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Old Jan 8, 2014, 2:22 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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.

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 6500), 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%)].

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 (2013-2014)

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Old Jul 9, 2014, 11:46 am
  #2896  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 212
Programs: Marriott Titanium, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 502
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Songer5 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 2:01 pm
  #2897  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 182
Anyone know if you can still buy PayPal MyCash Cards with CC at our favorite See-Vee-S drug store?
golf7 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 2:06 pm
  #2898  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Fishers, IN
Posts: 105
Originally Posted by golf7
Anyone know if you can still buy PayPal MyCash Cards with CC at our favorite See-Vee-S drug store?
Did it last night.
Hilbe is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 2:26 pm
  #2899  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 182
Seems like buying paypal cards at a certain store, along with having the paypal business mastercard you can load your paypal card, then buy MO or load to Serve/BB at Family Dollar or Walmart.

Might need to investigate this a bit more....
golf7 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 2:43 pm
  #2900  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
Originally Posted by golf7
Anyone know if you can still buy PayPal MyCash Cards with CC at our favorite See-Vee-S drug store?
this plus VRs are still sold for CCs at some WAG.
Mamibear is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 6:12 pm
  #2901  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 212
Programs: Marriott Titanium, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 502
Originally Posted by golf7
Seems like buying paypal cards at a certain store, along with having the paypal business mastercard you can load your paypal card, then buy MO or load to Serve/BB at Family Dollar or Walmart.

Might need to investigate this a bit more....
Paypal is pretty quick to shut people down if they see quick load/unload patterns. Definitely not as friendly as Amex or Amazon.

I'd definitely (a) mix in random spend at other merchants, (b) keep money in the paypal account as you would a checking account and (c) space out load and unloads.

But if you can keep up appearances, yes, this is a nice substitute for VR.
Songer5 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 6:34 pm
  #2902  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 920
So I guess I'm still in the sin bin here. Amex is not refreshing my CL. I'm basically waiting about a week from each payment before I get my CL refreshed. This has happened back to back... Sad sad sad...
hitman1420 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 7:38 pm
  #2903  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 62
Originally Posted by TheDapperDon
Best Buy is a toy store for adults. I also love Amazon. I only purchase my electronics from those two places.
I loathe BBY - I've been "banned" once for excessive returns & exchanges. And unless you're Elite or Elite Plus, the return period is 15 days...which is why I always purchase electronics and / other items from BBY with AmEx.

OT ... if you are "moving," there's a 10% off Best Buy coupon in the USPS mover guide. Just pick up a moving packet at the local USPS. The coupon expires 8/31.
pwned is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 7:46 pm
  #2904  
 
Join Date: May 2010
Programs: Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 174
Originally Posted by Songer5
Paypal is pretty quick to shut people down if they see quick load/unload patterns. Definitely not as friendly as Amex or Amazon.

I'd definitely (a) mix in random spend at other merchants, (b) keep money in the paypal account as you would a checking account and (c) space out load and unloads.

But if you can keep up appearances, yes, this is a nice substitute for VR.
I'm not sure if I agree with (b). Chances are very high PP will freeze accounts based on the activity suggested, and if you keep funds in those accounts, the funds will be locked for at least a couple months. If the business account is established and has a good history, PP may not freeze it, but then it doesn't really matter whether you keep funds there or not. In any case, don't risk funds that you can't afford to float for two or more months.
fletch512 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 8:21 pm
  #2905  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Iowa
Posts: 122
Originally Posted by pwned
AmEx is super customer friendly and often lets you keep your items after filing return protection and purchase protection claims. I've never had to return Apple TV's, or even a Macbook.
Originally Posted by pwned
I loathe BBY - I've been "banned" once for excessive returns & exchanges.
I would sure like to know what scheme you're up to that requires returning all this stuff all the time. You are either one unlucky guy that gets handed defective merchandise left and right, or you really are abusing the privilege of returning something and BBY may have a point. Honestly I didn't know AAPL had such a quality control problem. I refuse to use their stuff but people seem to think highly of it.
airstairfear is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 9:07 pm
  #2906  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 62
Originally Posted by airstairfear
I would sure like to know what scheme you're up to that requires returning all this stuff all the time. You are either one unlucky guy that gets handed defective merchandise left and right, or you really are abusing the privilege of returning something and BBY may have a point. Honestly I didn't know AAPL had such a quality control problem. I refuse to use their stuff but people seem to think highly of it.
It's over a period of time..and not intentional or a scheme.

BBY has a weird return / exchange process -- After 3 returns or exchanges, you're "banned" for returning or exchanging items for at least 90 days. For one item, the price dropped. I had to return and rebuy - which counts as a return. EDIT: this was a $1800 Marantz receiver... the price dropped by over $350.

AmEx does have annual limits and it's case by case basis.

For the Apple TV, I didn't realize BBY changed their return policy to 15 days!

Regarding Apple's quality problems (this is not the item I submitted through AmEx), there's a couple of 600+ page thread on both Apple's website and also one of the Apple fanboy's website regarding the Oct. 2013 latest retina MacBook Pro. TONS OF QUALITY ISSUES. For my rMacBook Pro, I went through 6 exchanges which is ridiculous for a $3K laptop.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...=9465&tstart=0
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...660649&page=77

Last edited by pwned; Jul 9, 2014 at 10:47 pm
pwned is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 9:48 pm
  #2907  
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 85
A&P and ACME qualify for the 5%?

we have Stopshop, shoprite & pathmark in our area, and they are counted as grocery stores on AMEX website.
we also have A&P and ACME nearby as supermarkets. Has any one tried in these stores and got 5%?

Thank you
ziwei is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 9:50 pm
  #2908  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
Originally Posted by ziwei
we have Stopshop, shoprite & pathmark in our area, and they are counted as grocery stores on AMEX website.
we also have A&P and ACME nearby as supermarkets. Has any one tried in these stores and got 5%?

Thank you
Certainly stop&shop works here. But I have never had any problem getting 5% at things that are grocery stores, but obviously some do.
silver6054 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 9:56 pm
  #2909  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Iowa
Posts: 122
Originally Posted by pwned
For one item, the price dropped. I had to return and rebuy - which counts as a return.
Or you could have just kept the item since you willingly paid the asking price of the item at the time of purchase. [redacted]

For the Apple TV, I didn't realize BBY changed their return policy to 15 days!
So not only do you want to force a lowest price guarantee on a merchant, but 15 days of that isn't even good enough? [redacted]

Last edited by cbn42; Jul 9, 2014 at 10:40 pm Reason: unduly personalized comments removed
airstairfear is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2014, 11:20 pm
  #2910  
Suspended
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: ILG/PHL
Programs: Amex Plat, AA Gold, SPG Gold, Hyatt Gold, HHonors Gold, Carlson Gold
Posts: 1,075
Originally Posted by airstairfear
I refuse to use their stuff but people seem to think highly of it.
OT but I've never understood this attitude from people. What principle is leading you to refuse to buy, or apparently even use in your case, something from Apple?
payeco is offline  


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