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)
Oct 22, 2014, 5:03 pm
#4051
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LAX
Posts: 546
finally, if you want to do some good, bring down the blogs in the process. tell them that you learned about doing this from a blog that, right on its front page, says it has a financial relationship with amex! perhaps bring a life size cut out of Emily standing next to a gift card rack!
advertising partner. hmmm. entrapment. treble damages?
amex has bloggers pimping their cards with MS as the reason to apply for and use the cards. they pay these bloggers richly to do so. close the cards- ummm, ok, whatever. steal the rewards? idts.
advertising partner. hmmm. entrapment. treble damages?
amex has bloggers pimping their cards with MS as the reason to apply for and use the cards. they pay these bloggers richly to do so. close the cards- ummm, ok, whatever. steal the rewards? idts.
Oct 22, 2014, 5:03 pm
#4052
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 389
What about last names, i.e., could they simply be working through a list in alphabetical order? Anyone shut down yet whose name is late in the alphabet?
Oct 22, 2014, 5:03 pm
#4053
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 34
My opinion, they ran a simple search of gift cards within purchases made and closing them down as they find them. I don't think it is as simple as hitting a button and cancelling them all. So it may take a couple days for them to make their rounds and get these emails out.
I work for a financial institution and if we were to go through and cancel en masse, it would be either by last name, account number, or ssn, once we had the list created. I imagine they must do the same.
Oct 22, 2014, 5:04 pm
#4054
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 437
Edit: eh.. forget it.. I am not going to feed the trolls.. da-leet.
Oct 22, 2014, 5:05 pm
#4055
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
Chase hired me yesterday and made me call Amex and explain that I had done a lot of MS and so had these people.....
Oct 22, 2014, 5:09 pm
#4057
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 519
That is way too rational. Especially considering some of us only have one Amex card, so if they close our accounts there goes the relationship. Haha. What is the annual salary of people that design these programs?
Last edited by eloraculo; Oct 22, 2014 at 5:13 pm Reason: Add
Oct 22, 2014, 5:09 pm
#4058
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 274
We've determined it wasn't volume alone already. Too many very low spenders being canned. Too many high spenders yet to see an email. Even when considering CL's this hasn't fit.
My opinion, they ran a simple search of gift cards within purchases made and closing them down as they find them. I don't think it is as simple as hitting a button and cancelling them all. So it may take a couple days for them to make their rounds and get these emails out.
I work for a financial institution and if we were to go through and cancel en masse, it would be either by last name, account number, or ssn, once we had the list created. I imagine they must do the same.
My opinion, they ran a simple search of gift cards within purchases made and closing them down as they find them. I don't think it is as simple as hitting a button and cancelling them all. So it may take a couple days for them to make their rounds and get these emails out.
I work for a financial institution and if we were to go through and cancel en masse, it would be either by last name, account number, or ssn, once we had the list created. I imagine they must do the same.
Oct 22, 2014, 5:12 pm
#4060
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: BOS, MHT
Programs: AA ltg, B6, DL, UA, AS, SPG/Marriott Plt, HH, Hyatt
Posts: 10,052
In every state the rules are different but here are a few things I would consider right off:
1) find out what the rules are in your state for recording tel calls. Call Amex and get the reasons. If you can record it even better. If not, jot it down. I said what I heard above in an earlier post but in MA we cannot and if I told them I wanted to they would likely say no. Either way, the reason they said they were closing the card had nothing to do with GCs. It was to do with what they THOUGHT we were buying or how. I told them I had no business charges on this card so why do they think that. Well, in court you would also continue that there is no way to tell that someone is not adhering to using the card for personal, family and household use. If anything, that's what many of us have been doing on this and many cards for a long time now --although I might not say that in case they decide to retroactively charge you back or claim against YOU for something you already earned.
2) bait and switch is when you sign up for something being told it's one thing and then they change it to something totally different on you. That's maybe not the legal version of it but when you bring that up in court, you have the attention of a judge. You used this card and paid its bill and then they just plain did not want to pay anymore so they closed it...
