Amex or Chase

One question I get asked a lot by my friends is which credit card do I get next - American Express or Chase? So here is a comprehensive guide on recommendations and strategies to get the right credit card system that works for you.

Amex or Chase.

Amex Cards

Amex offers some really great cards, for both cash back as well as MR points. Some of these I personally love are:-

(a) Amex Platinum - Amex’s premium travel rewards card. 5x points on flights and hotels. Great if you travel a lot, offers top of the line lounge access and benefits.
(b) Amex Gold - My personal favourite. 4x points of dining and groceries, 3x on flights. Daily workhorse card for most millenials, since most of our expenses are going to be food and travel, right?
(c) Amex Everyday - 2x points on supermarkets, additional 20% more points after using the card 20 or more times.
(d) Amex Blue Business Plus - 2x points on uncategorized purchases. Use this if you have transactions that do not belong to a specific category.

Amex.

Chase Cards

The bulwark cards offered by Chase are:-

(a) Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Preferred - Chase’s travel rewards card. 3x (or 2x) points on travel and dining. Great for millenials. Comes with an annual fee, but the benefits are flexible and easy to use. For more on this card, check out this blog post.
(b) Chase Freedom Unlimitted - Cookie cutter card with 1.5x points on uncategorized transactions.
(c) Chase Freedom - 5x points on specific rolling categories per quarter, similar to the Discover cashback card.
(d) You may consider replacing (b) with the Chase Ink Preferred card for 2x points - if you have access to business credit cards.

Chase.

Comparing Amex and Chase

Ideally, it makes sense to go for Chase cards first because:-

(a) Chase has the 5/24 rule, whereby you cannot apply for more than 5 credit cards within the past 24 months. The Chase Sapphire Preferred has targetted offers of 70k Chase UR point signup point bonus offer till September 21st 2019.
(b) If you do not have an Amex card, apply for the Amex Platinum card first. Only for new customers, Amex provides targeted offers of 100k sign up bonus. This is worth a lot. Hence, ideally its better to wait to start applying for Amex cards till you have reached a point in life where you can get the Amex Platinum.
(c) The statement credits and benefits of Chase cards are easier to use than those of Amex. For instance, the Amex Platinum card’s Saks Fifth Avenue credit, monthly Uber credit and Airline convinience fee credit are much harder to use than the rather flexible travel credit of the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

However, in some instances, I have found Amex cards to be better. Amex MR points are better for a normal person’s use case. Amex has more flight partners for international travel (Emirates, Etihad etc.), MR points can be redeemed at 1.25 cpp if you have the Amex Platinum Charles Schwab variant. An Amex system makes more sense if you do not travel that much (especially for me, with just 1 annual trip to India). Meanwhile, the Chase is better for YOLO vacations with your SO; to Europe, South America, South East Asia etc. And the Amex cards look great, they are hard, metal cards that are sure to turn eyes and get you that extra wow factor ;).

Check out this epic Reddit post by u/Distance_Runner the compares the Amex trifecta and Chase Trifecta in detail. I don’t think it can be explained better.

And here is the link to the web app mentioned in the above post. This should help you decide.

Let me know which credit card system works for you in the end.