American Express Rewards Checking Account (Debit Card/ATM Card) Review

[2026.5 Update] The new offer is $300, which is the best ever offer on this card! Offer expires on 07/30/2026.

[2026.1 Update] The new offer is $250. Offer expires on 01/31/2026. [2026.2 Update] Offer expired.

[2025.3 Update] The new offer is $250. Offer expires on 04/15/2025. [2025.4 Update] Offer expired.

Contents

Application Link

$300 welcome offer. See below for the requirements to get this bonus. Offer expires on 07/30/2026.
Earn 1x Membership Rewards (MR) points for every $2 debit card purchases.
MR points are worth about 1.6 cents/point, therefore a 0.5x earning rate is equivalent to about 0.8% in return.
Earn 0.50% APY on your balance. That’s a good APY even compared to savings accounts.
$0 monthly fee. No minimum balance requirement.
~~This account does not support wire payments, overdraft protection, or online bill payment for now. It also does not support Zelle yet.~~ [Update] They have all these features already now.
AmEx is very new to the debit card market so we don’t know its acceptance rate yet.
You can only open this account if you have an AmEx credit card for more than 3 months.
If you only have this account, you can’t transfer your MR points to its partner mileage programs, you can only redeem it towards cash at a very poor rate. If you have a credit card that earns MR, then you will be able to transfer the points that you earn from this account.

You are not eligible for this Welcome Bonus if you have an existing Rewards Checking Account or previously had a Rewards Checking Account.
Direct Deposit (DD) requirement: Receive a total of $7,500 or more of Qualifying Direct Deposit(s) within 90 days.

Finally AmEx has its own checking account. Earning MR points on debit card purchases is a good feature, even though the rate is only 0.5x.

[Total: 6 Average: 4.2/5]