3) proof, at least in my case and a few people I know, is that they closed it just days before the statement cut. This means that not only do CB reward points from last month no longer come in, but also, anything from now will not come in. You lose twice. You see, if that happened to you, you know now they timed it perfectly against many people. They did this exactly on purpose too. You would argue that.
4) The original TCs which I have do say, among other things,
Eligible purchases do NOT include:
Purchase or reloading of prepaid cards or purchases of any cash equivalents.
Well, last I checked, a prepaid card is one of those things people get who do not have CCs or even if they do, none of them accept CCs to load them. As well, it is likely none of us ever loaded a prepaid card with any Amex anyway. the BB is a prepaid card but it cannot be loaded with a CC.
Cash equivalents as far as I have read online mean money orders and checks. You cannot use a CC to buy those either. I would imagine no one, or very very few people here ever did it or even tried it with the Blue. I know I didnt. Maybe there are some stores that sell MO to a CC but not many. Either way it could probably show as grocery purchase so wheres the proof anyway.
Why didnt they just write GIFT CARDS if they dont want us using those? Otherwise, how am I supposed to know what their term means and if I do buy them and they give me points, then why the switch now? Again, bait and switch.
5) If these things are not supposed to earn, then why did they? Wouldnt the onus for good IT be on them not us? Once again, I thought what I was doing was ok. Wasnt ever causing any problems at all. CL was raised, payments were on time, CS would give me offers, etc. Why this and why now? Once again it sounds to me that Amex simply did not organize themselves before putting these cards out to the public and is now retracting and punishing us all for using them the way we thought we could. Bait and switch.
They stole the money because they did not want to pay out right around statement cuts.
SCC is a relatively easy process but has rules and every state is different. Go learn those rules. I cannot give advice. I am just give you tidbits of what I would do myself. Since I am concerned about my own card and my wife's and our future MSing with these things at all, I really do not have time to PM about it to everyone. You have to do your homework.
For those of you who rely solely on blogs and FT posts for help, ask them to give a circles and arrows and cute spinning arrow like wheels with all the 5x ideas version on how to get money back when CCs take it. I am SURE they will be glad to help. After all, wouldn't a post ABOUT an Amex CC bring them more Amex hits?
Finally, Amex will say that any closed card forfeits its rewards. Ok sure but we contest this closure and their reasons for it. Their reasons are bogus. We broke no rules. We think they just wanted to take the money or not pay it out. I estimate it's in the millions btw.
Good luck.
Ya'll gonna need it!
Oct 22, 2014, 5:14 pm
#4062
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 377
We've determined it wasn't volume alone already. Too many very low spenders being canned. Too many high spenders yet to see an email. Even when considering CL's this hasn't fit.
My opinion, they ran a simple search of gift cards within purchases made and closing them down as they find them. I don't think it is as simple as hitting a button and cancelling them all. So it may take a couple days for them to make their rounds and get these emails out.
I work for a financial institution and if we were to go through and cancel en masse, it would be either by last name, account number, or ssn, once we had the list created. I imagine they must do the same.
My opinion, they ran a simple search of gift cards within purchases made and closing them down as they find them. I don't think it is as simple as hitting a button and cancelling them all. So it may take a couple days for them to make their rounds and get these emails out.
I work for a financial institution and if we were to go through and cancel en masse, it would be either by last name, account number, or ssn, once we had the list created. I imagine they must do the same.
Oct 22, 2014, 5:15 pm
#4063
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 349
So much for the five hour work week. Stupid book.
Oct 22, 2014, 5:19 pm
#4064
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 34
I don't know what you consider small time. Not sure anyone really agrees on this. I'd say going beyond your CL in a month is a good measure, but plenty of people have said they don't do that either. Just doesn't seem to fit. Plus I know guys who do much more than I do that haven't been hit yet.
Oct 22, 2014, 5:20 pm
#4065
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 349
Marathon, are you really this upset after the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, you got off this card?