Jan 8, 2014, 2:22 pm
Last edit by: TheDapperDon
Bonus category spending is now capped at $50k per year for new accounts. For now, this does not apply to existing cardholders, although Amex may continue to close accounts for excessive spend in bonus categories. This card is less viable as an MS instrument. Consider factors that may have led to these closures when sharing personal experiences.
Oct 22, 2014 onwards: Many people getting cancellation email from Amex. As of Dec 13, 2014, shutdown reports continue. Shutdowns appear to be triggered by spending on the card or upon statement closure, but not always
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.
Others have succeeded in getting new cards, including new OBCs, but consider your relationship with Amex and how much you value that and this card when deciding how to use it.
There might be some impact with other issuers. 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.
So, if you still feel it is worth it:
Application Link: Copy & paste the following link into a incognito window in Chrome or InPrivate Browsing in IE, Private Session in Firefox. There have been reports of people who got the card in the last couple of months getting shut down because of the rush to spend the initial $6,500.
Do NOT post "Link isn't working" until you have tried it incognito/private browsing and it fails there.
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 $6,500¹ spend in a reward year², you will earn 1% on Everyday Purchases³ (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)
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
¹ First '$6,500' is spend on all purchases.
² 'Reward year' is the 12 billing periods in a row beginning with the one in which the anniversary of your Card Account occurs.
³ 'everyday purchases' refers to U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations & select U.S. drugstores, not all purchases.
* Read the fine print for 'gas' purchases! Right from AMEX T&C's:
...Everyday Purchases are: ... $400 or less of gasoline at gas stations located in the U.S. (superstores, supermarkets and warehouse clubs that sell gasoline are not considered gas stations)... A >$400 purchase at a gas station will get 5% for the first $400 and 1% thereafter. E.g., for something, say, $503.95, you would earn $21.04 CB [($400*5%)+(103.95*1%)].
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.
Oct 22, 2014 onwards: Many people getting cancellation email from Amex. As of Dec 13, 2014, shutdown reports continue. Shutdowns appear to be triggered by spending on the card or upon statement closure, but not always
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.
Others have succeeded in getting new cards, including new OBCs, but consider your relationship with Amex and how much you value that and this card when deciding how to use it.
There might be some impact with other issuers. 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.
So, if you still feel it is worth it:
Application Link: Copy & paste the following link into a incognito window in Chrome or InPrivate Browsing in IE, Private Session in Firefox. There have been reports of people who got the card in the last couple of months getting shut down because of the rush to spend the initial $6,500.
Do NOT post "Link isn't working" until you have tried it incognito/private browsing and it fails there.
Code:
https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/blue-cash/25330
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 $6,500¹ spend in a reward year², you will earn 1% on Everyday Purchases³ (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)
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
¹ First '$6,500' is spend on all purchases.
² 'Reward year' is the 12 billing periods in a row beginning with the one in which the anniversary of your Card Account occurs.
³ 'everyday purchases' refers to U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations & select U.S. drugstores, not all purchases.
* Read the fine print for 'gas' purchases! Right from AMEX T&C's:
...Everyday Purchases are: ... $400 or less of gasoline at gas stations located in the U.S. (superstores, supermarkets and warehouse clubs that sell gasoline are not considered gas stations)... A >$400 purchase at a gas station will get 5% for the first $400 and 1% thereafter. E.g., for something, say, $503.95, you would earn $21.04 CB [($400*5%)+(103.95*1%)].
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.
Old Amex Blue (2013-2014)
Apr 7, 2014, 7:47 pm
#1801
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: PHL
Posts: 930
intuitively, that seems highly unlikely. but, anecdotally, it inexplicably seems the case?!? 12m/year in real money cash back is a big #- and a profoundly money losing relationship for amex; as the people doing this are not the type to be making it up to amex with a ton of 1x profitable spend on a bunch of other cards. though spg may fall into that category. but even then, hard to imagine the customer being profitable.
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
Apr 7, 2014, 7:58 pm
#1803
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: a hotel room, somewhere...
