0:00 American Express built its brand on
0:02 elite travel benefits and luxury perks,
0:04 but now it's shifting to win over a
0:06 younger audience. Gen Z. That's the
0:09 powerful backing of American
0:11 Express. In the first quarter of 2025,
0:15 millennials and Gen Z drove over 60% of
0:18 new global AMX signups, fueled in part
0:20 by influencer-driven buzz. Hear me out.
0:23 Get the platinum AMX card. That's metal
0:25 and it goes ding ding ding. At the heart
0:27 of this growth is AMX's loyalty and
0:29 rewards program. So, especially as
0:31 everything costs more, if you can get
0:34 champagne travel on a beer budget,
0:36 that's a lot of what Jenzers and
0:37 millennials are trying to achieve.
0:39 Here's a closer look at how this
0:42 170-year-old credit card giant is
0:44 evolving to stay relevant with the next
0:46 generation of card holders.
0:51 For decades, American Express was the
0:53 go-to card for luxury travelers and the
0:55 business elite. Built on prestige and
0:58 premium perks. My name is Tina Fay. Oh,
1:01 go right in. Really? That worked? Are
1:03 you aware that you can access over 120
1:05 lounges simply by showing the platinum
1:06 card? But that image and its older
1:09 customer base is shifting. In 2023
1:12 alone, Gen Z and millennials accounted
1:14 for 75% of AMX's new platinum and gold
1:18 card accounts. Gen Zers are actually
1:20 bigger risktakers with their money. They
1:23 came of age though at a different time.
1:25 It was actually around the pandemic time
1:27 when money was actually flowing freely.
1:30 People got all that stimulus money. A
1:32 lot of Jenzers introduction to money, at
1:34 least in adulthood, was more gambling on
1:37 meme stocks and crypto. We've actually
1:39 seen Genzers proving a lot more
1:42 risk-takers with their money and that
1:44 includes taking on debt and also taking
1:46 on riskier investments. A study from
1:48 TransUnion found 84% of Gen Z consumers
1:51 aged 22 to 24 had at least one credit
1:54 card by the end of 2023. That's a 23%
1:58 higher rate than millennials at the same
2:00 age a decade ago. Millennials were
2:02 famously debt averse, very slow to get
2:05 credit cards, perhaps because they have
2:07 hefty student loan burdens, and many
2:09 grew up around the time of the financial
2:11 crisis. Gen Z spends differently, too.
2:14 Unlike older generations who prioritized
2:16 travel upgrades and airport lounges, Gen
2:18 Z is putting more of their money towards
2:20 experiences, dining, and lifestyle. And
2:23 AMX is leaning in. They'll get you a
2:26 free Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
2:28 membership. They have their own special
2:31 lounges at certain music festivals and
2:33 sporting events. You know, you get a
2:35 little bit off your media subscriptions.
2:37 You get a little bit off Uber. You get a
2:39 little bit off these food delivery apps,
2:41 but it is sticky and it keeps people
2:43 coming back for more. AMX's business
2:45 model makes it uniquely positioned to
2:47 build out this rewards
2:49 ecosystem. Unlike many of its
2:51 competitors that just run the payment
2:53 networks, AMX operates in a closed loop
2:56 system. That means it handles everything
2:58 inhouse, functioning as the issuer, the
3:01 acquirer, and the network. AMX has a
3:04 unique business model in that they're
3:05 both a lender and a payment processor.
3:08 Visa and Mastercard dominate the network
3:10 side of things, but they're not lenders.
3:13 They're not extending credit. MX is
3:15 playing both sides of that. That full
3:18 picture view from both shoppers and
3:20 merchants gives AMX an advantage. It
3:23 knows where customers are spending and
3:25 can tailor company rewards to keep them
3:27 coming back. There's something about
3:28 getting 4x points when paying for dinner
3:30 with this card that just hits different.
3:32 Gen Z and millennials use their MX cards
3:34 for dining nearly twice as much as other
3:36 generations. According to the company,
3:39 AMX saw an opportunity and moved fast.
3:42 In 2019, the company acquired Resi, a
3:45 restaurant reservation platform that
3:47 gives card holders early access to in-
3:49 demand tables. And in 2024, it expanded
3:53 its dining ecosystem by acquiring the
3:55 high-end restaurant booking service talk
3:58 as well as Rome, a mobile payments app.
4:00 When you're with AMX Gold, you can stack
4:03 four times points on restaurants around
4:05 the world. AMX has really leaned into
4:08 dining as one of their key experiences.
