oceantoocean

I've always been a person that refused to pay a (Fee) to own credit card. So, I've only owned (No Fee) cards that paid cash back. When Amex Blue Cash card came made its way out, I reviewed all my Cash Back cards and decided the Blue Cash card would be a nice addition. I normaly spend over 6 figures on my credit cards each year and becan using the Amex card for almost all of my purchaes.

The advantage of the Blue card that I noticed over my other cards where.

- No Fee
- 1.5% and 5.0% cash back (after 1 year)
- No cap on spending (Amex new Benifit)

The disadvantages I noticed where.

- You had to wait a year to recieve your Cash Rebate


I noticed on my Amex Blue site that they had a option to sign up for Membership Rewards. It showed and link that I was to click to see if the Blue Cash card was eligible. The site said that it was. I went on to search the site to understand if this was an extra benifit for Blue Cash or if I was giving up the cash back option and found no answers. I called the CSR (Got someone from India) and he also did not know. He but me on hold and told me that my card was not an option for that service. Since I was talking to India, I just told him thanks and hung up. I got a feeling that he did not know the services very well.

I have been searching this forum and can't find much on the Amex Blue Cash Card? I kind of thought this card was the ulitmate card to have in terms of cash back, but noticed that it seems like almost everyone has (Fee Based) credit cards. Have I been missing out on something ? should I get another card? I Currently I own the following cards.

Amex Blue Cash
Citi Divid Master Card -(Platnium Select)
Discover Card (Platnium Cash Back)
Charles Schwab (Platinium Check Card)

Thanks

mia

List of cards not eligible for Membership Rewards...

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...s=1#ineligible

American Express� Cash Rebate Card(Gold, Platinum, Blue)

sdsearch

This web site is called FlyerTalk. The main reason here people use (fee based) credit cards is because they want "real" miles that can be used at great "discount" (compared to the cash cost) for things like international business class or first class fares.

Cash back is roughly equivalent to using miles for cheap domestic flights in economy, or common (US to London, say) international economy flights, if you book far ahead of time.

But while it only takes 2 to 3 times as many miles to get an international flight in business class, it costs about 10 to 20 times as much in cash.

Therefore if it's "beyond economy" seats that you want, cash back is a poor value compared to miles.

But if it's only economy seats that you want, cash back in many cases works just as well as miles (with more flexibility, obviously!).

So whether you're missing out on something completely depends on how/if you use miles.

Miles (for "beyond economy" international flights) is the main place where you can tremendously "magnify" the value of your card earnings by how you use those earnings. Most other redemptions (for buying stuff from catalogs, for non-miles-based travel certrificates or "fake miles" that you can use on any airline but only at cash back equivalent value, etc) are poor value compared to cash back. In some (but not most) cases, you may also get "magnfied" value out of hotel points, but usually not as magnified as miles, especially if you compare to using services like Priceline and Hotwire to "magnify" your cash for hotel rooms.

oceantoocean

Mia -Yes, thanks for the link. If you look at the top under ,Rewards-Eligible Consumer Cards, it shows the listing- Blue from American ExpressSM.

sdsearch - Thanks for the your answer. Your explanation makes perfect since.

brosnan6

I think you are getting Blue and BlueCash mixed up. While they are both technically "Blue from American Express" one is a pure credit card with the OPTION for Membership Rewards points, but the other (which you are looking at) is the Blue Cash Rebate card. While both are blue, they have different features/benefits.

You say you are spending over 6 figures on your amex per year. The reason why you would want to get a fee based card, like Green/Gold/Plat is because you can get MUCH more value with MR points over simple cash rebate. The 5% cashback level is great if you do all your 6 figures shopping at supermarkets/drugstores/gas stations. However, with MR points, you are only going to get more value if you like to travel. If you don't plan on travelling, you can stick with cashback. With travel, you can easily get more than 1.5-5% value (think upwards of 7-15%) for your points when you start redeeming for international First/Business tickets. With your 6 figures spending, it should be only a matter of time before you can start redeeming your points for premium tickets.

Also if you travel, the 395/year for plat becomes worthwhile when you consider airport lounge access, fine hotels and resorts and the various other benefits like fee free travellers checks and foreign currency.

oceantoocean

brosnan6,

Thanks for taking the time to provide a detailed answer. The Amex Blue on average is paying me about 1.7% on my purchases. As you mentioned you would have to make all of your purchases at Supermarkets/drugstores/gas stations to earn 5%. You would be lucky if you could spend $10,000 a year on those purchases and even then you would have to make all of your purchases at smaller stores. Companies like Sams/Walmart/Target ect... have all negotiated superior rates with the card companies, forcing the credit card companies to pay you a fraction of 1% when shopping at big box stores or mail orders companies.

After looking at the World Perks program (redeem 25,000 points for the first Airline ticket and 15,000 points for second ticket) it begins to make more since. This works out to be 5%. Thanks again for being patient with me. I may be slow, but eventually I'll come around!!!

mia

<<forcing the credit card companies to pay you a fraction of 1% when shopping at big box stores or mail orders companies.>>

Do you believe you are not receiving a 1% rebate on purchases from these merchants? I see no exception mentioned in the Blue Cash program to allow this.

oceantoocean

Mia,
You are correct. I thought AMEX had the same language that Discovercard had. It was the Discovercard that reads - "earn a full 1% on all other purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3,000; other purchases that are part of your first $1,500 earn .25% and other purchases that are part of your second $1,500 earn .50%. Purchases made at select warehouse clubs, discount stores and their affiliates earn .25%Thanks

brosnan6

Also...you have to be careful how the merchant is classified. In my experience, the Walmarts/Costcos of the world do not get the merchant code of Grocery stores, they have a separate category of warehouse clubs, thereby excluding from the higher 5% tier. Grocery store codes are solely for stores like Safeway/Albertsons/Kroger/whatever you have in your region, as well as some smaller supermarkets.

Most of the time when you don't get a qualifying cash rebate with smaller stores is because when the store owner completed the merchant application, they incorrectly identified their store category. If you are friendly with the owner of a smaller store (generally nonchain), they are generally more than willing to contact the CC companies and make the appropriate changes. Good luck with chains...the store managers have no control and I doubt the corporate HQs care enough.

The problem lies in the fact that there are so many different types of codes a merchant can be. Many are very similar yet different enough to sometimes be excluded from bonus points/cashback tiers. Me thinks that CC companies should simplify their coding systems

SOhp101

If you spend 6 figures on your credit cards, it's MUCH better for you to pay a relatively low annual fee on an airline miles card and earn miles instead of earning cash, assuming that you like to be upgraded to business/first class and you travel often. Or, you can sign up for a hotel affiliated card that would also give you plenty of points to get nice upgrades.

From your posts, it sounds like an affiliated card (Delta, *wood, etc.) would work much better for you.

andol469

The main problem I see with the Blue Cash card is that the 1.5%-5% tier doesn't kick in until after $6500 in annual spend. Before that, the tiers are 0.5%-1%. 1% cashback on gas purchases is leaving a lot of money/miles on the table. If you can knock out the first tier quickly with a single, large, non-everyday spend purchase, you'll be much better off (tuition, prepaying a large recurring bill, etc.)