Why the American Express Cobalt™ Card is one of the best credit cards in Canada

And if you spend $500 in the 5x categories every month after that, you could earn up to 82,500 points or $825 in the first year!

82,500 points for $7,500 in Card purchases within the first 12 months, that’s an 11% return if you use your points for a statement credit for any travel purchase charged to your Card such as flights or Airbnb rentals. It’s a $825 value!

Removing the Card annual fee ($10 per month or $120 over 12 months), we get a net value of $705 in the first year!

To our knowledge, American Express is the only institution in Canada that has introduced a monthly fee on a credit card instead of an annual fee!

Thus, the American Express Cobalt™ Card has a $10 monthly fee.

Therefore, you can be flexible: if you want to cancel your card after only six months, you will have only paid $60 instead of $120 for a similar card! But I don’t think you’ll cancel your card as you’ll earn a lot of points even beyond the first year!

With the American Express Cobalt™ Card, you earn between 1 and 5 points per dollar:

With the American Express Cobalt™ Card, you earn5 points per dollar on groceries.

For example, here is a $226.12 grocery invoice at Super C, where I earned 1,131 Membership Rewards Points:

And don’t forget: grocery stores are a great place to find gift cards!

For example, here is a $250 SAQ Gift Card purchase I made on my American Express Cobalt™ Card at a Metro grocery store, near a SAQ Depot location:

So I earned, thanks to this SAQ gift card purchase in grocery stores, 5 points per dollar on my SAQ purchase!

With the American Express Cobalt™ Card, you earn 5 points per dollar on convenience stores purchases (Couche-Tard in Quebec, Macs-Circle K / 7-eleven elsewhere in Canada).

This is exciting because convenience stores sell a lot of gift cards. So you can earn 5 points per dollar on many other businesses purchases!

For example, with a $200 Amazon.ca gift card purchase, I earned 1,000 Membership Rewards Points:

Also, with the American Express Cobalt™ Card, you earn 5 points per dollar in restaurants and bars.

For example, here are some restaurants, grocery stores and bars expenses on our American Express Cobalt™ Card:

With all these purchases, I earned 5 points per dollar!

We are big fans of food delivery with platforms like Uber Eats or GoodFood! Here again, with the American Express Cobalt™ Card, you earn 5 points per dollar on food delivery!

Here are two purchases from:

• Uber Eats for $42.64 (213 Membership Rewards Points)
• GoodFood for $90.00 (450 Membership Rewards Points)

Do you regularly travel to the United States or anywhere else in the world for extended stays? You can easily use your American Express Cobalt™ Card at any U.S. grocery store and earn 5 points per dollar!

Here are, for example, our purchases in Puerto Rico grocery stores (Supermax and Pueblo):

When we travel, we spend more in restaurants and bars. With the American Express Cobalt™ Card, you also earn 5 points per dollar!

Here is a series of purchases in US restaurants during a stay in New York:

Or in South Africa:

It’s not all about earning a lot of Membership Rewards Points, but you have to be able to use them!

Here are the best possible Membership Rewards Points redemptions you can get with your American Express Cobalt™ Card.

This is the easiest way to redeem Membership Rewards Points earned with your American Express Cobalt™ Card:

1. You charge a trip to your card: flights, hotels, Airbnb, car rental, etc.
2. You redeem your points on this purchase: 1,000 points = $10

Here are two examples of travel companies without loyalty program, Air Transat and Airbnb:

The principle is identical as above.

1. You charge any expense to your American Express Cobalt™ Card
2. You redeem your points on this purchase:1,000 points = $10(since April 18, 2020)

Here, it’s THE best use of the American Express Cobalt™ Card Membership Rewards Points.

1. You browse American Express travel portal
2. You book some flights at fixed-points pricing: 15,000 points = $300!

But this only applies to specific flights:

Here, this is for those who want to earn Marriott Bonvoy points to get a free stay at one of the group’s 7,000 hotels:

1. You log on to the Membership Rewards transfer portal
2. You transfer your Membership Rewards Points to Marriott Bonvoy with a 1:1.2 ratio (or 5:6 if you prefer)
3. Book your hotel directly with your Marriott Bonvoy account

This is a great way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points, especially when you have exhausted other solutions like with Marriott Bonvoy credit cards bonuses!

