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Old Amex Blue (2016 onwards)[not taking new applications]

Old Jan 26, 2016, 7:19 pm
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Last edit by: ChrisFlyer66
This thread includes all posts for 2016 onwards. The previous 2013- 2014 megathread is here. The 2015 thread is here.

This card is no longer available to new applicants!

Bonus category spending is now capped at $50,000 per year.

Oct 22, 2014 onwards: Many people getting cancellation email from Amex.

Amex may continue to close accounts for excessive spend in bonus categories. Some who have been shutdown are reporting back that AMEX is declining new non-OBC card applications due to "unsatisfactory relationship". (However, see here for an example where reconsideration was successful.) It is unclear at this time the length/extent of this Adverse Action/Ban.

If AMEX sends you a cancellation it goes on your record as a cancellation by AMEX, not a cancellation by cardholder. While FICO score does not distinguish between closed by issuer and closed by cardholder, on manual review it may raise questions. However, issuers close cards for benign reasons as well (such as non-use) so unless several cards have been closed it probably won't cause a rejection by itself.

Excessive MS on this card may sever your ties with Amex. Consider factors that may have led to these closures when sharing personal experiences.

Up to 5% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations & select U.S. drugstores (Everyday Purchases). Up to 1% Cash Back on other purchases. For your first $6,500ą spend in a reward year˛, you will earn 1% on Everyday Purchasesł (5% after 6500⁴), and 0.5% on other purchases (then 1%).

0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months.

Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, or purchases of other cash equivalents. Additional terms and restrictions apply. (Presume these T&Cs are standard and that all credit cards state this)

ą First '$6,500' is spend on all purchases.

ł 'everyday purchases' refers to U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations & select U.S. drugstores, not all purchases.

⁴ 5% kicks in immediately after hitting $6500.(mid-statement). In fact, it will even kick in mid-purchase and a portion of the purchase will credit at the higher rate.

* Reward dollars for the previous statement period show up a day or two after the current statement period closes.

* Most cash back redemptions will be applied to your statement within 2–3 days.

* Helpful post regarding moving CL between cards. Thanks lad2

* How to Visually Distinguish the Three Types of Blue Cash Cards:
Blue Cash (old) has a "<" character to the left of the word CASH
Blue Cash Everyday has a circle to the right of the word CASH, with the "Everyday" wording at the back.
Blue Cash Preferred has the word PREFERRED printed vertically on the extreme left side.

If you get the error message "You cannot be logged in. Please contact the number on the back of your card." when trying to redeem Reward Dollars online, it may be because you have too many closed accounts still showing in your scrolling images of cards. Delete the closed ones, then try to redeem again.
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Old Amex Blue (2016 onwards)[not taking new applications]

Old Jun 24, 2017, 11:43 am
  #271  
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: NYC
Posts: 43
Having some OBC burnout - any tips greatly appreciated!

Account is 20 ish years old (can't remember if it was always obc or switched at some point) and been keeping it for 5 or so years for the offers and gas/grocery 5%. Everything else goes on our 2% flat citi or business.

Don't have the stomach for MS aside from a few grocery cards here and there that are easy, but having trouble seeing the benefit at this point with our usage. The $100 or so lost in the $6500 used here instead of a 2%, factored in with the 7-8k gas/grocery for the other 10 or so months of the year ends up being a whopping $100 or so profit.

Also having trouble even reaching $6500 quickly as so many our higher bills aren't payable by amex. Aside from a few gc's and creative purchases, we end up just switching all our day to day spend over for the first few months of the reward year, which is especially slow during summer months when our rewards year restarts.

Thinking at this point may just make more sense to switch all to the 2% flat and be done with it.
lovesfashion is offline  
Old Jun 24, 2017, 1:17 pm
  #272  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SAN
Programs: Delta Gold. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Explorist.
Posts: 1,671
Originally Posted by lovesfashion
Having some OBC burnout - any tips greatly appreciated!

Account is 20 ish years old (can't remember if it was always obc or switched at some point) and been keeping it for 5 or so years for the offers and gas/grocery 5%. Everything else goes on our 2% flat citi or business.

Don't have the stomach for MS aside from a few grocery cards here and there that are easy, but having trouble seeing the benefit at this point with our usage. The $100 or so lost in the $6500 used here instead of a 2%, factored in with the 7-8k gas/grocery for the other 10 or so months of the year ends up being a whopping $100 or so profit.

Also having trouble even reaching $6500 quickly as so many our higher bills aren't payable by amex. Aside from a few gc's and creative purchases, we end up just switching all our day to day spend over for the first few months of the reward year, which is especially slow during summer months when our rewards year restarts.

Thinking at this point may just make more sense to switch all to the 2% flat and be done with it.
I don't think OBC is for you. You might consider the new Blue Cash card that pays 3% on grocery, without requiring $6500 in spend first.
ChrisFlyer66 is offline  
Old Jun 24, 2017, 2:06 pm
  #273  
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: NYC
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by ChrisFlyer66
I don't think OBC is for you. You might consider the new Blue Cash card that pays 3% on grocery, without requiring $6500 in spend first.
I did some math on that, and it was more or less around the same with the current numbers (less previously, as it caps at 6k and some years we were double that. Also, I want the flexibility to keep the OBC as our spend in these categories + daily spend to easily reach 6500 will likely increase later on

I'm sure this has been mentioned but don't seem to see offhand - can you have both the old and new blue cash at the same time?

