One of Canada’s top 5 cash back credit cards is going to see a fee increase this fall. News came out over the past few days that the SimplyCash™ Preferred Card from American Express will move from an annual fee to a monthly fee like the American Express Cobalt® Card as of October 12. This move to a monthly fee also marks an increase in the overall cost of the card over a 12 month period but they are adding in increased category earn rates with this change!
The new fee
As of October 12, 2022 the Simply Cash Preferred Card will move to a $9.99 monthly fee. This works out to $119.88 over the course of a year. Compare this to the current fee of $99 and you can see it is over a 20% increase. This does move the card inline with many of the cards it competes with but it is unfortunate to see nonetheless.
The new earn rates
Along with the fee increase comes some good news and that is increased earn rates on two categories of spending. Here are the earn rates as of October 12:
- 4% cash back on eligible gas station purchases in Canada
- 4% cash back on eligible grocery store purchases in Canada, up to a maximum of $30,000 in purchases posted to your account in this category (equal to $1,200 cash back) annually, and;
- 2% cash back on all other purchases
As you can see not only does the card retain its 2% cash back on all purchases it will now offer 4% back on gas and grocery purchases. This is big as many competing cards only have a 1% base earn rate with their 3%, 4%, or 5% category rates and this card does not see that 2% being dropped.
Wrapping it up
Ideally if you have been considering getting the SimplyCash™ Preferred Card from American Express you’ll want to apply for it before October 12 as you will lock in the lower annual fee for your first year and you’ll still get the new earn rates as of October 12! If you don’t no worries as you’ll still get a great card with the monthly fee structure. The card does offer one of the strongest welcome bonus offers in the true cash back card market with 10% back on up to $4,000 in purchases in the first four months of having the card. That works out to $400 in cash back.