Credit One Bank American Express Card Review

Who is the Credit One Bank American Express Card for?

If you're looking for a convenient, rewarding, and easy to manage credit card, the Credit One Bank American Express Card may be for you. This card offers 1% cash back on all purchases made and automatically puts that cash back into your balance. No need to log in and apply the cash back to your statement balance, as this is all done for you.

By not having to manually apply cash back to your balance, this card is perfect for those who have a busy schedule as well as those unfamiliar with technology. To say otherwise, you can spend more time doing important tasks than having to worry about claiming your rewards.

This card also provides a variety of purchasing protection, such as the retail purchase service. The retail purchase service, for example, reimburses you if an eligible item is damaged or stolen. If you’re a frequent shopper, you should consider this card to reap its benefits of having the peace of mind that your purchases are secured, eligible for return, and heavily warrantied.

Rewards

The 1% cash back rewards on this card allows the user to be able to shop anywhere on anything. Unlike other cards, there is no limit on how much you can gain in cash back. Even one purchase of any amount will result in direct cash back, no need to compile your rewards to a certain stage before being applied to your balance. Finally, there is no expiration of rewards as they are automatically deducted from your balance.

Benefits

The Credit One American Express Card comes with Amex benefits and promotions. These Amex offers introduce deals on your favorite dining spots, clothing brands, travel destinations, and much more. To exemplify, a purchase of $150 or more at Ray-Ban.com can earn you an extra $30 cash back on top of the regular 1% cash back. For the frequent shopper, this is a dream come true as these exclusive deals are only found by being a part of the Amex circle through cards like this.

This card comes with an initial credit limit of $500, an impressive amount for someone building their credit from the ground up or restoring a damaged credit history. Also, cardholders are subject to increases in their credit limit through a review of their credit line. Therefore, you can not only use this card as a starting point to establish/rebuild your credit, but also use it as your daily go-to.

Another great benefit of this card is the ability to check your credit score for free, using the Experian ScoreX Credit service. Holders of this card are allowed one free credit check per month and can routinely monitor their credit-building progress.

Services and Protections

This card from Credit One bank comes with many security protections and services. The Zero Fraud Liability feature allows users of this card to be able to report any illegal activity done through the card and instantly take action on it. Also, this card comes with retail protection which compensates you up to a total of $1,000 per loss on selected items bought up till 90 days from purchase. Products that are stolen or damaged can be compensated for thanks to the Credit One American Express Card. 

An additional feature that comes with this card is the ability to enjoy an extended warranty. In the extended warranty provided, the manufacturer’s warranty is doubled to a maximum of 12 months on eligible purchases. For example, an eligible item purchased with its warranty of 5 months gets extended to a total of 10 months, if it is purchased through this card. However, a purchase that has a 13-month warranty can’t get doubled to 26 months, but only gets doubled to a total of 24 months. This service becomes a no-brainer if you purchase expensive items or simply like to play it safe.

On top of all these great services offered with this card, the Credit One American Express Card comes bundled with return protection. Return protection allows the cardholder to be able to return designated items if the seller is not willing to take it back, up to $300 per item and a total of $1,000 annually. To be able to take advantage of this protection service, the cardholder must file a return claim within 90 days of the initial purchase date. Thanks to this added bonus, you’ll never have to worry about making the wrong choice when shopping as you can get your money back anytime. 

This card doesn’t lack protection as its car rental loss and damage insurance is phenomenal. If you rented a car worth at most $50,000 to replace and got into a collision, you would be worry-free as the Credit One American Express Card has you covered. Any eligible car rental of up to 31 days would be secure as long as it’s rental is paid with this card. The best part is not even the insurance, but the hassle-free automatic coverage. You don’t have to initiate any paperwork to start receiving the coverage or register your rental, you only have to file a claim within 45 days after an incident.

TIP: If you want to rent an eligible car for more than 31 days, return the car on the 31st day and rent for another 31 days. This way, you can enjoy the protection of having rental insurance without having to sacrifice the length of time that you use the car for.

Lastly, this card offers the ability to be reimbursed for accidental death, loss of limbs, and senses if the traveling method is paid through the card. Let us say for example, that on a trip to Australia via a common carrier such as a ship, a Credit One American Express cardholder lost their life. This cardholder’s beneficiaries would receive up to $150,000 due to the fact that this cardholder had paid their traveling fare with the card. It makes perfect sense for frequent travelers on common carriers to buy this card so they can enjoy reimbursement of life and limbs without a single penny extra.

Cautions

The Credit One American Express Card has an annual fee of $39. Those interested in this card, should make sure that they spend enough in cash back to offset the annual fee. To say otherwise, you need to spend at least $3,900 per year or $325 per month to use this card at no cost. Every cash back after $3,900 spent on this card, will be your true ‘reward,’ until then, you're just making back your annual fee.

If you find the need to add an authorized user to your Credit One American Express Card, be aware that there is an additional charge of $19 per person added. The amount you would need to spend to make back the authorized user fee and the annual fee, increases by $1,900 per year or $158.34 per month per authorized user. Anything beyond one authorized user with the initial $500 limit will result in you not breaking even. With no timeline for when to reassess the cardholder's credit limit, it would be best to hold off on adding more than one additional user until further increases in credit.

Another critical factor when considering this card is that you need to be able to pay your balance in a timely manner. The Credit One American Express Card has a 23.99% variable APR, making it crucial that the cardholder not carry over any balance. 

The services and protections mentioned all apply to certain types of products and conditions. It is recommended that you have a look over the service protections’ Terms and Conditions to familiarize yourself with what’s covered, what’s not, and the fine print. For example, the return and retail protection compensates you only for the price of the product but not for the price of shipping and handling. Similarly, familiarize yourself with the car rental and travel insurance that's provided, to ensure that you can correctly take advantage of being a holder of the Credit One American Express Card. 

Conclusion

The Credit One Bank American Express Card proves to be a quality card for those that want the benefit of multiple incentives without having to worry about its maintenance. The frictionless experience of not having to apply your rewards and automatically being enrolled in rental and travel insurance is possible with this card. Further, if you’re just starting to build credit, this could be the path to a stronger credit score. Amex benefits from this card guarantee that you’ll enjoy restaurant, clothing, travel, and many more types of promotions. At first sight, this card may seem like it doesn’t have much to offer but with its rewards and automation, benefits, and endless protection programs, the Credit One Bank American Express Card has more than enough to offer.

You can apply for the Credit One Bank American Express Card online here.