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 31, 2014, 6:27 am
#5161
Oct 31, 2014, 6:41 am
#5163
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 782
Sometimes they check id to match the CC card, then they check the last 4 digits on the receipt for a match to the CC card.
Last edited by gw14; Oct 31, 2014 at 7:29 am
Oct 31, 2014, 7:24 am
#5165
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 225
tried to buy an amex giftcard online and the order was denied the next day. Wondering if there is now a blacklisting involved. I reentered the order in my wife's name (never had the blue card) and the order was approved.
Oct 31, 2014, 7:34 am
#5166
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
It's very common for an order to be denied and the next identical one to be approved (or for 10 in a row to succeed or fail!) So don't read anything into this. If they wanted to blacklist, they have much better ways
Oct 31, 2014, 8:58 am
#5167
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Los Angles
Posts: 2,101
Life after AmEx blue cash (Old)? the alternative?
Oct 31, 2014, 9:26 am
#5170
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 1,139
Based on phone calls, it appears that the pending points from October now appear in full on the screens of the AMEX representatives.
That is good news. But there now seems to be a more strict policy against "early" posting of those pending points to the actual, useable Cash Reward section.
This is the ultimate Prisoner's Dilemma from Economics class. Does a person not use the card for an entire month, thereby assuring himself of an entire month of lost profits, in order to increase the likelihood of realizing the benefit of his pending points.
Or does he charge ahead as though this card closure fiasco had not occurred? Once he does start again, whether it is immediate or next month, is it wise to start slow or go full speed ahead.
It would be nice to know what caused this internally at AMEX. I have a suspicion that a mid-level manager in charge of this card is trying to thread the needle. This card was one of his or her responsibility areas out of many assigned to that manager. Too much notice of the massive rewards by the higher-ups would be bad because of the obvious unprofitability. But a complete cancellation of the product is also undesirable because if someone loses a responsibility area, that someone just might get laid off. Similarly, too many complaints by long-standing customers is bad, too.
A lot of game theory is involved on how to survive this, and to get maximum profitability out of the card as an MSer.
That is good news. But there now seems to be a more strict policy against "early" posting of those pending points to the actual, useable Cash Reward section.
This is the ultimate Prisoner's Dilemma from Economics class. Does a person not use the card for an entire month, thereby assuring himself of an entire month of lost profits, in order to increase the likelihood of realizing the benefit of his pending points.
Or does he charge ahead as though this card closure fiasco had not occurred? Once he does start again, whether it is immediate or next month, is it wise to start slow or go full speed ahead.
It would be nice to know what caused this internally at AMEX. I have a suspicion that a mid-level manager in charge of this card is trying to thread the needle. This card was one of his or her responsibility areas out of many assigned to that manager. Too much notice of the massive rewards by the higher-ups would be bad because of the obvious unprofitability. But a complete cancellation of the product is also undesirable because if someone loses a responsibility area, that someone just might get laid off. Similarly, too many complaints by long-standing customers is bad, too.
A lot of game theory is involved on how to survive this, and to get maximum profitability out of the card as an MSer.
Oct 31, 2014, 9:34 am
#5172
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA 1MM Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 1,524
More importantly, how can those of us canceled get our $2-3k ...
Oct 31, 2014, 9:45 am
#5173
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 291
delete
Last edited by zenride; Nov 9, 2014 at 3:42 pm Reason: poor moderation protest
Oct 31, 2014, 9:59 am
#5174
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: DC
Posts: 360
But it's your money, not mine.
Oct 31, 2014, 10:29 am
#5175
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 212
Programs: Marriott Titanium, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 502
If you think there's a long term possibility here, where you can generate RD and stay off the Amex radar, then the aggregate earnings over that period of time could outweigh the short term gain.
If you think the Stewards of MS will use their resources to fight their closures, draw adverse Amex attention to this lucrative promotion and force it's end for everyone, then the Tail goes away and you're best of pushing the limits while you can.