 Hello everyone, this is financial author Amit Dam of Iran Journal. Today, I'll talk about why you should avoid American Express use points for purchases. American Express Canada recently launched a new option letting card members fall for instant gratification by letting them redeem daily purchases for small amounts. According to AMACS, this option will provide ultimate flexibility and make daily life seamless. However, what AMACS is not saying is that clients lose big time when they redeem points for daily purchases instead of converting to miles. American Express points provide the best bank for your buck when you convert them to airline miles such as airplane or avios. The transfer rate is 1 is to 1, meaning you'll receive one air mile for each point. Now, if you're knowledgeable about airline viewers programs, you should be easily able to extract 5 to 6% return per dollar flying business or first class. Sometimes the return can be astronomically high like 30% flying business or first class on airline miles. If you fly economy class using miles, your extraction rate would be a poor 1 to 2%. So, what's the rate you're getting from AMACS if you redeem points for purchases? Not even 1%. On the AMACS gold card, the redemption rate is $7 for redeeming 1,000 points. What it means that you get $0.007 per point, which is less than 1 cent per point making it a 0.07% return and not even 1% return. If you use AMACS trip flex option to redeem points for travel, you'll get a 1% return or 1,000 points for $10. The best value, American Express viewers points generate when you convert them to redeem into miles. Of course, you need to know how airline miles work and if you don't want to follow that path, you should not have this card in the first place. There are other cards that offer higher rate of return for redeeming points for groceries and other purchases. There's no point in having American Express credit cards, paying hefty annual fees and redeeming points at such a horribly low rate. And also, don't forget that although American Express is charging a hefty $150 on its popular American Express gold rewards card, it does not provide many common benefits and features that other premium credit cards would provide for a $150 fee, such as trip cancellation insurance, concierge service, and so on. That's all for today. Thank you.