Last edit by: ChrisFlyer66
This thread includes all posts for 2016 onwards. The previous 2013- 2014 megathread is here. The 2015 thread is here.
This card is no longer available to new applicants!
Bonus category spending is now capped at $50,000 per year.
Oct 22, 2014 onwards: Many people getting cancellation email from Amex.
Amex may continue to close accounts for excessive spend in bonus categories. 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.
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.
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.
This card is no longer available to new applicants!
Bonus category spending is now capped at $50,000 per year.
Oct 22, 2014 onwards: Many people getting cancellation email from Amex.
Amex may continue to close accounts for excessive spend in bonus categories. 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.
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.
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.
Old Amex Blue (2016 onwards)[not taking new applications]
#362
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 88
Yes, but even if the OVs stayed at 4.95, it is so hard to liquidate them since USPS ended. All my local stores have also limited MOs to bank debits cards only. How do you do liquidate them it at a reasonable cost?
#363
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
Cost is really not the issue. The issue is the difficulty in finding any place to liquidate them. The pool of places is drying up and nobody is sharing working locations. You may have to look outside your area, but even then some of my favorite "greater Midwest / Bible Belt" locations I used to hit on road trips no longer work. Also, many remote stores and obscure chains that used to sell $20-500 cards out that way have gone cash only.
#364
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 3,688
I have several grocery stores and one gas station as back ups. MS is, and will always be, YMMV depending on one's locale. I took the time and effort to check each store and gas station in my area to find out those I can use just in case WM goes the same path USPS did. It is best to be one or two steps ahead in this game.
#365
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 65
I have several grocery stores and one gas station as back ups. MS is, and will always be, YMMV depending on one's locale. I took the time and effort to check each store and gas station in my area to find out those I can use just in case WM goes the same path USPS did. It is best to be one or two steps ahead in this game.
Just curious for anyone out there - have you had your OBC's switched on you without your consent after a year? I'm wondering how long I'll have access to it as the OBC.
#366
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 1,066
I don't think anyone has but CC companies replace cards all the time so I would think OBC would be a good option for them to replace (I hope not though)
#368
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
Not much posts these days on the boards, although reddit is sill a bit too talkative. Even the bloggers tend to now just report only what died. Afraid it is all home grown or in league with the underground these days. When the rats crawl out of the sewers it is best to hide the cheese.
#369
It is just me. I never find this card attractive. We buy most of the family grocery from Costco. And fresh produce from local farmer's market. So we really visit any grocery stores, like ShopRite here. With this card, you'll have to have quite some grocery shopping before you get into the rewards other than 1%.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
#370
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 178
It is just me. I never find this card attractive. We buy most of the family grocery from Costco. And fresh produce from local farmer's market. So we really visit any grocery stores, like ShopRite here. With this card, you'll have to have quite some grocery shopping before you get into the rewards other than 1%.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
#371
#372
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SAN
Programs: Delta Gold. Hilton Diamond. Hyatt Explorist.
Posts: 1,674
It is just me. I never find this card attractive. We buy most of the family grocery from Costco. And fresh produce from local farmer's market. So we really visit any grocery stores, like ShopRite here. With this card, you'll have to have quite some grocery shopping before you get into the rewards other than 1%.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
#373
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 178
#374
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The World!!!
Programs: Some of them not all ...
Posts: 1,532
It is just me. I never find this card attractive. We buy most of the family grocery from Costco. And fresh produce from local farmer's market. So we really visit any grocery stores, like ShopRite here. With this card, you'll have to have quite some grocery shopping before you get into the rewards other than 1%.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
We also use Costco cash card to meet the Discover and Chase Freedom 5% quarterly bonus with warehouse shopping. This is much better than the reward this card offers. We get a total of 4 Discover/Freedom cards and can run up to $6,000 with Costco card if we want to.
Also, we spend quite some $$$ on new credit SUB. So no single card receives most of the spending.
I would never go close to a Costco and my Krogy works fantastic for groceries and MSing at the same time with this card. Sad we now hit the $50 K cap rather quickly, when before, we did not even care, because the cap did not exist. This is the best CC I have ever had by far, and that is a lot to say when compared to other cards that have given me 100K Points signing bonus both from Amex and Chase.
#375
It is just you.
I would never go close to a Costco and my Krogy works fantastic for groceries and MSing at the same time with this card. Sad we now hit the $50 K cap rather quickly, when before, we did not even care, because the cap did not exist. This is the best CC I have ever had by far, and that is a lot to say when compared to other cards that have given me 100K Points signing bonus both from Amex and Chase.
I would never go close to a Costco and my Krogy works fantastic for groceries and MSing at the same time with this card. Sad we now hit the $50 K cap rather quickly, when before, we did not even care, because the cap did not exist. This is the best CC I have ever had by far, and that is a lot to say when compared to other cards that have given me 100K Points signing bonus both from Amex and Chase.