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)
#1336
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 908
Hi Guys/Gals. My SO has an old AMEX Blue (I am not sure which version it is). It has been dormant for a few years. I have a few questions:
1. If I log in to her Amex account. Where can I look to see it is the CC that has the 6500, 5% after.?
2. I will probably start slow the first month or so. But even slow, I saw from the previous poster about an FR.
Any recommendations?
Thanks.
1. If I log in to her Amex account. Where can I look to see it is the CC that has the 6500, 5% after.?
2. I will probably start slow the first month or so. But even slow, I saw from the previous poster about an FR.
Any recommendations?
Thanks.
#1337
Join Date: Jun 2004
Programs: AA Gold
Posts: 190
Very true, one can get CL reallocation immediately if the source cards are aged. One has to wait 30 days from the first CL reallocation to do another one, if needed.
#1338
Join Date: Jun 2004
Programs: AA Gold
Posts: 190
Hi Guys/Gals. My SO has an old AMEX Blue (I am not sure which version it is). It has been dormant for a few years. I have a few questions:
1. If I log in to her Amex account. Where can I look to see it is the CC that has the 6500, 5% after.?
2. I will probably start slow the first month or so. But even slow, I saw from the previous poster about an FR.
Any recommendations?
Thanks.
1. If I log in to her Amex account. Where can I look to see it is the CC that has the 6500, 5% after.?
2. I will probably start slow the first month or so. But even slow, I saw from the previous poster about an FR.
Any recommendations?
Thanks.
Go slow and "pray"
#1340
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 908
Thanks for the info. My SO told me she has an Amex Blue card. I didn't know there are other type of Amex Blue cards (Blue Sky). I don't even know if it's an Amex Blue cash lol...I'll have to ask her to see card tonight.
#1341
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
The term "Amex Blue" often refers to a credit card, called Amex Blue(!), that earns MRE points
#1343
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SJC
Programs: AA, AS, Marriott
Posts: 6,060
I was relieved though when I got home to find a letter from AmEx stating they had moved my credit limit from my Costco AmEx to the forthcoming BC card. The only difference I can think of is that I hadn't actually used the Costco card in about 3 years. Do you use your other AmEx cards regularly? My thinking is that AmEx saw a line credit line that didn't get much use and decided to transfer it to the BC. It works for me because 5% cash back is > 3% cash back. ^ Perhaps in your case it wasn't as clear cut and they didn't want to move around CLs among your accounts if you were using them all.
You should be able to move things around in a few months to suit your needs. You could use these two months as the warmup period where you activate the 5% by charging and paying off the card multiple times during the first 60 days. Then you'll be all set once you're able to transfer from CLs over from your other cards.
#1346
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Michigan
Programs: Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 503
Thanks for the help earlier - I called back in and got a better informed CSR who had no problem transferring most of my CLs from my other 2 (mostly unused) cards to this one. I feel a lot better with a $15k CL instead of $2k!
#1347
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SJC
Programs: AA, AS, Marriott
Posts: 6,060
I'm glad you were able to get things moved around. ^ When I saw my CL reduced on the one card, I certainly thought I had ended up on some sort of naughty list with AmEx.
#1348
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Midwest U.S.A
Programs: Too many to list. Since the early 90's.
Posts: 1,407
Not direct. Financial interest between parent... not important. I'm mostly interested to see how long and how much Blue users will be able to get 5%cb on transactions which are closely linked back to Amex even if one item separates. I will observe silently as I and others experiment. Although, some are much more bold in the use of this card than I in that I won't go over cl, but I do ms slower than many on here. Have you used an Amex cc card at CVS to load Serve direct? I haven't.
#1349
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: Hyatt Globalist No More..., Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 4,375
Yea that does seem pretty low. I have a lower AGI and only 2 credit cards with Amex, BCP that I got in Dec and this one that I was just approved for this week. My total CL with Amex is over $20k.
#1350
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 584
Similar numbers for me, and I also got 2k. I couldn't transfer from any other cards because their history is not long enough. I waited 60 days to try to get an increase, but I got turned down due to too many recent hard pulls. So stuck at 2K until other cards age some more.