of the card's perks and rewards — say, by transferring points to other airline and hotel programs and making high-value redemptions — it's a good deal.
American Express® Green Card: Basics
All information about the American Express® Green Card has been collected independently by NerdWallet. The American Express® Green Card is no longer available through NerdWallet.
Annual fee: $150.
Welcome offer: Earn 40,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
Rewards:
3 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on eligible travel purchases.
3 points per dollar spent on restaurants worldwide.
1 point per dollar spent on other purchases.
Terms apply.
Membership Rewards points are super flexible and can range in value from about 0.5 cents to 1 cent each depending on how you redeem them, with travel and gift card redemptions generally being the most valuable. Points are also transferable and can be worth even more if redeemed strategically after being transferred to other loyalty programs.
Full list of AmEx transfer partners
Airlines
Aer Lingus (1:1 ratio).
AeroMexico (1:1.6 ratio).
Air Canada. (1:1 ratio).
Air France/KLM (1:1 ratio).
ANA (1:1 ratio).
Avianca (1:1 ratio).
British Airways (1:1 ratio).
Cathay Pacific (1:1 ratio)
Delta Air Lines (1:1 ratio).
Emirates (1:1 ratio).
Etihad Airways (1:1 ratio).
Hawaiian Airlines (1:1 ratio).
Iberia Plus (1:1 ratio).
JetBlue Airways (2.5:2 ratio).
Qantas (1:1 ratio).
Qatar Airways (1:1 ratio).
Singapore Airlines (1:1 ratio).
Virgin Atlantic Airways (1:1 ratio).
Hotels
Choice Hotels (1:1 ratio).
Hilton Hotels & Resorts (1:2 ratio).
Marriott Hotels & Resorts (1:1 ratio).
For details on transfer ratios, see AmEx's website.
APR: See terms.
This card offers two different features — "Plan It®" and "Pay Over Time." Plan It® lets you set up a payment plan for eligible purchases, during which you pay a monthly fee instead of interest charges. With this feature, you know how much you'll pay each month. "Pay Over Time" lets you finance eligible purchases over a term with interest. There is a limit to the amount you can finance with a Pay Over Time plan.
Foreign transaction fees: None.
Other benefits:
Up to $199 per year in statement credit when you use the card to pay for your Clear membership fee. (Clear is a prescreening program at certain airports and other venues that uses biometrics to verify your identity.) Terms apply.
Compare to Other Cards
Benefits and Perks
Transferable points
One of the card's most valuable features: It earns Membership Rewards points. These can be transferred to an extensive list of airline and hotel loyalty programs. The transfer ratios vary by partner, but in many cases, they're 1:1. That means, for instance, you could turn 50,000 Membership Rewards points into 50,000 miles with a certain airline program. Potentially, this means you could get much more than one cent apiece from these points if you moved points to a loyalty program and took advantage of a high-value redemption.
The card makes it easy to rack up points, too. It earns a generous 3 points per dollar spent on eligible travel and restaurant expenses. Terms apply. The list of what counts as travel is expansive, too. It includes airfare, hotels and car rentals, but also cruises, campgrounds, tours, trains, rideshares, buses, subways, tolls, parking and more. Third-party travel websites and amextravel.com also qualify.
Generally, you can transfer points fee-free. But if you're transferring earnings to a U.S. airline, you'll get hit with a fee of $0.0006 per point, up to a maximum fee of $99.
Solid welcome offer
New cardholders can get a generous welcome offer: Earn 40,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. That could potentially cover a round-trip flight or a night or two at a hotel.
Potentially valuable travel credit
AmEx Green cardholders get a $199 annual statement credit toward a Clear membership. Over three dozen airports and several stadiums and venues across the country use Clear's biometric ID technology to allow people to breeze through eligible prescreening lines (though you'll still have to go through the X-ray line). However, keep in mind that Clear isn't the same thing as TSA Precheck or Global Entry. More on that below. Terms apply.
» MORE: Is Clear worth the cost?
The AmEx Green card used to offer a $100 LoungeBuddy credit, but that benefit is set to expire Jan. 13, 2025.
