New Rakuten Amex Card Earns 4% Extra Cash-Back or 4x Membership Rewards Points

Frequent shoppers have probably heard of Rakuten — the platform that lets you earn extra cash-back on eligible purchases. Now, Rakuten has launched the new Rakuten American Express^® Card, powered by Imprint, allowing consumers to earn even more cash-back rewards with no annual fee.

“Rakuten and American Express share a commitment to rewarding customers for how and where they spend,” Will Stredwick, senior vice president and general manager of global network services for North America at American Express, said in a statement.

This new offering is a revamped version of the former Rakuten Cash Back^® Visa Credit Card, issued by Synchrony Bank, which was discontinued in September 2022.

But how does this new Rakuten Amex card measure up? Let’s take a closer look at its rewards potential.

New Rakuten Amex Card Details

With a heavy focus on cash-back rewards, the Rakuten Amex card has no annual fee and earns at the following rates:

• Additional 5% cash-back on top of the existing 5% earnings at Rakuten Dining for a total of 10% cash-back at 22,000+ partner restaurants
• Additional 4% cash-back on top of earnings on Rakuten’s platform at 3,500 in-person and online retailers, up to $10,000 each calendar year
• 2% cash-back on groceries and restaurants
• 1% on all other eligible purchases

Given the $10,000 annual limit, earning an additional 4% cash-back on Rakuten’s retailers results in a maximum of $400 in cash-back rewards per year — or 40,000 Membership Rewards points annually, as we’ll discuss in the next section.

Upon launch, there was a (very) small welcome bonus offer for applicants: $25 cash-back after spending $500 or more within 90 days of opening your account.

The current welcome offer is: Get a $100 bonus when you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days on your Rakuten Card.

How To Redeem Rakuten Cash-Back Rewards

Once you add your mailing address in your account settings, you can choose to receive your payment either as a check issued by PayPal or in Amex Membership Rewards points — assuming you have an eligible American Express card.

After your qualifying online purchase is confirmed, it may take up to 15 days for your cash-back rewards to be credited to your account. Rewards become eligible for redemption every 3 months on the following schedule, provided you’ve earned at least $5.01 in your account:

• February 15
• May 15
• August 15
• November 15

If you don’t want to wait for the next quarterly payout, Rakuten also offers the option to redeem your rewards as a gift card at any time on the Rakuten app, so long as you’ve accumulated at least $5 in confirmed cash-back.

Redeem Rakuten Cash-Back as Amex Points

What makes the new Rakuten Amex card more interesting is the opportunity to convert cash-back earnings into Membership Rewards points. For example, earning an extra 5% on Rakuten Dining translates to 5x Membership Rewards points, while an additional 4% back on Rakuten purchases (up to $10,000 annually) equates to 4x Membership Rewards points, and so on.

Let’s say you’re buying a $200 pair of shoes from Nike.com. By making your purchase via Rakuten, you could earn 8x rewards (at the time of writing). If you also have the Rakuten Amex card, you’d earn an extra 4x on top of that — for a total of 12x earnings.

In total, you’d receive $24 in cash-back rewards. However, they can be converted into 2,400 Amex points if you hold a Membership Rewards points-earning card like the American Express^® Gold Card or Platinum Card^® from American Express.

Membership Rewards points regularly offer greater value for travel than standard cash-back, thanks to the ability to transfer them to most airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio. That’s why we value Amex Membership Rewards points much higher than a flat 1 cent per point — estimating their worth at around 2.2 cents each when redeemed through transfer partners.

In sum, the opportunity to be strategic about this new Rakuten Amex card — and earn 10x Membership Rewards points on Rakuten Dining, an additional 4x on Rakuten stores (up to $10,000 per year), and 2x on restaurants and groceries — can be surprisingly lucrative.

Final Thoughts

The new Rakuten Amex card is great for 2 groups of consumers: those who already use the platform and want to earn an additional 4x to 5x rewards or those who want to capitalize on the chance to earn even more Amex Membership Rewards points from a no-annual-fee card.

The major downside, of course, is waiting for 3 months for your cash-back rewards or points to arrive, but it can make sense for the right person.