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)
#2311
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Chicago
Programs: AA, BA, CX, DL, EK, F9, GA, HA, IB, JL, KE, LH, MH, NH, OS, PG, QR, RJ, SA, TG, UA, VN, WN, ZH
Posts: 927
Care to share your source for this? I can see detail breakdown for Staples under additional information, but not for CVS.
#2312
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: WAS
Programs: SPG Plat. Marriott Plat. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Diamond. IHG Plat.
Posts: 2,580
https://www209.americanexpress.com/m.../data-security
Last edited by MileageAddict; May 28, 2014 at 11:42 am Reason: image not found - link removed
#2313
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Midwest
Programs: AA LT Gold 1MM ,Hyatt Explorist,Marriott Platinum,HHonors Diamond
Posts: 364
Just got a call from Amex. I mentioned previously on this thread that I've been using this card sparingly of late but wanted to use it to get into MS. So I dove right in, first purchasing $5,000 of AGC to get the $6,500 spending requirement out of the way and then getting serveral VGC's from various drugstores.
The call was very courteous - she asked where I worked, address of employment, how long I've been there, whether I own or rent, etc. Then she said she just wanted to verify the nature of the gift card purchases they've been seeing on my account and whether to expect those purchases to continue.
She seemed to know that I was purchasing the gift cards at drugstores, although if you look at my statement and see a bunch of 504.95 charges, it wouldn't be surprising. I told the truth - that I used the AGC to satisfy my spend requirement and then was getting the gift cards for personal use. I told her that I realized I was brushing up against my CL and that in the future I didn't plan to take it nearly that high.
All that seemed to satisfy her. I asked if this was part of some financial review. She made it sound like if she wasn't satisfied that it could head that way. But she was satisfied for the time being. So I guess I'm good for now
The call was very courteous - she asked where I worked, address of employment, how long I've been there, whether I own or rent, etc. Then she said she just wanted to verify the nature of the gift card purchases they've been seeing on my account and whether to expect those purchases to continue.
She seemed to know that I was purchasing the gift cards at drugstores, although if you look at my statement and see a bunch of 504.95 charges, it wouldn't be surprising. I told the truth - that I used the AGC to satisfy my spend requirement and then was getting the gift cards for personal use. I told her that I realized I was brushing up against my CL and that in the future I didn't plan to take it nearly that high.
All that seemed to satisfy her. I asked if this was part of some financial review. She made it sound like if she wasn't satisfied that it could head that way. But she was satisfied for the time being. So I guess I'm good for now
Have u been FR'd before by AMEX?
History with AMEX?
Just wondering if this is the new FR process or a new risk management policy and may have nothing to do with MS or GC purchases...
#2314
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 415
I've had this card since 2010 or so. I only recently staretd MS'ing but did meet the $6,500 purchase requirement one year before deciding it wasn't worth it. Then the card was more or less dormant for a few years, save SBS and other Amex offers. I only recently started using it to MS. No history of FR on the card.
#2315
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SJC
Programs: AA, AS, Marriott
Posts: 6,059
I proactively offered that I was buying some gift cards in conjunction with a weeklong promotion at a local grocery chain. I didn't get asked about employment or income, but I also haven't even reached my credit limit in aggregate including all of my spending since I received the card. It was fairly obvious even without level 3 data when a bunch of $505.95 purchases appeared.
#2316
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 299
ABC
What they know you are buying can not be true! Years ago I owned an auto diagnostic center. A customer called asking what the 250.00 charge on the CC bill was, back on such and such date. It stated "auto/auto related" He totally forgot he was ever in my shop. I checked my computer and itemized what the charges were for and told him. He then had CC company call me to verify the charges for some reason. They had no idea what the 250 was for. To Amex, it could have been 250. worth of candy. So they don't know what you are buying. All the company knows is a charge for xx was on xxx at XXX. No way for them to know. When you mix in milk or soap or toilet paper, do they get a breakdown on how much was T.P. how much was milk, how much was OV? To play it safe over the last 6 months, I always buy a pack of gum along with the OV or other items I need. Never have a 504.95 charge or a 1009,.90 charge. BYW, anyone need gum?
#2317
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 274
What they know you are buying can not be true! Years ago I owned an auto diagnostic center. A customer called asking what the 250.00 charge on the CC bill was, back on such and such date. It stated "auto/auto related" He totally forgot he was ever in my shop. I checked my computer and itemized what the charges were for and told him. He then had CC company call me to verify the charges for some reason. They had no idea what the 250 was for. To Amex, it could have been 250. worth of candy. So they don't know what you are buying. All the company knows is a charge for xx was on xxx at XXX. No way for them to know. When you mix in milk or soap or toilet paper, do they get a breakdown on how much was T.P. how much was milk, how much was OV? To play it safe over the last 6 months, I always buy a pack of gum along with the OV or other items I need. Never have a 504.95 charge or a 1009,.90 charge. BYW, anyone need gum?
