The American Express Blue Cash Preferred is one of the highest reward-earning cards among all the credit card issuers in the market. This personal credit card offers you a reward of up to 6% cashback as per the reward category.
Being a regular spending card member you get the offer to earn a greater reward with this card, so the more you spend the more you get back in terms of cashback.
| Pro’s | Con’s |
|---|---|
| Highest cashback reward card | Annual membership fee |
| Intro 0% APR offer | Limited reward redemption option |
| Various reward categories | Foreign Transaction Fee |
| Highest cashback welcome offer | Reward cap on supermarket spending |
The Overview
With American Express Blue Cash Preferred, the very first question which pops up in our mind maybe, what’s the catch on this card and you will be glad to hear that there is no catch as every benefit on this card makes it more convenient for the members to use.
All we pay is $95 in terms of the annual membership fee and can get as much as we can simply ensuring we put all our regular spending on this card and nothing else.
Even after paying the $95 fee on the card, the Blue Cash Preferred card is one of our favorite cards as it helps to get 6% back when used at U.S. supermarkets ($6,000 annual spending cap), 6% for US streaming Subscription, 3% back on transit and at U.S. gas stations.
The huge cashback as a welcome bonus makes this card more interesting. We have reviewed the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express which sums up the pros and cons of the card and all the included benefits on it.
Prime Features
- Welcome bonus to get upto $400 Cashback.
- Return Protection
- Cash rewards
- Entertainment Credit
- Shoprunner
- Car rental insurance
- Pay It and Plan it
- Year end summary
Welcome Bonus
You easily can earn upto $400 Cashback on this card as a welcome bonus which is the highest in form of cashback be it any credit card in the entire U.S. Market. Here is how you can earn it.
– You get the $200 cash back when you spend $3000 or above within 183 days from the Card approval date.
– You also earn upto 20% as cashback when you make charges with Amazon with a total of $200 capping.
All the credit will be applied to the account in form of statement credit adjusting your overall account balance.
Return Protection
The Blue cash preferred card gives you great peace of mind with one of their services called return protection. With Return Protection if a seller is not accepting the return of purchase with 90 days of transaction you can use this insurance to make the most out of it.
You can submit the claim to American Express and they will validate all the details with the merchant.
Once validated, they can help you with the refund towards the full purchase price which may exclude shipping and handling charges, up to $300 per item, and up to a maximum of $1,000 per calendar year on each card on the account.
However, the charge should be with the US merchant and should be paid off in full using the eligible card.
Cash rewards
The reward earned on the card is received in form of cashback. There are a total 5 categories:
- 6% cash back with US supermarkets upto $6000 in an year and after that 1%
- 6% cash back for US streaming Subscription
- 3% at Gas station
- 3% as Transit
- 1% on all the other charges.
Supermarkets
The Blue cash preferred card gives the major cashback on charges with Supermarkets. You can make a charge in U.S. based supermarket and that will be good for a 6% cashback reward.
Although there is a capping of $6000 to earn 6% that equals to $360 cashback which can be applied towards the total balance on the account in a year and it makes the annual membership fee of $95 worth paying. After reaching the cap, you still will be getting a 1% cashback.
As supermarket provides a wide variety of food and household products which we need in our daily routines such as meat, dairy, canned and packaged goods, pet supplies, household cleaners, and pharmacy products we just need to put all the charges on this card and 6% cashback is all yours.
ALDI, FreshDirect, ShopRite, Whole Foods, and Winn-Dixie are few examples of merchants which accept the Card and where you can earn a 6% cashback reward.
However, you must be aware that the 6% rewards are available only at U.S. supermarkets. The wholesale store like Sam’s Club, the superstores like Target and Walmart are not considered supermarkets, so it is important to check where you are making the charges to get the best of it.
US streaming Subscription
The streaming cashback is one of the prime features added by American express on their preferred card and there is no capping to it. So, it is like the more you spend the more you get. Services like Prime and Netflix are most commonly used by young, adults and elders these days.
So, this benefit is like nothing less than a family reward featured on Blue cash preferred card. You can put all the services on a single card and can make the most out of it.
There is no hidden term to it, all you have to select a streaming service by US provider and you will be eligible for the 6% cash reward.
You just need to ensure you do not put the services with any bundle of features and the charge is submitted with the merchant directly and not via any digital payment mode like apple pay or PayPal as that will make the charge ineligible.
When we say bundle it means the services which include a cable, telecommunications, or internet provider, or a car manufacturer.
Gas station
The other prime benefit of this card is a cashback on Fuel charges. You can earn 3% cashback on fuel charges on the card. To earn additional rewards on gas purchases, you simply have to use the card at a Gas station located anywhere within the U.S.
A gas station is considered eligible if they primarily do their business selling gas. They might also be selling other convenience items, however, their primary business needs to be the gas station.
Gulf, Murphy, USA Murphy Express, Exxon, Mobil, Hess, and Shell are a few examples of merchants which accept the Card and where you can earn a 3% cashback reward.
Transit
The 3% cashback at transit is something no other credit card offers in terms of cashback without any capping.
If you prefer taking public transport, the Blue cash preferred card is a must because with transit like Ridesharing or Taxi like Uber, Lyft, and Grab, and with a wide variety be it a charge for Parking, toll, Metro, or Subway this card covers all the aspects of transit to get you the maximum cashback.
You get 3% cashback on Transit and here are a few examples with which you can earn the cash back to have a better understanding
- Parking, Tolls
- Metro and Subway passes
- Sharing rides and Taxies
- Ferries and Train Tickets.
Is the Blue Cash Preferred card worthy?
For cardholders who primarily spend on U.S. supermarket purchases, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred is the best card as it gives the highest cashback rewards while you do the everyday spending on this card.
Additionally, the other categories like cashback with the Gas station, Transit, and streaming services make it more lucrative and insist on applying for this card.
However, the annual membership fee of $95 on this card may rise few questions before we could apply and to make things easy for you, you can go to the below chart and that will certainly help you make the final decision.
| Spending Category | Cashback % | Monthly Spending | Annual Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Supermarkets | 6% (Upto $6000) | $500 | $360 |
| Streaming Subscriptions | 6% | $25 | $18 |
| Gas and Transit | 3% | $400 | $144 |
| Other Charges | 1% | $1000 | $120 |
| Overall | $1925 | $640 |
Going through the above charge must have made things easy for you and I am sure you would not give any second through applying for the card.
Paying a $95 annual fee can easily help you get a whopping $1000+ cash reward for the first year with $400 welcome bonus and an average $600 cashback on regular spending and then an average of $600 + from the second year is the next to the best deal we can think of.
Overall, this card comes with a huge welcome bonus offer where you just have to put all your charges for a few months on this card to be eligible and it will also not be a worrisome issue to pay the bill as you get the 0% promotional interest offer for 12 months.
Additionally, you can take advantage of benefits like shop runner where you can get the delivery free of cast expedited within two days with an American Express Blue Cash Preferred card.
If you are also looking to apply for an Amex High Yield Savings account, you can review our blog on that post here.
