Credit Card News
AMC Entertainment Visa Officially Launches, Details Revealed
Late last year, AMC Theaters announced plans to launch its own rewards credit card. While the product was announced to be the only co-branded movie theatre credit card in the United States and some broad strokes were revealed, no firm details were offered. Now, the AMC Entertainment Visa Card has officially launched, giving fans a much clearer picture of what rewards the card presents.
As expected, the biggest reward category featured on the AMC Entertainment card is AMC Theatres purchases. Cardholders will be able to earn 50 points per dollar spent at AMC locations, in the app, or on the website. These points come in addition to points earned by loyalty program customers, meaning that cardholders who are also A-List or Premiere will earn up to 150 points per dollar while Insider cardholders can earn up to 70 points per dollar.
Elsewhere, as promised, the card also earns elevated rewards on a number of everyday purchases. With the card, customers can earn 20x points on dining, 20x points on groceries, and 20x points on gas. Additionally, all other purchases made with the card earn 10x points.
Of course, while many cashback cards peg the value of a point to 1 cent, the AMC Entertainment card’s point system is quite different. In this case, customers will be able to redeem 5,000 points for a $5 reward to be used on tickets or concessions. Using this figure, the card effectively earns 5% back on AMC purchases, 2% back on dining, groceries, and gas, and 1% back on everything else.
Given those numbers, unfortunately, the AMC Entertainment Visa Card is not much of a star. While frequent moviegoers might benefit from the 50x category, the other aspects of the card make it uncompetitive. For example, although the 20x (which equals 2% back) categories sound enticing, cards such as the Citi Double Cash and Wells Fargo Active Cash already offer 2% back on all purchases.
Another pick that might make more well-rounded sense to moviegoers is the Capital One SavorOne, which includes 3% back on entertainment as well as 3% on dining, 3% on groceries, and 3% on select streaming services. Plus, these other cards offer cashback that can be used on nearly anything whereas the AMC Entertainment card only offers rewards that can be redeemed at AMC. For all of those reasons, while it’s interesting to see AMC getting into the rewards credit card game, the result is a flop.