Drawbacks and Considerations
Relatively high annual fee
The card's $150 annual fee can be worthwhile, especially if you can take advantage of AmEx's transfer partners and the card's statement credit. But it's still relatively expensive for a non-premium travel card, and if you won't use travel partners or credits, go with a different option.
The Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card could be a good match, for example. It earns 1.5 points per $1 on all purchases. Points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed for travel. It also comes with a good sign-up bonus and an introductory 0% APR offer.
Some redemption options are low-value
The American Express® Green Card can deliver excellent value through its transfer partners. But other redemption options aren't that great. For example, redeeming for a statement credit will get you only 0.6 cent per point.
For a card with better redemption options and excellent transfer partners, try the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. For an annual fee of $95, you'll get access to many of the same transfer partners, including Aer Lingus, Air France/KLM, British Airways, Emirates, Iberia, JetBlue, Singapore, Virgin Atlantic and Marriott. The card earns 5 points per $1 spent on all travel purchased through Chase; 3 points per $1 spent on dining (including eligible delivery services and takeout), select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (not including Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs); 2 points per $1 spent on travel not purchased through Chase; and 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases. Booking travel through Chase gets 1.25 cents out of each point, and redeeming for cash back gets 1 cent per point. The card also comes with an solid sign-up bonus: Get up to $1,050 in Chase Travel℠ value. Earn 60,000 bonus points after $4,000 in purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. That’s worth $750 when redeemed through Chase Travel. Plus, get up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel purchases within your first year.
Other cards offer more useful travel credits
A Clear credit may be useful in specific situations, especially as a supplement to TSA Precheck or Global Entry. But it isn't really a substitute for those programs. Unlike Clear, which is a private company, TSA Precheck and Global Entry are administered by the federal government and are in wide use across the country. They're also significantly cheaper: The application fee for TSA Precheck is $78; for Global Entry, it's $100. What's more, your status with those federal programs lasts for five years — not just one — and many travel credit cards with less hefty annual fees will cover the full application cost for you.
If you're looking for a card with bonus rewards on travel and dining and more useful credits, the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card could be a match. It earns 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining, and 1.5 points per dollar spent on all other purchases. You'll get a statement credit toward TSA Precheck or Global Entry application fees every four years. There's also an annual airline incidental statement credit worth up to $100 that can cover qualifying purchases like seat upgrades, airline lounge fees and checked bag fees. The annual fee is $95.
For more offers, check out Nerdwallet's full list of the best credit cards to have.
How To Decide If It's Right For You
The American Express® Green Card isn't particularly simple: Scoping out good deals and moving points to other programs takes some effort and taking advantage of this card's side perks might mean using services you might not otherwise try. But for travelers who love the challenge of maximizing points and perks, it offers excellent value and versatility, making it well worth its annual fee.
All information about the American Express® Green Card has been collected independently by NerdWallet. The American Express® Green Card is no longer available through NerdWallet.
The Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card earns 1.5 points per $1 on all purchases, but it has a $0 annual fee, plus a sign-up bonus: Earn 25,000 online bonus points after you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening - that can be a $250 statement credit toward travel purchases.. Pay 0% Intro APR for 15 billing cycles for purchases, and for any balance transfers made in the first 60 days. After the Intro APR offer ends, a Variable APR that’s currently 18.74%-28.74% will apply.
Looking For Something Else?
Methodology
NerdWallet reviews credit cards with an eye toward both the quantitative and qualitative features of a card. Quantitative features are those that boil down to dollars and cents, such as fees, interest rates, rewards (including earning rates and redemption values) and the cash value of benefits and perks. Qualitative factors are those that affect how easy or difficult it is for a typical cardholder to get good value from the card. They include such things as the ease of application, simplicity of the rewards structure, the likelihood of using certain features, and whether a card is well-suited to everyday use or is best reserved for specific purchases. Our star ratings serve as a general gauge of how each card compares with others in its class, but star ratings are intended to be just one consideration when a consumer is choosing a credit card. Learn how NerdWallet rates credit cards.