Posts: 962
I do not have any numbers to back this up, but I would imagine that 99% of BC users are MSers. I mean, who else actually finds out about this card's application link?
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
maybe the cummulative # hasn't been big enough to get on the radar. or... they already dealt with the issue in their mind by killing the card (well, except for a rogue link they obviously aren't fully aware of).
Apr 7, 2014, 8:01 pm
#1804
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: New Jersey
Programs: Delta P, SPG G, Marriott S, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,007
I do not have any numbers to back this up, but I would imagine that 99% of BC users are MSers. I mean, who else actually finds out about this card's application link?
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
WAY WAY WAY WAY wrong.
I would think MS'ers are like 2% of the BC crowd.
Trust me, if Amex was losing money on 99% of the card line, they would be banned and closed, moved to another card.
Now, is it a large percentage of new card users? Yes, I am sure.
However as a percentage of all the BC users? absolutely not. This card has been around for a long time.
They are not dummies. The $6,500 mark is there for a reason, and judging by the fact that the average MS experience on this forum is a few months... I dont think they worry too much about longevity.
Apr 7, 2014, 8:02 pm
#1805
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Sweet Home Chicago
Programs: Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 646
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
Apr 7, 2014, 9:56 pm
#1806
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: MSP
Programs: DL, BA, AA
Posts: 270
Thanks a lot for this link.
Got the "old" Blue. This is really a great card. It appears that AMEX is not advertising it anywhere since the only place I have seen the link is right here on this thread.
Got approved instantly but don't know the credit limit.
Got the "old" Blue. This is really a great card. It appears that AMEX is not advertising it anywhere since the only place I have seen the link is right here on this thread.
Got approved instantly but don't know the credit limit.
Apr 7, 2014, 11:01 pm
#1807
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,507
I do not have any numbers to back this up, but I would imagine that 99% of BC users are MSers. I mean, who else actually finds out about this card's application link?
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
That being said, Amex probably keeps us on because we represent swipes. We probably spend more on Amex than 99% of their other users. This is good for Amex because they can talk about "we have X amount of customers" or "our card is used to spend $Y every day". That probably gets more merchants to accept Amex and drives more business to their "premium cards".
Just a guess. I could be wrong.
. I have a friend that still has the old Amex BC card who signed up for this card since the very beginning many years ago...which is way before this recent resurgence of this card in Jan 2014. He is not an MSer but those folks who have had the old Amex BC card since the very beginning were not forced off onto the BCE and BCP cards. Obviously Amex tried to convince them to roll off the BC card to the BCE and BCP cards by enticing them by removing the minimum $6.5K spend in order to achieve 3-5% CB and I am sure many bit on that offer but some were stubborn and refused to switched over. My friend was one of those stubborn ones that refused to get off the old Amex BC. Like others have said, MSers in no way represent the majority of users of the Amex BC.
Apr 7, 2014, 11:31 pm
#1808
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: PHL
Posts: 930
Guys, it was just a guess, calm down. I am glad that you all know that I am WAY wrong, especially since you are just making guesses as well or basing your assumptions off of one person.
Apr 7, 2014, 11:36 pm
#1809
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,507
But dude at least come up with a more reasonable number. 99% of all Amex BC users are MSers? Cmon man. If you had just said..."maybe I think the number is around 10-20%" that would have been more reasonable. I think it was just the absurdity of your guesstimate that got folks to respond. The next you'll be saying is that 99% of all Chase Ink users are MSers.
Last edited by ericdabbs; Apr 8, 2014 at 12:04 am
Apr 8, 2014, 12:15 am
#1810
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 203
You are absolutely wrong about this . I have a friend that still has the old Amex BC card who signed up for this card since the very beginning many years ago...which is way before this recent resurgence of this card in Jan 2014.
He is not an MSer but those folks who have had the old Amex BC card since the very beginning were not forced off onto the BCE and BCP cards. Obviously Amex tried to convince them to roll off the BC card to the BCE and BCP cards by enticing them by removing the minimum $6.5K spend in order to achieve 3-5% CB and I am sure many bit on that offer but some were stubborn and refused to switched over. My friend was one of those stubborn ones that refused to get off the old Amex BC. Like others have said, MSers in no way represent the majority of users of the Amex BC.
