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Old Jan 10, 2015, 10:11 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: ChrisFlyer66
This is the Amex Blue thread for 2015. The previous 2013- 2014 megathread is here.
The 2016 thread is here.

Bonus category spending is now capped at $50,000 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. There are reports that the new limits will apply to existing cardholders on the month containing your anniversary after March 1.

Oct 22, 2014 onwards: Many people getting cancellation email from Amex. As of June 11, 2015, shutdown reports continue.

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.

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.

Excessive MS on this card may sever your ties with Amex.

Consider factors that may have led to these closures when sharing personal experiences.

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/c...lue-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.

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.
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Old Amex Blue (2015)

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Old Dec 5, 2015, 9:49 am
  #1501  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,944
Originally Posted by Hbax
It's all in the thread. Somewhere.

I'm not being pedantic, I just don't remember the dates.
If you already had the card before Dec 2014 (which you did) I think it becomes capped on the first anniversary after Mar 31 2015, so yours will be capped in Mar 2016.
silver6054 is offline  
Old Dec 5, 2015, 9:51 am
  #1502  
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 71
Originally Posted by silver6054
If you already had the card before Dec 2014 (which you did) I think it becomes capped on the first anniversary after Mar 31 2015, so yours will be capped in Mar 2016.
OK, thanks for the clarification. I thought it might have been grandfathered somehow. I've never taken advantage of the unlimited 5%. I'm less than halfway to 50k now.
svsfan is offline  
Old Dec 5, 2015, 2:01 pm
  #1503  
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 249
Originally Posted by silver6054
If you already had the card before Dec 2014 (which you did) I think it becomes capped on the first anniversary after Mar 31 2015, so yours will be capped in Mar 2016.
Although the cap could kick in almost a month before the actual anniversary date, or not until almost a month after, all depending on where both that date and the statement date fall in the calendar month. Here is the text from AMEX stating when the cap begins:

"with the [billing period] that starts in the calendar month in which your Card account anniversary occurs"
3ZeroT is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2015, 8:02 am
  #1504  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 113
I got out of the game after i was closed last Dec and lost some rewards
One other discouragement for me was walmart who would give a very hard time to load gift cards and closed down kate in my area

I just reapplied thinking i was blacklisted and got approved for 18K limit instantly. After reading a few pages i wasnt clear on the best way to meet the intial 6.5K spend. DO the serve loads still count for the intial 6.5K ?
recklessmax is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2015, 11:50 am
  #1505  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 721
Originally Posted by adobe
how to find the anniversary date?
Look at any statement's Interest Charge Calculation section. It's the date in the From column...
zceuxbhjutf is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2015, 12:18 pm
  #1506  
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,112
Originally Posted by recklessmax
I got out of the game after i was closed last Dec and lost some rewards
One other discouragement for me was walmart who would give a very hard time to load gift cards and closed down kate in my area

I just reapplied thinking i was blacklisted and got approved for 18K limit instantly. After reading a few pages i wasnt clear on the best way to meet the intial 6.5K spend. DO the serve loads still count for the intial 6.5K ?
It's buried in this thread and in the Serve thread, so it's kind of hard to find the specific posts. Suffice it to say, though, they all reported that Serve doesn't count for the $6500 threshold.
Phantom707 is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2015, 2:51 pm
  #1507  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 1,837
Originally Posted by recklessmax
After reading a few pages i wasnt clear on the best way to meet the intial 6.5K spend. DO the serve loads still count for the intial 6.5K ?
If you want 5%, then I believe you need to spend 6.5 in the 5% category. After 6.5k is when you actually receive the 5%.
lumangoy is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2015, 3:21 pm
  #1508  
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 71
Originally Posted by lumangoy
If you want 5%, then I believe you need to spend 6.5 in the 5% category. After 6.5k is when you actually receive the 5%.
You can spend the $6.5k on anything, not just the 5% categories.
svsfan is offline  
Old Dec 9, 2015, 6:40 am
  #1509  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 201
Just received (and was approved for) a targeted offer for an AmEx SimplyCash card offering
- $500 statement credit
- 5% CB on office stores and mobile/wireless ($25k/year cap)
- 5% on chosen category ($25k/year cap)

With a local gas station selling $500 GCs, this will nicely fill the void of being capped out on Ol' Blue currently.

RJP3 is offline  
Old Dec 9, 2015, 11:15 pm
  #1510  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
There was a DOC blog post recently about when the 5% kicks in. But one thing I'm not absolutely sure about (question was posed in the comments) is if the 5% category spend in the first $6500 cuts into the $50K limit for the year. I'm fairly certain it does not, but I'm not positive.
DaveInLA is offline  
Old Dec 10, 2015, 12:13 am
  #1511  
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 71
Originally Posted by DaveInLA
There was a DOC blog post recently about when the 5% kicks in. But one thing I'm not absolutely sure about (question was posed in the comments) is if the 5% category spend in the first $6500 cuts into the $50K limit for the year. I'm fairly certain it does not, but I'm not positive.
It does not. The 5% categories in the first $6500 is only 1%, so you should have the full 50k at 5%. Its explicitly stated in the terms.
svsfan is offline  
Old Dec 10, 2015, 7:40 am
  #1512  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Diamond, SW Companion
Posts: 94
Ive seen a few people talk about rewards being slow to show up this month...anyone have a reason? For me, mine still haven't shown up. My statement states the correct amount but can't cash in online. A caveat for me may be that I changed my due date in November from the 21st to 27th....statement has closed and no points added online. I'm a small spender, talking about $200 in rewards and I use the card for a variety of purchases...not just 5%. Should I contact Amex eventually?
cmlsu is offline  
Old Dec 10, 2015, 6:28 pm
  #1513  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 827
Did many people brutalize this card like many are doing with WF at the moment?

Chatting with one of my cashiers, she mentioned someone who used to come in for 2k/week gift cards, and was surprised I was doing so much more. I was able to ascertain from her memory that he was VERY likely using OBC.

2k/week would be only a bit over the limit now. Were there many people running numbers orders of magnitude greater than that?
CWAL is offline  
Old Dec 10, 2015, 7:10 pm
  #1514  
 
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 441
Originally Posted by CWAL
Did many people brutalize this card like many are doing with WF at the moment?

Chatting with one of my cashiers, she mentioned someone who used to come in for 2k/week gift cards, and was surprised I was doing so much more. I was able to ascertain from her memory that he was VERY likely using OBC.

2k/week would be only a bit over the limit now. Were there many people running numbers orders of magnitude greater than that?
OMG. Never would anyone around here run over $2k/week. @:-)
travelfreaks is offline  
Old Dec 10, 2015, 8:38 pm
  #1515  
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,112
Originally Posted by travelfreaks
OMG. Never would anyone around here run over $2k/week. @:-)
Whelp...well...I guess I feel like sh*t.
Phantom707 is offline  


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