0.45 miles per dollar, on a card competing with free ones that pay nearly nine times that
| Min income | Base earn | Favourite 5 bonus | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| S$30,000not stated on the product sheet | 0.45 mpdthe lowest in this lineup | 0.68 mpdat five merchants you nominate | S$417on the bonus |
| Annual fee | Conversion | Points expiry | Transfer fee |
| S$54.50no waiver encoded | 550 MR pointsper 250 miles, was 450 | Neverwhile the account is valid | S$20.19per conversion |
The Rewards Card is the cheap entry to American Express Membership Rewards, and at S$54.50 a year the price is honest. The earn rate is where it falls apart, and there is no gentle way to put it: this card pays 0.45 miles per dollar.
For scale, a no-fee HSBC Revolution pays 4 mpd on online spend, dining and transport. That is nearly nine times as much, on a card that costs nothing to hold. There is no spending pattern where this card wins that comparison.
It also got worse this year. On 23 February 2026 the Membership Rewards conversion for standard cards moved from 450 points per 250 miles to 550, so everything you earn is now worth about a fifth less than it was.
Annual Fee
S$54.50, which is the least of this card’s problems.
| Card | First year | Second year on |
|---|---|---|
| Principal card | S$54.50 | S$54.50 |
S$54.50 is genuinely cheap and I have no complaint about it. The trouble is what you get: at 0.45 mpd you would need to spend about S$12,000 a year just to earn back the fee in miles at a fairly generous valuation, before the card has done anything for you at all.
So the fee is not the argument against this card. The rate is.
Welcome Bonus
American Express The Rewards Card
No welcome bonus
No sign-up reward on this route, checked 2026-08-06.
Sign-up rewards change often, so confirm the current offer before you apply. New customers only, meaning no card from American Express in about the last 12 months.
Sign-up offers move monthly and almost always carry a "new to bank" condition, meaning no American Express card in the past 12 months.
One number the rest of this review should not bury: the welcome offer is 40,000 Membership Rewards points for paying the annual fee and spending S$4,000 within three months. That is roughly 18,000 miles, which is real money and considerably more than this card will earn you in a year of ordinary spending.
It does not change the verdict, because a welcome offer is once and an earn rate is forever, and 0.45 mpd is the rate you live with afterwards. But a review that says this card offers nothing is not accurate either. The honest reading is that the sign-up is the product and the card is the delivery mechanism.
How many miles do I earn?
0.45 miles per dollar, rising to 0.68 at five merchants you nominate once a year.
| Spend | This card | A free HSBC Revolution |
|---|---|---|
| Online shopping | 0.45 mpd | 4.0 mpd |
| Dining | 0.45 mpd | 4.0 mpd |
| Your Favourite 5 merchants | 0.68 mpd | Depends on category |
| Everything else | 0.45 mpd | 0.4 mpd |
The Favourite 5 bonus requires nominating five specific merchants from Amex's list, once per calendar year, and only spend at those five earns the higher rate. It is capped at about S$417 a month, so the maximum it can add is roughly 100 extra miles a month.
The Arithmetic
Rather than argue about this, here is the number. A household spending S$2,000 a month across ordinary categories, for a year.
| Card | Annual fee | Miles a year |
|---|---|---|
| The Rewards Card | S$54.50 | About 10,800 |
| Citi PremierMiles | S$196.20, returns 10,000 miles | About 28,800 plus 10,000 |
| HSBC Revolution, if the spend fits its categories | Free | Up to about 48,000 |
That is a difference of roughly 37,000 miles a year between this card and a free one, on identical spending. At any reasonable valuation that is well over a thousand dollars of value, given up in exchange for a S$54.50 fee and access to a transfer programme you can reach through better cards.
The one honest argument for holding it is the Membership Rewards partner list, which is genuinely good, and the fact that MR points do not expire. But Amex's own KrisFlyer cards reach a KrisFlyer balance directly for a similar fee, and every bank card here earns several times faster.
If you close the account, Membership Rewards points must be redeemed within 30 days or they are forfeited.
Transfer Partners
The best thing about the card, and the reason anyone holds it. Membership Rewards points do not expire while the account is valid and enrolled, and the partner list is one of the broadest available anywhere.
| Programme | MR points for 10,000 miles |
|---|---|
 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 22,000 |
 Cathay Asia Miles | 22,000 |
 British Airways Avios | 22,000 |
 Qatar Privilege Club | 22,000 |
Note the S$20.19 conversion fee on this card, which the Platinum Charge does not charge. On a card earning 0.45 mpd, reaching a transferable balance takes long enough that the fee is a real proportion of what you moved.
How to use it. There is not much of a case to build. If Membership Rewards is the goal, the partner access is the same from cards that earn several times faster. If KrisFlyer is the goal, Amex’s own KrisFlyer cards credit directly with no conversion fee at all.
Before any redemption, always check the route you want is actually available. The worst thing you can do is diversify into another mileage programme with no redemption in mind.
What should I pair it with?
It barely matters. The gap between 0.45 and 0.68 mpd is small enough that the cap is almost irrelevant, and the constraint on this card is the base rate, not any ceiling.
A card that earns miles, which is nearly every other card on this site.
There is no category where this card is the right answer, so the pairing table is really a replacement table.
| The gap | What it costs you | What closes it |
|---|---|---|
| Everything, at 0.45 mpd | Up to nine times the rate | HSBC Revolution, free |
| Merchants that refuse Amex | Everything, at those merchants | Any Visa or Mastercard here |
| S$20.19 to convert | A fee on a balance that took years | Amex KrisFlyer cards, which credit directly |
| Overseas spend | 0.45 mpd, no foreign bonus | UOB PRVI Miles, Citi PremierMiles |
Build your miles card stack
One card never covers everything. Put in what you actually spend and see which cards to hold together, and what to put on each.
Build my stack→The verdict, restated
Cheap, well-connected on the transfer side, and it earns too slowly for any of that to matter. 0.45 miles per dollar against 4 on a free card is not a trade-off to weigh, it is a gap to walk away from, and February's devaluation widened it. If you want Membership Rewards points, get them from a card that earns them properly. If you want a low-cost first miles card, an HSBC Revolution costs nothing and pays nearly nine times as much.
Sources
The Rewards Card product highlight sheet and Membership Rewards T&Cs, checked 8 July 2026. The S$54.50 fee, the post-23 February 2026 conversion of 550 MR points per 250 miles, the S$20.19 conversion fee and the no-expiry policy correct as of that date. Several points are less certain and are flagged rather than buried: no minimum income is stated on the product highlight sheet and the MAS baseline of S$30,000 is assumed; first-year fee waivers appear on some promotions but could not be confirmed for the current cycle; the exact Singapore exclusion list is unconfirmed and standard Amex exclusions are assumed; and the Favourite 5 merchant list is not published here, so the bonus is modelled more broadly than the real rule, which pays only at the five merchants you select. Comparison figures for other cards are drawn from their own reviews on this site. This guide shares my own experience for education, it is not financial advice, and card terms change: always verify with the bank before applying.