asfld

Which one is better, Blue with cash back or Blue with the rewards program? Are there any other differences besides those? Thanks

UpgradeMe

"Better" is often in the eye of the beholder.

amartin1979

higher interest rates with the cash back option

Nihilator

And usually a shorter initial balance transfer period.

I chose Blue Cash, mostly because I preferred cash to anything I saw in the MR or MRO pages. I've just finished up my year, and I'm dropping this card in favor of the SPG AmEx / Chase Perfect card / Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card.

Total rebate for the year is going to come to about $450 on $25k in spending, less about $130 in interest charges.

--Chris

TribeFlyer

I got the Blue Card a number of years ago for four reasons:

No Annual Fee
Free Additional Cards on the account (I gave one to my mother for emergencies)
Revolving Credit option
Earns MR points 1:1

As long as I keep a standard AMEX charge card account open, the above features hold true.

asfld

Do you know what programs you can redeem points 1:1 with the Blue card, is it all of them? I have an AMEX gold now with about 25k points, if I get blue will it "upgrade" the points I have now from a 2:1 to 1:1? This would be great. The AMEX website makes this kind of info very hard to find. Does anyone know a link that explains in detail all the differences and featues of their cards? Thanks

steve100

Nihilator - You may want to do the math....

You charged $25k and got back $450? That seems a lot better than charging $25k and getting 25k of Starpoints (which equals 30k of miles). If you value miles at $0.015/mile, then 30k miles equals $450.00.

Yes, it seems equal - but I would much rather have the cash. It can be used for anything - you can even buy an airline ticket and earn more miles with it! (For example, I just bought two roundtrip tiks from Boston to California for $225 per ticket. So, for $450, I got 2 tickets, plus we earned 6,000 miles per roundtrip ticket (12,000 miles total earned). Whereas if you earned the miles, you would of just got 1 free roundtrip.

The cash option back is pretty good if you are good at finding discount airline tickets.

sergio

It's hard to do math with FF miles. It happens that I had 25k in starpoints two years ago. SPG ran a double miles promo to a certain airline and it ultimately got me 2 free tickets to Hawaii. I normally spend $1,400 bucks for these tickets. Some may argue this was a one time promo, but they ran another one with a different airline last year. And this was a continuing feature of the program up until 3 years ago with one airline. I believe it ended when people on the this board discovered it and used it extensively.

steve100

Yes, true - you sometimes can find deals with miles. You can also argue the flip side - I went to Hawaii twice in the last two years. I paid $250 to $300 roundtrip per flight from Boston (once on CO and once on DL). It was thanks to 'mileage run' postings that I found on Flyertalk that I was alerted to these deals.

So, I was really glad that I had the cashback feature, so I used money that I got back to buy the tickets, then I earned lots of miles by actually flying on a paid ticket.

So, as you can see, the deals work both ways. Personally - Cash is king. I would rather earn cash for credit card transactions, and then earn the plethora of miles I have from actually flying, staying in hotels, renting cars, brokerage accts, etc. I got more than enough miles without credit card transactions and I really appreciate having the extreme flexibility of cash.

Each person will have their own pluses and minuses - the only reason that I point any of this out is that many people dismiss the cashback option as it doesn't appear to be as good on the surface (that is, until you really dig in and looking at it objectively)

Nihilator

I did the math. The Blue Cash card is tiered *and* assigns different rebate percentages for grocery store / drugstore / gas station spending vs. regular spending. I can earn better rebates for that spending with other cards...and if you back out the gas charges (now earning 5% on Chase Freedom card) and grocery charges (now earning 5% on Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards...sorry, I misspoke above), then the cash rebate on the Blue Cash card would end up at a considerably lower ratio.

Plus, you have to take into consideration that the first six months of my year with Blue Cash were interest-free, allowing me to carry a balance and get the "revolve bonus". I tried to make it work during the second half, but ended up paying more in interest than the revolve bonus was worth.

Between getting better rebate deals on other cards (with better acceptance!), and taking advantage of new-cardholder deals, the SPG AmEx is a great card for me to put my non-everyday spending on. This year, at least.

Plus, SPG AmEx has BVG! Woot!

