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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 $6,500ą spend in a reward year˛, you will earn 1% on Everyday Purchasesł (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)

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
ą First '$6,500' is spend on all purchases.

˛ 'Reward year' is the 12 billing periods in a row beginning with the one in which the anniversary of your Card Account occurs.

ł '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 Nov 25, 2014, 10:05 pm
  #5686  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,504
Originally Posted by gofarhaveacigar
Glad I didn't use my card for any spending this month... hopefully I can get my rewards from October and sock drawer the card.
You do know that the "sock drawer" method is useless if you are being targeted right. There were plenty who did zero spending after the initial bloodbath of shutdowns and were eventually shut down.
ericdabbs is offline  
Old Nov 25, 2014, 10:28 pm
  #5687  
 
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 97
Geez, this wave came even earlier than I thought, we'll see if more closed in next few days since tomorrow is statement closing date for many of us
prsf is offline  
Old Nov 25, 2014, 11:03 pm
  #5688  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 109
Did anyone get banned for doing less than $5,000 per month? Or $2,500 or some other round number? Curious how much that number matters.
rooney is offline  
Old Nov 25, 2014, 11:21 pm
  #5689  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 201
Originally Posted by rooney
Did anyone get banned for doing less than $5,000 per month? Or $2,500 or some other round number? Curious how much that number matters.
A few did

http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p...b071bebe294141
MSerforfun is offline  
Old Nov 25, 2014, 11:24 pm
  #5690  
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Somewhere above the Mason-Dixon
Programs: DL Ham Samich
Posts: 1,659
Originally Posted by MSerforfun
I feel like it's time for a new poll now that the newest wave of shutdowns has come.
RFDMinnesota is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 4:12 am
  #5691  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: PHL ILG
Posts: 87
Personally I think it's more a matter of RD accumulated = shutdown. AMEX can easily see what RDs for the year look like with a "normal" (average across families/accounts) spend. Seems to me it's easy for AMEX to determine who gets the boot. Here's some hypothetical numbers:

Say, $4k spend/mo is the average, however, not everyone spends THOUSANDS at the grocery store / pharmacy. Majority of that $4k is not in the 5% category.

Average family spends $4k / mo ...not including the $6.5k requirement: $1k/mo @ 5% + $3k @ 1% = $80 RD / mo * 12 months = $960 RD/yr. If your account has > $960 RD at any time during the year then you're flagged and your spending is irregular.

Even if we fly under the radar and spend $2k / mo - our $2k is in the 5% categories. $2k/mo @ 5% = $100 RD / mo * 12 months = $1,200 RD/yr = irregular = shutdown.

It's only a matter of time before their "RD earned" threshold gets lower and lower and we all get canned.
mandj is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 4:58 am
  #5692  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 212
Programs: Marriott Titanium, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 502
Originally Posted by rooney
So is the takeaway that spending some multiple of your CL is a killer, or are there people out there who have stayed below their total CL and still been banned? And what ever happened to moderation?
I always stayed below 60% of my $20k CL and our card was shut down. Didn't get the email yet, but logged into our account and saw it was closed. It was nice while it lasted.
Songer5 is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 6:44 am
  #5693  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 427
I was not expecting to see all of the posts this week about people being shut down for doing less than their CL or for even 4 figure spending.

Looks like the end of this is drawing nigh for pretty much everyone here. I guess I need to decide whether I want another Amex and apply for it while I am still alive.
bigugly is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 7:56 am
  #5694  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 32
Shut down today as well. Tried to use the card at the grocery store (for all of $19!) and was declined. Said that's not right and swiped again and it went through. Got home and saw the big exclamation mark on my account telling me it was canceled.

Have only been doing normal spend this month on the card. All in category, but only like $1k on the card. Statement closes the 28th. I was pretty small time and had been scaling back in recent months anyway (busy with work); I don't think I'd ever claimed more than $1k in rewards. I mostly kept it under my $17k credit limit. Got the card in the spring, but have been an Amex customer for 10 years.
weseh is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 8:02 am
  #5695  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: UA, CO, Delta, AA, BA, Hilton, Starwood, Marriott
Posts: 211
Originally Posted by weseh
Shut down today as well. Tried to use the card at the grocery store (for all of $19!) and was declined. Said that's not right and swiped again and it went through. Got home and saw the big exclamation mark on my account telling me it was canceled.

Have only been doing normal spend this month on the card. All in category, but only like $1k on the card. Statement closes the 28th. I was pretty small time and had been scaling back in recent months anyway (busy with work); I don't think I'd ever claimed more than $1k in rewards. I mostly kept it under my $17k credit limit. Got the card in the spring, but have been an Amex customer for 10 years.
If your statement closed on Oct 28th, the close day is Nov 26 for this month.
It seems Amex closes on everyone.

Last edited by karenfly; Nov 26, 2014 at 8:36 am
karenfly is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 8:37 am
  #5696  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 321
Just curious, why do many statements close on 27th? My wife's does too, not mine though (around 15th).
RJ5929 is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 8:45 am
  #5697  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 193
So it doesn't look like spending 4 figures made much of a difference in shutdown. Good luck to those who survived as I didn't have much luck but made a nice small business while it lasted.
Nomoneyinmybank is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 8:58 am
  #5698  
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 14
Has anyone who has been shut down compared their spending this year to the stated income amex has on file? Seems like spending more than your annual income on "every day spending" would be a great way to identify MSers.
Werewolfdad is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 9:06 am
  #5699  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 212
Programs: Marriott Titanium, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 502
Originally Posted by Werewolfdad
Has anyone who has been shut down compared their spending this year to the stated income amex has on file? Seems like spending more than your annual income on "every day spending" would be a great way to identify MSers.
An easier way to identify MS'ers would be to just look at the top Reward Dollar generators (or draw a line at say $200 Rewards Dollars a month) and go from there.
Songer5 is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2014, 9:12 am
  #5700  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 59
i believe it's a combination of factors with the spend to CL ratio the most important with i think ratio to income...i have a few counterexamples:

1. first friend had a CL of 5K, claimed income of 50K, and spent 10X CL for 3 months, received over 10K in RD, shutdown a month ago.
2. second friend had CL of 7K, not sure on what income claimed, spent maybe 1.5X CL for 3 months, was shut down yesterday
3. me - CL of 17K, claimed income of 100K, 3X CL for 3 months, received well over $12,500 in RD and STILL not shutdown

i think the claimed income plays a big factor in this also.

Originally Posted by mandj
Personally I think it's more a matter of RD accumulated = shutdown. AMEX can easily see what RDs for the year look like with a "normal" (average across families/accounts) spend. Seems to me it's easy for AMEX to determine who gets the boot. Here's some hypothetical numbers:

Say, $4k spend/mo is the average, however, not everyone spends THOUSANDS at the grocery store / pharmacy. Majority of that $4k is not in the 5% category.

Average family spends $4k / mo ...not including the $6.5k requirement: $1k/mo @ 5% + $3k @ 1% = $80 RD / mo * 12 months = $960 RD/yr. If your account has > $960 RD at any time during the year then you're flagged and your spending is irregular.

Even if we fly under the radar and spend $2k / mo - our $2k is in the 5% categories. $2k/mo @ 5% = $100 RD / mo * 12 months = $1,200 RD/yr = irregular = shutdown.

It's only a matter of time before their "RD earned" threshold gets lower and lower and we all get canned.
jdcbomb is offline  


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