Unfortunately most insurance, utilities etc don't take Amex or it wouldn't be much of a problem. Too bad our rewards year isn't around the holidays
lovesfashion is offline  
Old Jun 24, 2017, 2:17 pm
  #274  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: EWN/OAJ/RDU/ILM (Formerly BTV)
Programs: HH D i a m o n d !!!
Posts: 356
Originally Posted by lovesfashion
Having some OBC burnout - any tips greatly appreciated!
Do you want the money or the simplicity? Sounds like you want both.
perkunas is offline  
Old Jun 24, 2017, 2:40 pm
  #275  
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: NYC
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by perkunas
Do you want the money or the simplicity? Sounds like you want both.
I've always been fine with making enough cb (if a bit less) with some work but not anything too overwhelming. $500 grocery, 500 amazon etc as I use those pretty quickly/anyway- but no gc, refill, etc etc. The problem is that with less overall non-business related spend, and less vendors/utils/companies that we happen to use taking Amex, it's becoming a bit more trouble than it's worth.

I would never apply for OBC now, but can see it making more sense down the line when we have double the 5% spend and an easier time getting to 6500 very quickly. One year we bought a new car, put 5k on it right after the rewards year, so met the 6500 in a few weeks. Maybe that's an excuse to buy a new car every year lol (oy!!)

I guess I have to factor things in like transferring all drustore spend to places like Amazon, where the savings is a lot more than the 5% I'd have gotten. And either just stop using it for now, or use as I have been and just be happy with the small CB but ability to maximize down the line. It's always nice to shorten the list of cards but 3 active / 3 less active ones it's pretty manageable.
lovesfashion is offline  
Old Jul 22, 2017, 2:40 pm
  #276  
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 65
This thread has been quiet for a while - I read back several months ago a lot of people's OBC were converted without being able to change it and that AMX is going to phase out this card.

Curious about new applications - I will be trying this soon as the link still looks like it works. After that I'm not sure how long they will keep running this card - I guess I'll just see what happens.

I do have a question about L3 reporting if anyone wants to help - is there a list of grocery stores that don't do L3 reporting (other than what the Visa Supplier Locator can tell you - as this was suggested to be unreliable since it isn't updated regularly)?

I guess there's not many DP on this. Is there a way to tell from your cc statement?

Thanks in advance.
pancakeman27 is offline  
Old Jul 22, 2017, 2:44 pm
  #277  
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 62
Originally Posted by pancakeman27
This thread has been quiet for a while - I read back several months ago a lot of people's OBC were converted without being able to change it and that AMX is going to phase out this card.

Curious about new applications - I will be trying this soon as the link still looks like it works. After that I'm not sure how long they will keep running this card - I guess I'll just see what happens.

I do have a question about L3 reporting if anyone wants to help - is there a list of grocery stores that don't do L3 reporting (other than what the Visa Supplier Locator can tell you - as this was suggested to be unreliable since it isn't updated regularly)?

I guess there's not many DP on this. Is there a way to tell from your cc statement?

Thanks in advance.
Applied June 3th. App got ....ed up (had cancelled BCE night before, problems ensued w Amex system), ended up calling in June 9th, they then sent it to manual review, instantly approved
breauxdle is offline  
Old Jul 24, 2017, 7:22 am
  #278  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 116
I was approved last week instantly via AMEX website. CL is on low side
johndoes is offline  
Old Jul 24, 2017, 1:09 pm
  #279  
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The World!!!
Programs: Some of them not all ...
Posts: 1,532
Question. I remembered my reward year always starting after my closing day on September each year (26th usually). Now, when logging into the new Amex.com, I find out it says "Reward Year August 14, 2016 to August 15, 2017".

So now the reward year goes by opening date/anniversary? I am close to meeting my annual cap, but this would make me have to finish one month earlier. Do anyone else noticed this?
carlitos is offline  
Old Jul 24, 2017, 3:24 pm
  #280  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 135
Originally Posted by johndoes
I was approved last week instantly via AMEX website. CL is on low side
As soon as you get the card, do an online CLI request for 3x, 2x the next day if they ask for tax forms. Easy.
dethkultur is offline  
Old Jul 25, 2017, 4:15 pm
  #281  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CCR
Posts: 326
Originally Posted by carlitos
Question. I remembered my reward year always starting after my closing day on September each year (26th usually). Now, when logging into the new Amex.com, I find out it says "Reward Year August 14, 2016 to August 15, 2017".

So now the reward year goes by opening date/anniversary? I am close to meeting my annual cap, but this would make me have to finish one month earlier. Do anyone else noticed this?
there was a change to this a few months ago, if you look back through your statements you should find it.
slack455 is offline  
Old Jul 25, 2017, 5:57 pm
  #282  
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The World!!!
Programs: Some of them not all ...
Posts: 1,532
Originally Posted by slack455
there was a change to this a few months ago, if you look back through your statements you should find it.
Perfect, thanks!!! Found it on April's statement. So good to know, now I can ramp up a little bit to finish soon and start thinking about Simon Mall again for the first $6,500
carlitos is offline  
Old Jul 26, 2017, 8:07 am
  #283  
 
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 1,066
So, I just logged in to see what my Reward Year is and it says
7/6/16 - 7/5/17
Its already 7/26/17 which is after the year it says. Anyone else notice this? Does it update on the next statement?
cdog999 is offline  
Old Jul 26, 2017, 9:20 am
  #284  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 404
Originally Posted by cdog999
So, I just logged in to see what my Reward Year is and it says


Its already 7/26/17 which is after the year it says. Anyone else notice this? Does it update on the next statement?
I had one end 5/8/17 and made purchases on 5/22/17 before statement of 5/27 and they did NOT count towards the new 6.5k
bar19900 is offline  
Old Jul 26, 2017, 9:22 am
  #285  
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 115
My reward year says 8/5/16 to 8/4/17. My statement end date is 18th of each month. Does that mean my purchases will only earn 5% till 8/4 for the current year?
trueblue84 is offline  

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