--Chris

edited to change "Perfect" to "Freedom"...sorry for the confusion...

sergio

I believe we are starting the debate with wrong information. Can anyone show me how $25000 of purchases gets you $450 with Blue?

steve100

Here is the breakdown of tiers of rebates:

http://www66.americanexpress.com/car...62647609/0/n#1

I believe that the poster who wrote that they got $450 back by charging $25k did it by carrying a balance (higher cashback % if you carry a balance) and/or buying things at "everyday' stores which includes U.S. supermarkets, gas stations, drugstores, and home improvement stores - these places give you double cash back.

Note: if the above link doesn't work, here is a copy of the Blue Cash tier of rebates:

1 Your annual cash reward for everyday purchases at stand-alone U.S. supermarkets, gas stations, drugstores, and home improvement stores is up to 3%. Stand-alone locations do not include the departments of superstores or warehouse clubs where the standard rebate of up to 1.5% applies. Your annual cash reward for all other purchases is up to 1.5%. You will receive an additional rebate of up to 2% in months in which your account carries a balance. Your cash rewards are limited to $50,000 of annual eligible spending. Balance transfers, purchases of American Express® Travelers Cheques or American Express® Gift Cheques and Cash Advances do not earn a cash back reward. The cash back reward structure is as follows:

Total Annual Spend | Cash Back on Everyday | Cash Back on Other
Up to $2000 | 0.5% | 0.25%
$2,001-$6,000 | 1.00% | 0.50%
$6,001 - $50,000 | 3.00% | 1.50%
Bonus % | 2.00% | 0.50%
(The bonus % is if you carry a balance)

For me personally, the column that is the most relevant is the $6k-$50k of yearly spending gets you 1.5% cash back on 'other' purchases. (Anytime that I go to Home Depot, or a grocery store, or a gas station it doubles to 3% back, which I just consider a bonus)

He did mention 2 other cards, but I still think that the Blue Cash is better. For example, with the Chase PerfectCard was mentioned: Yes, it gives you 6% back on Gas for 90 days, then 3% on Gas afterwards, but at all times, it gives only 1% on everything else. So, unless all your shopping is mostly gas purchases, the Blue Cash is still better. Here is the link to the Chase PerfectCard: http://creditcardsatchase.com/portal...tle=pg_perfect

Nihilator

Steve100 is correct. The extra money came via the "revolve bonus".

Broken down very roughly:

Total spending: $25,632. Of that total, $1,531 was "everyday". If I hadn't carried any balance at all, that would still be worth $342 in rebates, or 1.34%.

During the first six months, I carried a balance on a zero-percent interest rate and got "revolve bonuses" totalling $38. During the last five months, I carried a balance again, trying to earn more in revolve bonuses than I paid in interest (very unsuccessfully, alas)...the revolve bonuses from that period totalled $77 (and the interest totalled $128, which I guessed very well earlier).

The total amount of "carried" spending was about $20,300. If it were all non-everyday spending, it would be worth 0.5%, or $101 in revolve bonus; it was actually $115 because some of the balance was everyday spending, which paid off at a 2% rate.

Total bonuses = 342 + 38 + 77 = $457. Total rebate percentage: 'bout 1.78%.

So very little of the total came from the enhanced "everyday spend" rebate, and the "revolve bonus" rebate isn't worth the interest it costs you. You should only carry a balance when you're in the zero-percent period.

My Chase Freedom Card pays 5% forever; the phrase "5-Point Charter Member" is embossed on my card. Because I always get a full 5% on gas purchases (credited every statement, no less!), there's no sense in using the Blue Cash card for that.

The Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card pays 5 points per dollar spent at supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations. I think $50 gift cards are available for 5000 points. So if I can get, roughly, a straight 5% at supermarkets, there's no sense in using the Blue Cash card for that.

Since that accounts for pretty much all of my everyday spending, and carrying a balance to earn a larger reward doesn't work (for me), I may as well use the SPG card for all of that non-everyday spending.

--Chris

edited to change "Perfect" to "Freedom"...sorry for the confusion...

sergio

It doesn't go both ways. Paying $250 for a ticket to Hawaii has nothing to do with a Blue Amex. If I can get a continuous supply of Hawaii tickets for $250, I would throw away my Starwood AMEX, or just use it for hotel rooms. I guess the point really comes down to whether a person wants $342 or $450 or 25,000 starpoints. When a promo with Webflyer came around a few years back, a lot of people paid $600 for 25,000 points. People have a lot of cash. I don't hear of anyone saying they have too much starpoints. I think a better saying is that a starpoint is king, not cash.

JuniorPhatFarm

Same here...