That’s why we rank the American Express Business Edge™ Card and American Express Business Edge™ Card alongside Marriott Bonvoy cards to earn Marriott Bonvoy points!

Here, you use Marriott Bonvoy as a lever to earn airline miles with your American Express Cobalt™ Card!

This is for those who want to earn Aeroplan, Alaska, Avios miles with the purchases they charge to their American Express Cobalt™ Card:

1. You log on to the Membership Rewards transfer portal
2. You transfer your Membership Rewards Points to Marriott Bonvoy with a 1:1.2 ratio (or 5:6 if you prefer)
3. You transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points to airlines program with a 3:1 ratio (or 2.4:1 when you transfer in 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points increments)
4. You book your airline reward directly within the airline program

So, with every 5X purchase on your American Express Cobalt™ Card, you earn 6 Marriott Bonvoy Points per dollar or 2 Aeroplan – Avios – Alaska miles per dollar!

And it can be much more than that:

• When transferring your Marriott Bonvoy points in 60,000 increments: you get 5,000 bonus miles (so 60,000 points = 25,000 miles)
• Initiating this transfer during a conversion bonus offer, as there are 3 or 4 times a year with Aeroplan for example (25% to 35% bonus)

That’s why we think the American Express Cobalt™ Card is one of the best credit cards in Canada!

Throughout the year, American Express grants American Express Cobalt™ Cardmembers a lot of promotional offers.

Here are three recent examples:

Up to $95 quickly earned, enough to put the $10 monthly fee into perspective!

With the American Express Cobalt™ Card, you get great insurance, especially for a card with only a $10 monthly fee!

Save when you travel with the flight and damage Insurance for rental cars included with your Card This insurance provides compensation for theft, loss and damage up to the market value of the rental car with a maximum MSRP of $85,000 depending on the year of the model.

To take advantage of this benefit, you simply need to refuse loss or damage protection or any other similar option offered by the rental company and bring the entire rental to your Card. This insurance is available at no extra cost and you do not have to pay the insurance charged by the car rental company (usually costing between $16 and $23 per day).

Having booked your flight with your Card you may receive up to $500 (maximum in combination with Flight Delay Insurance) for any necessary and reasonable routine purchase of clothing and small items considered essential that you will make in a four days delay,if your luggage is not returned to you within six hours after your departure flight arrives.

If you carry the full amount of your airfare to your Card you are insured in case of loss or damage of your personal belongings, carry-on baggage or checked baggage while travelling up to $500 per trip for all policy holders.

Charge your airline tickets to your Card and get up to $500 (maximum in combination with misdirected baggage insurance) for any necessary and reasonable expenses incurred within 48 hours at the hotel, motel or restaurant, or for small items, if your flight is delayed or you are denied boarding for four hours or more without making any other means of transportation available to you.

Travel accident insurance gives you automatic coverage of up to $250,000 for accidental death and dismemberment for yourself, your spouse and dependent children under the age of 23 years when you are travelling on a public carrier (plane, train, boat or bus) and carry the full price of all Tickets to your Card. Supplementary card holders, their spouses and dependent children under the age of 23 are also covered.

Simply pay for your hotel or motel room with your card and you will receive coverage of up to $500 in case of loss of most personal belongings in the event of a burglary at your hotel or motel room.

Eligible items purchased on your card may be insured for a period of 90 days from the date of purchase against accidental property damage and theft up to a maximum of $1,000 per claim (all items purchased combined).

Your coverage can automatically extend the manufacturer’s initial warranty up to an additional year when you carry all eligible items to your Card.

If you need to consult the insurance booklet, it can be found at this link.

The American Express Cobalt™ Card is one of our preferred cards for all aspects mentioned above.

Every time a reader asks what is the best credit card to apply for in the Facebook group, many enthusiastic members come to tout the merits of the American Express Cobalt™ Card!

You would like to apply for this Card while supporting milesopedia? Click here!

This article was not sponsored. The views and opinions expressed in this article are purely my own.

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