American Express, Synchrony Financial and the Changing Credit Card Landscape

Amex cards were once the clear winner in terms of rewards, perks and prestige. That hasn't been the case for several years. The SPG card discussed in the article--widely known as the most lucrative Amex--isn't nearly as valuable to me as, say, the newly introduced Chase Sapphire Reserve. Their flagship Platinum card used to be second to none for traveller perks. In the last decade Airline consolidation and competition with Airlines own co-branded cards has chipped away at the value of the Plat. You see things like amex being forced to build their own airport lounges, far from high-margin financial services..

That said, if you buy groceries for a family, I still haven't found a better card than their Blue Cash Preferred at 6% cashback.

> "I think there is a 33% chance innovation in the payments industry has a material impact on SYF’s business in the next 10 years"

This sentence seems very broad/generalized for a conclusion. 10 years is a long time. 33% is a like a sigma (~coin flip basically).

I think there is a 100% chance innovation has an impact on SYF's business over the next 10 years - too soon to say if good or bad impact & too many factors to plot a probability tree with a 10 year horizon.

Also: SYF (Synchrony) still has ties to General Electric even though it is technically spun off from GE Capital. SYF's CEO is just the old GE Cap CEO. I think the article should've mentioned that relationship as it influences the business still.

Well they did screw up by losing Coscto.

> Because of the revenues generated from higher-spending Cardmembers, Amex has the cash to invest in more attractive rewards and other benefits to Cardmembers

That's sort of bogus, and more than offset by the the high interest rates charged by Visa and Mastercard issuing banks to subsidize their respective rewards programs.