#2318
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 18
So, I just received this card in the mail, and was excited to get going- only, I opened the envelope to find to my dismay that my credit limit is a paltry $2k! I'm not sure why it's so low- my credit score is 730+. My current Amex lineup is a PRG with a $15k "limit" as well as 2 SPG cards, one personal and one biz. That's it.
Question is, with such a low limit, is this card completely worthless? How long should I wait until I start going through, say, even 6k a month- which is 3x my CL- by paying off mid-statement, or will doing it ever get me shut down? Will they let me close my SPG personal and move the line over to the BlueCash, which I just got? Even that would only bring me to a 6k total CL, which still isn't much.
If anyone has any ideas how I can get around this issue and actually be able to benefit from MS at 5% on this card- I'd appreciate the help. Happy spending to everyone scoring big with this card- it's a great find!
Question is, with such a low limit, is this card completely worthless? How long should I wait until I start going through, say, even 6k a month- which is 3x my CL- by paying off mid-statement, or will doing it ever get me shut down? Will they let me close my SPG personal and move the line over to the BlueCash, which I just got? Even that would only bring me to a 6k total CL, which still isn't much.
If anyone has any ideas how I can get around this issue and actually be able to benefit from MS at 5% on this card- I'd appreciate the help. Happy spending to everyone scoring big with this card- it's a great find!
#2319
Join Date: Jan 2013
Programs: AA, SPG, MR, UR, Cash Back!
Posts: 606
The whole statement behind thing is getting boring to me. I ran $7k through this card last month, my billing cycle closes yesterday. Waiting for rewards... I was only able to run $2k through this billing cycle with an extra $1k pending. So basically $10k in spending with rewards in limbo..... ... over?!?
#2322
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 527
I think as long as they don't see any individual risk, in the aggregate AMEX benefits from the volume.
#2323
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 314
i got approved for this card today. It is confusing because about three weeks ago I requested SPG credit line increase and was declined. The CL on that is $1K. Today for this card I got $15K.
8 inquiries in the last 6 months, more like in last 3 months. Today I also applied for Citi AA exec, second one and was declined citing the citi policy of over 6 inquiries in 6 months. Applied to Chase ink plus, probably will be denied too.
My history is probably worser than about 95% of the folks here, essentially my credit cards apping and using started this year, with about 4, 7 year old accounts with a combined CL of $2000. Utilization is probably close to 25% now.
Credit karma 739, Credit sesame 751, barclays fico 748.
8 inquiries in the last 6 months, more like in last 3 months. Today I also applied for Citi AA exec, second one and was declined citing the citi policy of over 6 inquiries in 6 months. Applied to Chase ink plus, probably will be denied too.
My history is probably worser than about 95% of the folks here, essentially my credit cards apping and using started this year, with about 4, 7 year old accounts with a combined CL of $2000. Utilization is probably close to 25% now.
Credit karma 739, Credit sesame 751, barclays fico 748.
#2324
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: DL DM Hub Captive, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, PC Plat, and other stuff.
Posts: 904
So, I just received this card in the mail, and was excited to get going- only, I opened the envelope to find to my dismay that my credit limit is a paltry $2k! I'm not sure why it's so low- my credit score is 730+. My current Amex lineup is a PRG with a $15k "limit" as well as 2 SPG cards, one personal and one biz. That's it.
Question is, with such a low limit, is this card completely worthless? How long should I wait until I start going through, say, even 6k a month- which is 3x my CL- by paying off mid-statement, or will doing it ever get me shut down? Will they let me close my SPG personal and move the line over to the BlueCash, which I just got? Even that would only bring me to a 6k total CL, which still isn't much.
If anyone has any ideas how I can get around this issue and actually be able to benefit from MS at 5% on this card- I'd appreciate the help. Happy spending to everyone scoring big with this card- it's a great find!
Question is, with such a low limit, is this card completely worthless? How long should I wait until I start going through, say, even 6k a month- which is 3x my CL- by paying off mid-statement, or will doing it ever get me shut down? Will they let me close my SPG personal and move the line over to the BlueCash, which I just got? Even that would only bring me to a 6k total CL, which still isn't much.
If anyone has any ideas how I can get around this issue and actually be able to benefit from MS at 5% on this card- I'd appreciate the help. Happy spending to everyone scoring big with this card- it's a great find!
#2325
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 18
Do the cards have to be under the same online login to do it online? Also how long does a card have to be open for until you can transfer CL from it? My SPG is going on 10 months.