For years the American Express Cobalt Card multipliers have worked globally despite the official wording for the points multipliers being published as “in Canada”. Well, that “in Canada” specific wording appears to be in effect now as many our of Cobalt multiplier contributors have contacted us letting us know their usual 5x points locales in the U.S. are only earning 1x points. There is also chatter on Reddit and RFD about this change that appears to have been instituted as of October 15.
American Express Canada provided the following statement for us:
Our T&Cs have always disclosed that accelerated earn rates only apply to purchases made within Canada. Canadian Cardmembers earn a basic rate of 1:1 outside the country.
Merchant categorization updates are an ongoing process and are subject to change. We continue to offer accelerated earns rates [within Canada] across our card products to allow our Cardmembers to earn points faster and maximize their earn potential.
So by all accounts it does appear that the Cobalt Card’s points multipliers are truly for Canada only now – just as advertised. Cardmembers will no longer earn 2x to 5x points outside of Canada as we have been accustomed to since the card launched.
Why is this happening?
The card is by no means cheap for American Express to offer – in fact, quite the opposite given the changes back in 2021 when they added Membership Rewards airline partners to the Cobalt Card’s arsenal of redemption options. Can you imagine what it costs Amex to provide 5 Aeroplan points or 5 Avios per dollar spent on the card? I can tell you it’s a lot more than what they earn per dollar spent.
This change in the multipliers and the lowering of the welcome bonus points while increasing the spend requirement for the welcome bonus all point towards the card being very expensive for Amex to offer. It is hard to fathom that this card actually makes them very much money, if any at all, and it is quite apparent that to preserve the earn-burn proposition for the majority of cardmembers (those whose spend is made within Canada) they have had to make all of these changes.
But, as consumers we don’t care about any of that. We care about what we earn, where we earn it and where we’ve been used to earning the multipliers inside or outside of the country. So it really sucks when a change like this is made and it stings a bit not having any notice (I really do wish I could have told our readers sooner!) but technically speaking no notice was needed to be given since we weren’t supposed to be earning the extra points outside of Canada.
And even though we were told by Amex seven years ago that the 5x points multiplier does work globally despite the “in Canada” wording, none of the official documentation about the card stated this anywhere. So in the end we have to be thankful we were able to earn those 5x points outside of Canada for such a long period of time. And as negative as this change is, if it means we get to continue to earn 5x points in Canada and keep all the wide variety of redemption options without any devaluations, then I (sadly) accept the change. If most of your spending is outside of Canada, it may be a different story for you.
Wrapping it up
It was a good seven year run earning 5x points on the Cobalt Card outside of Canada – I know ourselves at the RWRDS Canada family racked up a ton of points this way, just as so many in the RWRDS Canada community have done so as well! It’s apparent by the great support we had from the community for providing locations from all around the world for our Cobalt Card Confirmed Multipliers listing! Now, I have one more item to add to my never ending to-do list and that will be to update all of the 2x to 5x points locations outside of Canada to 1x points.
I think for a lot of the community this is definitely a bigger hit than the loss of 2x points on travel that came into effect earlier this month. For those that spend most of there time outside of Canada it may actually mean cancelling the card, however in the grand scheme of things the American Express Cobalt Card keeps its spot as the best overall card in Canada since it still earns the 5x points domestically and retains its portfolio of extremely flexible and valuable redemption options. That combination still can’t be beat by any card in Canada.