4:11 They have elevated dining rewards on a
4:13 bunch of their credit cards. Um, but
4:15 that also relates to the experience
4:17 aspect where they can help you book a
4:20 table at a fancy restaurant. They can
4:22 sometimes offer chef tutorials and meet
4:25 and greets. And I'm right here in New
4:27 York City for the American Express
4:30 Platinum Coast dining experience. AMX
4:33 also taps into brand partnerships to
4:35 appeal to a younger audience. Y'all
4:37 already know by now that my first job
4:39 every single year at Coachella is always
4:41 the AMX experience. Influencer marketing
4:43 is a big deal. They do these activations
4:46 at film festivals and concerts and music
4:49 festivals and and things like that. It
4:51 is a way to reach young people. These
4:53 rewards are designed to keep younger
4:55 card holders spending. This boosts
4:57 transaction volume and in turn drives up
5:00 revenue. Everybody wants a freebie,
5:02 right? So, especially as everything
5:04 costs more. If you can get champagne
5:07 travel on a beer budget, that's a lot of
5:09 what Gen Zers and millennials are trying
5:11 to achieve, it really keeps people
5:14 loyal, keeps them spending. That loyalty
5:17 has been key to AMX's growth. Even with
5:19 hefty annual fees, nearly $700 for
5:23 premium cards like the Platinum, younger
5:25 card holders are still signing up. The
5:27 annual fee thing is interesting because
5:30 that shows how sticky their audience is
5:33 that, you know, every so often, every
5:35 few years, they introduce new features
5:37 on a card and they raise the annual fee
5:39 and the renewal percentage is apparently
5:41 very, very high. That people are loyal
5:44 to these cards. They like the perks
5:46 they're getting. But competition for
5:48 these young and affluent spenders is
5:50 fierce. The rewards race is on and
5:52 competitors like Chase, Capital 1, and
5:55 Mastercard are catching up. It's a
5:57 copycat industry and we're seeing a lot
5:59 of that. Chase and Capital One are
6:01 following the MX playbook when it comes
6:03 to luxury travel cards, getting you into
6:06 the airport lounge, building out their
6:07 own proprietary lounges. That was
6:10 something that AMX really pioneered.
6:12 Take the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It
6:15 offers premium travel perks, dining
6:17 rewards, and access to lounges. Once a
6:20 hallmark of AMX's platinum card, they
6:22 have a lot more challengers now than
6:24 they used to. And in fact, Capital One's
6:26 a real upand cominging competitor.
6:29 They're in the process of acquiring
6:30 Discover. That's going to make them an
6:32 even more worthy competitor. They've
6:34 been building out airport lounges.
6:36 They've been introducing premium luxury
6:38 travel cards. Chase had a big shot
6:41 across the bow in 2016 when they
6:44 introduced that Sapphire Reserve card.
6:46 And that's going toe-to-toe with MX
6:48 Platinum. And American Express is
6:50 watching for more than just competition.
6:52 It's also bracing for broader economic
6:54 headwinds, including the potential
6:56 impact of rising tariffs, market
6:59 volatility, and investor jitters over
7:01 tariffs already contributed to a dip in
7:03 the company's stock price. People are
7:05 already worried about inflation and the
7:07 high cost of living. If tariffs make
7:09 that more expensive, there's a fear that
7:12 we could tip into recession and that
7:14 this could kind of be the straw that
7:15 broke the camel's back. A recession is
7:17 still bad news for any sort of payments
7:19 provider. If people are spending less,
7:22 that pie is shrinking. In its April 2025
7:25 earnings call, MX CEO Steve Squaryy
7:28 acknowledged those risks, but pointed to
7:30 the company's affluent customer base as
7:33 a buffer. If you look at our card base
7:36 now versus our card base in 2019, it is
7:40 more premium uh than it was at that
7:42 point with higher FICO. The other thing
7:44 that I'll say uh our millennial uh and
7:47 Gen Z's are performing significantly
7:49 better both from a FICO perspective and
7:52 from a delinquency perspective than the
7:54 industry. That high-spending, low-risk
7:57 consumer base, may help shield the
7:59 company from some economic turbulence.
8:01 The companies that would likely fare the
8:04 worst in a recession are those that
8:06 cater to more of a subprime audience.
8:08 Those who have customers with lower
8:09 incomes, lower credit scores. The MX
8:12 audience is very resilient.
8:13 Delinquencies across the industry have
8:15 gone up. They haven't gone up as much at
8:18 MX. And that's also reflective of the
8:20 customer base and and could bode at
8:22 least better if there is a downturn.
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