. I have a friend that still has the old Amex BC card who signed up for this card since the very beginning many years ago...which is way before this recent resurgence of this card in Jan 2014. He is not an MSer but those folks who have had the old Amex BC card since the very beginning were not forced off onto the BCE and BCP cards. Obviously Amex tried to convince them to roll off the BC card to the BCE and BCP cards by enticing them by removing the minimum $6.5K spend in order to achieve 3-5% CB and I am sure many bit on that offer but some were stubborn and refused to switched over. My friend was one of those stubborn ones that refused to get off the old Amex BC. Like others have said, MSers in no way represent the majority of users of the Amex BC.
The BCP was a great deal until they capped it. 6% at grocery stores, not 3-5%. I was buying Vgcs at the grocery store. When I switched there was no 6k limit with no minimum to meet. Not a bad deal for $75. I had the BC since 2004 and switched to BCP to make more $. It was when they capped it about 2 years ago that I started getting into credit card apps for bonus miles/$ and then more MS.
Apr 8, 2014, 12:20 am
#1811
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 14
"Blue" vs original/old blue
I have a "Blue" card. Took it as a downgrade from Delta Reserve cancellation so as not to lose a chunk of total Amex CL (I've transferred most of the CL to other cards).
Is this the card being talked about in this thread?
I also have a Blue Cash Preferred which looks exactly the same but with Preferred down the side. Since I got it as a no fee downgrade, I didn't explore the benefits at the time and no one mentioned 5x after $6,500. I can't find any description of these benefits on Amex website under "Blue for American Express". This thread often refers to it as being a grandfathered card - I got it in May, 2013.
How do I tell whether I have the "old" blue or some other flavor?
Is this the card being talked about in this thread?
I also have a Blue Cash Preferred which looks exactly the same but with Preferred down the side. Since I got it as a no fee downgrade, I didn't explore the benefits at the time and no one mentioned 5x after $6,500. I can't find any description of these benefits on Amex website under "Blue for American Express". This thread often refers to it as being a grandfathered card - I got it in May, 2013.
How do I tell whether I have the "old" blue or some other flavor?
Apr 8, 2014, 1:32 am
#1812
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: MSP
Programs: DL, BA, AA
Posts: 270
All current offerings are listed here:
https://www304.americanexpress.com/c...c_viewallcards
Several blue cards there. Interestingly, the blue card in this thread is not listed.
https://www304.americanexpress.com/c...c_viewallcards
Several blue cards there. Interestingly, the blue card in this thread is not listed.
Apr 8, 2014, 6:12 am
#1813
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 322
But dude at least come up with a more reasonable number. 99% of all Amex BC users are MSers? Cmon man. If you had just said..."maybe I think the number is around 10-20%" that would have been more reasonable. I think it was just the absurdity of your guesstimate that got folks to respond. The next you'll be saying is that 99% of all Chase Ink users are MSers.
noun Rhetoric .
1.
obvious and intentional exaggeration.
2.
an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”
Apr 8, 2014, 6:16 am
#1814
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 253
I am not doing any regular spending. In fact, every purchase is at CVS.
I did mix it up a few days ago and bought a Univision card at Winn Dixie because I wanted to have an alternate if the OVs are out of stock.
I am at 2x limit as of this cycle which started around 10 days ago. I just paid the 2nd cycle so im back to full credit limit.
The great thing is, if I pull the payment, the limit is immediately increased upon the payment at Amex. So I made payment this AM and Im free to buy another 5K today.
Im more concerned with the depositing of $25K money orders per month. Thats the part that gets the worst possible AA. But the people at my bank know what im doing, so im hoping the "behind the scenes" people are comfortable knowing the front scenes people dont worry.
Last edited by Lappie; Apr 8, 2014 at 6:23 am Reason: MO
Apr 8, 2014, 10:09 am
#1815
Join Date: May 2010
Programs: Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 174
Oh, and I've said it before and will take this opportunity to say it again: The cc companies do read these forums. It is foolish to boast about your level of spend with any particular product.