Best American Express credit cards for April 2024

American Express credit cards are some of the most rewarding credit cards in the right hands. Not only do many of these cards offer best-in-class rewards rates, but American Express Rewards are among the most valuable rewards currencies you’ll find. 

American Express cash back credit cards offer elevated rates on bonus categories that make it easy for everyday spenders to earn plenty of rewards on their core shopping needs. Its sibling Blue Cash cards are frequently touted as two of the best cash back cards for families due to their high cash back earning in grocery categories.

Editor’s choice: Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express

Amex partners with hotel brands Hilton and Marriott, as well as airline brands like Delta, to offer a suite of credit cards with each brand. These cards come with varying tiers of cards with annual fees and accompanying perks, so budget and luxury travelers can likely find a suitable card for their next trip.

Editor’s choice: Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card

For jetsetters who like to travel with all the bells and whistles, American Express provides credit cards to accompany them. With travel-related statement credits and elevated earning rates on travel, American Express has positioned itself as a luxury travel credit card brand. While some of the best options come with steep annual fees, these fees cover the best there is to offer in terms of travel perks and benefits. 

American Express is also a great choice for people who frequently fly with Delta Air Lines. Medallion members, travelers looking for the best value and budget-conscious passengers alike will be happy to find a few options to consider among Amex credit cards.

Editor’s choice: Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express Card

Touting some premier business credit cards on the market, Amex is a solid choice for most business owners. Whether you’re running a start-up, freelancing full-time or heading an enterprise, American Express has a lineup of cards that can help earn points and run a business, whether you have purchases spread across many spending categories or your business expenses are fairly streamlined.

Editor’s choice: The Business Platinum Card from American Express

The primary criteria for a rewards-earning card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, welcome offer value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits. In other words, we assess whether the card earns rewards at a high rate in the most popular spending categories. 

We use consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to get a reliable third-party measure of people’s spending habits. The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2021 was $66,928 per consumer. From here, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). After subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases, education and healthcare, we get a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,200
• Dining out: $3,000
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,100
• Apparel and services: $1,700

Using this data, we are able to assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 23 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. 

We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases — as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s welcome offer value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, welcome offer value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

The better these values, the higher its score will be, making it more worthy of inclusion in our list and increasing its potential ranking.

We also score cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards cards. However, the latter rating only has a slight influence on the card’s score and whether the card is included in our list, since rewards card users generally try to avoid carrying a balance.

More important to both a card’s score and its inclusion in our list is how its annual fee influences its overall value. We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. 

Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value. However, if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score and a spot in our list even if it carries a high annual fee. After all, the highest rewards rates and most valuable perks are often found on cards with annual fees. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against those of other cards in the category when you subtract annual fees.

That said, we strive to include as many no-annual-fee options in our list as possible since many people would rather not worry about offsetting fees, even if a card carries impressive rewards and perks.

Rewards cards may make it easy to earn a lot of points, miles or cash back, but how easy is it to use those rewards? After all, if it takes a ton of effort to redeem rewards or you can only redeem rewards in a couple of ways, a card may be more trouble than it’s worth. 

As such, we rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards. We factor this rating into a card’s overall score and consider it when deciding on a card’s inclusion in our list. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on only a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you opt for some redemption options over others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to travel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 includes fewer features than even standard credit cards (for example, an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits). 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

In evaluating the best cards, we tend to favor cards that offer at least Tier 3 benefits, unless they include other unique features that could make up for less-impressive perks.

Amex has a slightly higher interchange fee than other networks like Visa and Mastercard. As a result, some merchants opt out of paying the higher fee, resulting in a lower acceptance of American Express cards.

According to the company's 2022 Annual Report, by year's end, American Express had:

• Reached record acquisitions of our U.S. Consumer Platinum and Gold cards and U.S. Business Platinum card. 
• Increased their younger customer base, with Millenials and Gen Z comprising 60 percent new customers accounts.
• Established the International Card Services Group to bring together international consumers and small business cards.

Unless you have a charge card, you don’t have to pay off your American Express card in full every month. Some Amex cards are traditional credit cards with set limits and an ongoing APR. Others have the Pay Over Time feature that allows you to keep the flexible spending limit of a charge card, but gives you a limit that you can carry over and take time to pay back.