Amex Essential Rewards
Quick answer: The Amex Essential Rewards carries a A$108 annual fee and 2 catalogued benefits; its best earning category is Dining at 5x. MaxWorth is the only benefits tracker with hand-verified Australian card data, and it never asks for a bank login.
Earning rates
| Category | Rate | True cash-back value |
|---|---|---|
| Dining | 5x | 3.5% |
| Streaming | 3x | 2.1% |
| Retail Online | 2x | 1.4% |
| Everything else | 1x | 0.7% |
True cash-back value = rate × MaxWorth's valuation of the card's points currency; see the methodology.
Protections (2)
Smartphone Screen Cover
A$100/yrCovers breakage to the front screen of a smartphone following accidental drop or impact, when the smartphone was purchased with the card. Up to 2 eligible claims per year, up to $500 per smartphone. 10% of repair cost excess applies.
Retail Purchase Protection
A$50/yrCovers three retail scenarios on eligible items purchased with the card: Card Purchase Cover (theft/damage within 90 days), Card Refund Cover (refund if retailer wont take back an unwanted item within 90 days), and Buyers Advantage Cover (extends manufacturers warranty by up to 1 additional year).
How to track it
Add the Amex Essential Rewards to MaxWorth and every credit above appears with its cycle set; you get a push before each one expires and the card's annual-fee ROI runs from what you mark used. No Australian bank account is ever connected. What MaxWorth covers for Australian cards.
Other American Express Australia cards
- Amex Platinum Business · A$1,750 · 4 benefits
- Amex Platinum Card (AU) · A$1,450 · 6 benefits
- Amex Qantas Business Rewards · A$450 · 3 benefits
- Amex Qantas Ultimate · A$450 · 5 benefits
- Amex Velocity Platinum · A$440 · 4 benefits
- Amex Business Gold Plus · A$395 · 4 benefits
- Amex Explorer · A$395 · 5 benefits
- Amex Qantas Premium · A$249 · 3 benefits
Source: the issuer's published terms, entered and verified by hand in the MaxWorth database; amounts in AUD. Methodology.