silver6054

This has been posted in many forums. One explanation given by someone who contacted Amex is that for a period of a few weeks, starting in Aug and ending 9/25, people who applied were sent an incorrect letter (presumably indicating the fee was 0) and these people have had their fee refunded for this year. I got mine in Feb and haven't got a refund, so some "evidence" for that explanation

onthego15

Interesting. Thanks for the explanation.

toomanybooks

I am seriously bummed that the unlimited 6% on BCP is going away. I have recently been getting the 6% plus 10% back in free groceries on gift cards of various kinds. Huge returns.

Guess I should be glad the deal persisted as long as it did.

DaveInLA

I've had this card since June 2012. Like others, I got the letter stating the $6k/yr limit for 6%, but I'm not clear if this cap starts on Jan 13, 2013 or the 1 year anniversary of my card. Anybody know for sure?

Marathon Man

I had called in Oct or Nov and asked them. Was told it was Jan 15 and then it falls to 6% for the next $6k at grocery store and that's that. So after I hit that mark, guess what I do with this CC? Probably sit on it and never use it if it has no AF! Would go back to using the HH Amex at the store once again.

onthego15

Other folks have been told that their account won't be capped until the next anniversary of their account that comes on or after Jan. 15, 2013.
Either way works fine for me since my anniversary is in May, as it will take me those four months to reach $6000.
But it may be worth a call or secure message to AMEX to clarify.

Marathon Man

I received this in the mail whilst away for the holiday:

American Express PO Box 981532
El Paso, TX 79998

December 27, 2012
Account Ending in: XXXXX

Dear 'MM'

We're writing to let you know we are crediting your account up to $75. Regrettably, we experienced a technical error, and the welcome materials we sent you for the Blue Cash Preferred" Card incorrectly stated that there was no annual fee for your Card. We are honoring the information we sent you in error by issuing this credit, which you will see reflected on an upcoming statement. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Please note the Blue Cash Preferred" Card has a $75 annual fee, as indicated on your application. The fee will be applied automatically starting with the next anniversary date. Please call the number on the back of your Card if you have any questions.

Thank you for your Cardmembership.

Sincerely,

American Express Customer Care

The issuer of this card is American Express Centurion Bank
5M15 CPLW01 B TRMUNADH0001001 N N

****

One way to 'make spend' on this card - ie, get to that $6k really quickly, is to just buy Visa/MC GCs at the supermarket. You get gas points at some sometimes too. But either way, you just made 6% on your purchase and even though there's a fee to buy the GCs there, you still make out.

In some cases, stores have promos with reduced or no fees, and in other cases they have store coupons where, if you spend so much on a purchase you get $ off! This could count if also tossing some GCs into the pile of groceries you are already buying. It has for me at stores like Stop & Shop in my area. This helps waive or reduce the load fees that can be up to $6 per GC. But if you are buying those variable $20-$500 ones then this can add up nicely.

I have even used this to buy Lowes and Home Depot cards because I am working on my house and need to go there a lot anyway. I have earned nicely on this Blue and wish it wasn't going to change but when it does I will just go back to using my 6 point/$1 HH Amex instead there.

To cash out the Visa/MC GCs, you can use a phone swiper to run the Visa/MC cards through (don't go too huge all at once though with that!) and cash them out less a fee (Groupon swiper is 1.8%) or you can visit threads like the Target Amex one or heavily read up on other GC things found in MilesBuzz. Buying Amex GCs in stores with this would work too but they are a bit harder to cash out often.

MM

Dieuwer

Get multiple Blue Cash Preferred cards? Or a Cash Preferred and a Cash Everyday?

dcpilgrim

I got the same letter as MM. I joked with my wife "Bank makes error in your favor, collect $75".

My 6K cap won't come till August. We should stay under 6K for the remaining months of 2013. In 2014 we may add a card in my wife's name to give us 12K of annual grocery spend at 6%. We'll see what the marketplace looks like then.

romsdeals3

AMEX Blue Cash Preferred has a $250 sign up via creditcards.com/cardmatch. Fill out the info, but no need to put SSN. The offers should pop up after logging in.

• Earn 250 Reward Dollars after you make $1,000 in purchases in the first three months of Cardmembership
• Get 6% cash back at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets, 3% cash back on gasoline at U.S. stand-alone gas stations and select major department stores; 1% cash back on other purchases
• Cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit
• The first $6,000 of purchases at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets in a calendar year qualifies for 6% cash back; 1% thereafter
• Simple and Straightforward: With the Blue Cash Preferred Card, you can start earning cash back. No rotating reward categories. No enrollment required
• $75 annual fee

With a $250 sign-up bonus, you would net $535 after the $75 annual fee. Another way to see it is 8.9% on groceries ($535/6000) the first year and 4.75% ($285/6000) cash back on groceries every year after that.

Maxing out the Blue Cash Everyday grocery benefit would be 3% * $6,000 = $180. If you add the $150 bonus, you would net $330 the first year.

billpreston

How does one know when the 6% rewards $6K spending cap per calendar year is in place? Do you see any change on the statement or do you have to tally your own grocery category spend?

onthego15

I recommend that you keep tally of your own spend. Otherwise you might make a lot of 1% earning purchases without your knowing it. I'm certainly keeping track of my 6% grocery spends.

Marathon Man

I had called them and they said it was still going on for me. It is still earning 6% and I will call again periodically to make sure and try to get a date on if and when it may end. Hopefully never, as I have found ways to net anything from $300-$500 a month CB on this thing! For now.

Marathon Man

so this am was weird...

I checked my Amex accts and saw that I had over $790 in rewards $$ to spend. Nice. Consistent with how I have been plowing spend onto this thing too!. I do have only $2k spend limit on this card but I pay it off in rapid style format the moment Amex lets me.

So i go to use $775 of it to pay part of the bal and it comes back saying error cant do it now etc. I figure I will try later.

I come back later in the day and now Amex has updated and I can do a payment. I happen to notice there's now only $15+ left in rewards bal so I check history and it indicates my previous attempt to pay the $775 did not go thru but it's also not there!

Well I pay my bill via Amex to deduct from attached bank acct anyway and then I call Amex.

Amex says the $775 HAS credited and will show up in a few days as normal. Cant tell me why it didn't show online but she gives me a ref number and assurance it went through. Strange.

ok cool. I will have an overage but not really cuz i do plow thru spend on this card.

I then decided to ask the gal about the 6% and if there are limits, etc. She said yes, You can earn 6% Cb on the first $6k in this calendar year - so from jan 1. I have had the card active since last oct but now she says I have already earned over $2000 CB on this card YTD. AND YET, I have NOT according to what she can see, maxed my $6k spend. However, I know that on this card since the beginning of Jan, I spent over $37k, which makes the CB I have earned come out pretty much right on.

I figure she is not putting A with B so I thank her and quickly hang up. Now I gotta try to figure out: IS this thing going to end or not? I do hope not--there ARE fees for buying GCs at supermarkets and if earning 6% I can justify those in my plans, but if earning 1% I would rather know this BEFORE I go buy more of em.

thoughts welcome.

MM

silver6054

So when you got the card, was the $6K cap already part of the T&Cs? Can't remember when that came in. If not, in theory you have until the renewal date for unlimited spending.

I got mine in Feb 2012, so I got capped in Feb 2013, but I never really got a good explanation of how they reconcile the conflict between "$6K per calendar year" and "cap begins on anniversary date" For me, it's just one month, so not so critical, and I've switched to mainly using the TYP 5% any way.

But if you aren't capped till Oct, your CB makes sense.