Old Amex Blue (2013-2014)
 

It's been pointed out on MyFico that you can still obtain the old Amex Blue (5% EDS after $6500 spend). While it is cash back rather than miles, have people here been using that card heavily (for some definition of heavily, e.g like 5x TYP!) buying VR or GC at CVS/supermarkets?

Link?

Thread is http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Cred...e/td-p/2685719

Will definitely app for this when I get home. Sucks you cant PC to it.

OP, you've just made my day! I've had this card for 10 years, but it has been sitting in my CC pile for the past 5 years (with only occasional bonus-related use such as the recent Amazon $25 off $75 deal). With my 5x Citi TYP coming to an end next month, this will be a perfect replacement!

Applied and approved. Thanks OP. Note I also have the BCP

Whats the big deal with this card? It seems like you'd have to pump some serious spend through this card to make it lucrative, especially when other cards often have the same 5% categories (Freedom, Discover, Cash Plus, etc.) For those who casually do a few reloads a month and have other cards to pull bonus spend out of, the old Amex BC seems overrated.

For many people here, $6.5k can be met in matter of hours if not minutes.
After meeting the minimum spending, oh boy...

It definitely depends on your personal situation, credit cards you already have, your redemption preferences and level of MS. I spend between 10-15K per month so this is definitely worth it to me. Freedom has a $1,500 cap; Discover has online bonuses, but I am unaware of any of their cards offering 5% cashback in these same categories for in-store purchases.

This card has no annual fee and no earning cap (unlike Citi TYP, which is not available any longer anyway, or WF, which is for 6 months). Since I already have the card, there is no credit pull involved either. Plus, unlike TYP, 1 point =1 cent (1 TYP is often worth less when redeeming due to inflated hotel/airfare prices offered on the TYP site).

If I spend 10K per month, that's 120K/year. If I were to use SPG instead, I'd earn 150K miles (with their airline transfer bonus). Not bad, but since I redeem mostly for economy tickets, that's 6 R/T tickets, or $3K in value (at $500/ticket, which may be generous). Even if you redeem internationally in economy, you'd likely still get around $3K in value, perhaps slightly higher.

With this card, I would earn $6K cash back, less the VR fee of $948. This nets approx $5K. Plus the return is in $$$, which gives you more flexibility than airline miles (i.e., you can redeem for car rentals, hotels, or cash).

You could use another card such as CSP, Barclay's Amex PRG or Plat, but between the AF, lack of category bonus, and my redemption preferences, this card comes out on top for me.

Zamboni, your situation definitely puts a new spin on this card! I didn't realize it was possible to manufacture that much spend. I get nervous loading upwards of $1k a month to Bluebird, but then again I'm pretty new to this. Is BB your primary liquidation source?

There are people who do much more than I do. BB is primary, but I also mix in Amex prepaid and GoBank. It helps to have >1 BB acct.

Isn't it very likely that MS on AMEX will lead to FR?

How long before they drop drugstore from the 5x list like they did with the HHonors card earlier this year?

Just don't lie on your application :cool:

Been using this for three months now. I thought it was grandfathered users only. Now it'll probably get shut down. :(