Changes Coming to the SimplyCash Cards from American Express

The SimplyCash Preferred Card from American Express is one of the leading cash back cards in the Canadian market, due to a high flat earn rate and an excellent welcome bonus. Its lower-tier version, the SimplyCash Card from American Express, offers a smaller earn rate and a more modest welcome bonus.

As of October 12, 2022, both cards are undergoing changes.

The SimplyCash Preferred Card will see its annual fee increased by 21% and changed to a monthly fee. In addition, both cards are seeing improvements in the earning structure, with the addition of category spending bonuses.

Let’s have a look at these largely positive changes.

SimplyCash Preferred Card: New $9.99 Monthly Fee

Back in July 2021, we saw Amex increase the monthly fee on the Cobalt Card from $9.99 to $12.99. Therefore, this kind of annual fee increase is not entirely unprecedented.

However, this is the first time we’ve seen American Express (or any Canadian card issuer, for that matter) change a card’s annual fee from being billed annually to being billed monthly. 

The SimplyCash Preferred Card from American Express will soon be charging $9.99 monthly, equivalent to $119.88 annually, representing an increase of 21% over the current annual fee of $99 billed annually.

To complement the increase in annual fee, the earning structure will change in a very positive direction.

SimplyCash Preferred Card: New Earning Rates

Currently, the earning structure is a flat 2% cash back on all purchases. Beginning October 12, the new earning rates will be as follows:

• 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 spent, equivalent to $1,200 cash back annually
• 2% cash back on all other purchases

These new earning rates are a huge improvement to the current flat 2% rate, and more of a pleasant change than I would expect. After all, when card issuers add categorized earning bonuses, the base earn rate typically goes down to offset this change.

In this case, Amex has maintained the 2% cash back on non-categorized spend, which is double the industry average of 1%, while adding additional bonuses for gas and groceries.

The SimplyCash Preferred Card’s $1,200 annual cap is significantly higher than competitors, such as the BMO CashBack World…