How We Use Our American Express Cards Every Day

This publication is sponsored by Amex Bank of Canada. However, the opinions and views expressed on this blog are only mine.

Our use of American Express cards

Audrey and I have had an American Express card in our wallet for over 10 years, whether for our personal or our business needs.

We use them every day, and they let us pile up a lot of rewards!

For our personal needs

We pay for a good number of goods and services directly with our American Express cards.

For example, we use our American Express Cobalt^® Card to earn 5 points for every $1 in eligible purchases on our:

And we use our American Express^® Gold Rewards Card for 2 membership rewards / dollar on these types of purchases:

In addition, many IGAs accept American Express cards !

We also regularly use our American Express Platinum card . This one accumulates 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar of eligible restaurant and bar purchases. Next, we simply convert it into Aeroplan points afterwards!

But the choice is tough with our American Express Cobalt^® Card and its 5 points per dollar of eligible purchases, which we mostly use for transfers to Marriott Bonvoy… or to apply its Membership Rewards points to our travel expenses!

For less frequent (or larger) expenses, we also manage to charge them to our American Express cards, such as:

For our business needs

Audrey (pharmacist) and myself (professional / consultant) both have business income and expenses.

Because of this, we are eligible for American Express small business/self-employed card such as the Marriott Bonvoy^® Business American Express^®* Card, which we frequently use for various expenses:

Benefiting from promotions

American Express regularly makes promotional offers for their card members.

This is frequently the case with the American Express Cobalt^® Card or the American Express Platinum Card^® !

An example of a promotional offer for the American Express Platinum Card^® cardholders: get a $200 credit to the account… for $200 worth of duty-free shopping! That’s $200 in “free” purchases!

Travelling

We also use our American Express card very frequently when we travel and especially our American Express Cobalt^® Card, which is especially lucrative for restaurants, bars and grocery stores!

Here, for example, a dozen days of use of the card between France, Spain and Greece, to earn 5 points per dollar of eligible purchases:

We have used our American Express cards all over the world: Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Europe and more.

And our readers like to report, in our facebook group, the destinations in which they have successfully used their American Express cards:

Conclusion

For us and a majority of our community, the acceptance of American Express cards has never been a concern.

On top of that, more than 70,000 new merchants started accepting American Express in 2017. In 2018, there were more than 96,000 of them (including 10,000 in Montreal alone).

Proof of this is that the acceptance of American Express cards in Canada is becoming more and more widespread!

Here are 3 great offers to get started with an American Express card :

Frequently asked questions about using American Express cards every day

Here are the questions that come up most often in the milesopedia community about these cards.