Old Jan 8, 14, 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.
Print Wikipost

Old Amex Blue (2013-2014)

Old Oct 28, 14, 2:44 pm
  #4831  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 427
If AMEX wasn't planning to shut this card down for the rest of us, they sure as hell will once you people begin litigation to get back "your" (lol) money...

bigugly is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:46 pm
  #4832  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Programs: DL DM-1MM HH Diamond
Posts: 361
I wonder if Amex will shut down my HH surpass card because I have too much 12x spending at hotels.
2B or back in coach is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:50 pm
  #4833  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 77
Has anyone from California been shutdown?
PointsforHolidayBoy is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:51 pm
  #4834  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
Originally Posted by bigugly
If AMEX wasn't planning to shut this card down for the rest of us, they sure as hell will once you people begin litigation to get back "your" (lol) money...

And if shut down it would prevent you being able to "earn" "your (lol) money"?
silver6054 is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:51 pm
  #4835  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,426
Trying to poll the audience here for those that were shut down, if you knew you were targeted for shutdown, would you preemptively close your card and sacrifice your RDs for the last 2 months to avoid getting marked "Closed by Issuer" on your credit report?? Sure I understand you can fight for your reward points after the fact but assuming its the end of it and you will never get your $2K or $3K of rewards. Would you be ok with it? Sounds like a lot of regret for those that were shutdown so I was curious if you could re-do it over again and today was 10/21, what would you do?
ericdabbs is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:54 pm
  #4836  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 32
Originally Posted by silver6054
Having one other didn't help me, so I doubt it. Is your MS "high"?
Maybe it depends on what you have? I have an Amex Plat and a few others with annual fees. Still trucking.
OliverWinthorpe is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:57 pm
  #4837  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 32
Originally Posted by ericdabbs
Trying to poll the audience here for those that were shut down, if you knew you were targeted for shutdown, would you preemptively close your card and sacrifice your RDs for the last 2 months to avoid getting marked "Closed by Issuer" on your credit report?? Sure I understand you can fight for your reward points after the fact but assuming its the end of it and you will never get your $2K or $3K of rewards. Would you be ok with it? Sounds like a lot of regret for those that were shutdown so I was curious if you could re-do it over again and today was 10/21, what would you do?
I think everyone would preemptively shut down if they knew they "were targeted for shutdown." Absolutely no reason not to.

The real question is what if you're "probably" targeted. That's what most of us lest over are deciding now. I think most would roll the dice.
OliverWinthorpe is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:58 pm
  #4838  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
Originally Posted by ericdabbs
Trying to poll the audience here for those that were shut down, if you knew you were targeted for shutdown, would you preemptively close your card and sacrifice your RDs for the last 2 months to avoid getting marked "Closed by Issuer" on your credit report?? Sure I understand you can fight for your reward points after the fact but assuming its the end of it and you will never get your $2K or $3K of rewards. Would you be ok with it? Sounds like a lot of regret for those that were shutdown so I was curious if you could re-do it over again and today was 10/21, what would you do?
I think the regret is mainly losing the rewards, not the "Closed by Issuer' which won't matter to most. The only gain would be if you "knew" that you would be targeted, but weren't yet (whatever that means!) then closing preemptively would prevent *AMEX* seeing you as a bad account (assuming they don't examine closed accounts). But we don't know how to tell if you are targeted, let alone if you might be targeted, so...

Also, I would guess that closing first will make getting rewards almost impossible. People who go small claims will be suggested that they were shutdown because Amex didn't want to pay rewards.
silver6054 is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 2:58 pm
  #4839  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 1,591
Originally Posted by ericdabbs
would you preemptively close your card and sacrifice your RDs for the last 2 months to avoid getting marked "Closed by Issuer" on your credit report?
Nope and I am not even sure I"d fight for my rewards either.
36902BRF is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 3:01 pm
  #4840  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,426
Originally Posted by silver6054
I think the regret is mainly losing the rewards, not the "Closed by Issuer' which won't matter to most. The only gain would be if you "knew" that you would be targeted, but weren't yet (whatever that means!) then closing preemptively would prevent *AMEX* seeing you as a bad account (assuming they don't examine closed accounts). But we don't know how to tell if you are targeted, let alone if you might be targeted, so...

Also, I would guess that closing first will make getting rewards almost impossible. People who go small claims will be suggested that they were shutdown because Amex didn't want to pay rewards.
So it sounds like you would do the same thing and just sit tight if you were to do it all over again. I guess it comes down to ...possible broken Amex relationship due to "negative view as a customer" vs. the RD CB.
ericdabbs is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 3:03 pm
  #4841  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
Originally Posted by ericdabbs
So it sounds like you would do the same thing and just sit tight if you were to do it all over again.
If I had enough notice, I would stop spending in the last month, just to avoid GC fees that wouldn't get rewards
silver6054 is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 3:11 pm
  #4842  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Chyona
Programs: Anywhere I can ski...
Posts: 401
Originally Posted by grayland
Think of all the chuckles and fun the Amex folks are having reading all these posts.

They do follow these forums!

LOL i know right!

MasterCharge is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 3:20 pm
  #4843  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,426
Originally Posted by OliverWinthorpe
I think everyone would preemptively shut down if they knew they "were targeted for shutdown." Absolutely no reason not to.

The real question is what if you're "probably" targeted. That's what most of us lest over are deciding now. I think most would roll the dice.
I guess ur right in that the question should have been phrased "probably targeted", what would you do. I still think most of us would still roll the dice. Basically if you call and close your account on your own, your lose your rewards 100%. If they close it on you, you can possibly get your Rewards still like what others have reported so far since you have to pay off your balance.

I just can't see people just preemptively close their accounts and sacrificing their pending $2K or $3K of RDs without batting an eye.
ericdabbs is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 3:58 pm
  #4844  
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,819
Yes, using your card Surpass card at any Hilton property violates the new terms and conditions.
Originally Posted by 2B or back in coach
I wonder if Amex will shut down my HH surpass card because I have too much 12x spending at hotels.
AlohaDaveKennedy is offline  
Old Oct 28, 14, 4:00 pm
  #4845  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 527
Reading the results of Round Two of the bloodbath is making me sad, but paranoid. I got an e-mail today from AE with my name in the title and I just froze. Turns out they just wanted to alert me to the "new and exciting digital enhancements coming soon to AE.COM".

Geez.
Hbax is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread