Credit Card Review: American Express Blue Cash Preferred

Blue Cash Preferred Amex

The American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is one of the most popular credit cards on the market at the moment, and it’s got consumers talking. This is not the card for all consumers, of course; no card is perfect for everyone. However, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is a good one to have in your wallet if you are a fan of shopping and earning cash back. If you are like many Americans, you likely spend the vast majority of your time shopping supermarkets and filling the gas tank in your vehicle. If this is the truth in your life, you’ll want to know what this card has to offer. The American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is perfect for those who spend a great deal of time and money at gas stations and supermarkets.

The cash back earnings through the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card are astounding. Unlike any other credit card on the market, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card offers cardholders the chance to earn a high percentage of cash back on the most common purchases made by most consumers. When shopping for groceries at the supermarket, anyone with the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card in their wallet is going to earn a steep 6% cash back on all purchases. However, it is important to note that the 6% cash back earnings at the supermarket is only valid on purchases up to $6,000 per year.

When you do the math, that breaks down to about $500 per month in grocery purchases. Since many households spend far more than that at the supermarket, you’re very likely going to max out that reward. If you do spend $6,000 per year at the grocery store, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is going to give you $360 cash back. You’ll earn another 1% on anything you spend at the grocery store in excess of $6,000, which means the rewards potential is astounding.

Additionally, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card also offers all cardholders the opportunity to earn 3% cash back on all gas purchases up to $6,000 per year. If you have more than one car in your household, or you spend more than $500 per month on gas, you will max out the earnings here, too. For example, my husband and I have two cars we drive every single day. I always fill up my car two times a week between my kids’ schools, errands and our social calendar. My husband also fills up 3 times per week driving to and from work – since he has a two seat convertible, his car is typically only driven to and from work. It costs him $35 to fill his gas tank and it costs me more like $65 to fill mine. Every year, we spend $12,220 on gas. If the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card was our personal credit card and we used it for all our gas purchases, we’d earn 3% cash back on the first $6,000 worth of gas we purchase throughout the year and 1% on all the rest. We’d get $242.20 cash back using this card. That’s a lot of cash back when you put the two together (especially since we have a family of 6 and we tend to shop 2-3 times a week at an average of $150-$200 per trip at the supermarket).

Now, get this; you also get 3% cash back on the first $6,000 worth of purchases you make at select department stores, too. This is a lot of earnings considering many of us spend a great deal of our time and money at department stores. It’s time to consider putting this card in your wallet for no other reason than the fact that you are going to earn some serious cash back. All other purchases are worth 1% cash back, and that means you are going to earn a lot of money.

Since the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is primarily a cash back card, most people are convinced by that this is the card they should carry. However, it does seem that the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card does have a few additional bonuses that many people tend to overlook with all the cash back.

What we are doing is reviewing the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card for you so that you know what to expect, what you get to earn and what all is beneficial and not quite so beneficial to you as you use this card. By the time you’re doing with our review, you will know whether or not you need the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card.

What Does this Card Cost Consumers?

The first question that anyone has when it’s time to apply for a major credit card is the cost to them. Sure, some cards do not charge an annual fee, and some do. The American Express Blue Cash Preferred card falls into the former. This is an annual fee card, but it’s actually a very reasonable annual fee card. This particular card only charges $75 per year for cardholders, which is easily earned back by anyone that spends $100 per month on groceries. Anything after that is sheer profit.

Furthermore, if you are able to spend $1,000 with your American Express Blue Cash Preferred card within 3 months of opening your account, you will earn $150 cash back in the form of a statement credit. That, alone, is worth two years worth of annual fees; offsetting the cost of this card for you for 24 months. You cannot beat that as it essentially makes this card completely free to carry.

Who is the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card For?

This is the question everyone asks: Is the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card for me? Well, it might be. If you spend a lot of time and money at the supermarket or the gas station, then yes. If you spend a lot of money each year on clothing from department stores, then yes. However, if you are the type of person that spends the bulk of your income on travel, this is not the credit card for you. Many travelers prefer other reward credit cards for travel. This card is not one of them considering the fact that many cash back reward cards are not as beneficial in terms of who much cash back can be redeemed in terms of travel.

Additionally, it is highly imperative that all people interested in applying for the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card from American Express know that supermarket cash backs rewards are only available for standalone supermarkets and not wholesalers or discount stores. For example, this means that anyone looking to shop for groceries throughout the year at Publix and Safeway, Whole Food, Gelsons or any other store like that is just fine. However, those looking to shop at places such as Costco and Sam’s Club are not going to find that they are able to earn rewards. Additionally, superstores are also not included in this list of cash back rewards earnings so if you shop primarily at places such as Walmart and Target, you’re not going to be able to earn cash back on your rewards when you shop for groceries.

American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card Important Details

Cash Back Offer – Anyone who chooses to sign up for the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card is going to find that this credit card works well for them as it allows you to save significantly in the cash back department. The sign up bonus that comes with this card is impressive. Any new cardholder able to spend $1,000 within the first three months of opening this account is eligible to earn $150 cash back in the form of a statement credit.

Supermarket Cash Back Offer – All American Express Blue Cash Preferred card holders will be able to earn 6% cash back on all supermarket purchases up to $6,000 per year. All other purchases at supermarkets that exceed that limit earn 1% cash back.

Gas Cash Back Offer – All new American Express Blue Cash Preferred card holders who use this card to pump gas are going to earn a significant 3% cash back on all gas purchases up to $6,000 per year. All other gas purchases after that are worth 1% cash back.

Department Store Cash Back Offers – All new American Express Blue Cash Preferred card holders that spend money at select department stores across the country are eligible to receive as much as 3% cash back on all purchases up to $6,000 per year. After that, all purchases are worth 1% cash back.

All Cash Back Offers – Every purchase you make not in the above mentioned categories with the American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card is worth 1% cash back all the time. There are not rotating categories or earnings bonuses; what you see is what you get, which is what makes this particular cash back credit card so simple and so effective to use.

Cash Back Rewards Redemption – To redeem cash back rewards, simply ask to have them redeemed as a statement credit on your account.

APR Offers – All new American Express Blue Cash Preferred cardholders receive 15 months of 0% interest on all purchases and balance transfers.

American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card Downfalls – There are two major downfalls with this particular credit card. The first is that you do have to pay an annual fee of $75. However, this annual fee is also a bit less than many other credit cards, so it is worth consideration. The second biggest con related to carrying this card is the fact that it’s an American Express card, which means it is not as widely accepted as some other credit cards in as many places across the world.

How to Make the Most of the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card

Sometimes it takes a little bit of wiggling to make the most of things that do not seem to make the most sense for some card holders. When it comes to the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card, most cardholders are pretty good to go. It’s not difficult to spend the annual $6,000 per year on groceries, or even another $6,000 per year on gas or supermarket purchases. After all, most of us wear clothes, buy food and fill our gas tanks.

However, there is always that one person here or there that doesn’t spend much at all on these things. Perhaps you are a single person and spending $6,000 per year on groceries is a huge stretch considering you eat well and grow most of your own fruits and vegetables. Or perhaps you live in NYC and spend nothing on gas. If this is you, you do not have to forgo applying for the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card and forgo the amazing rewards and cash back you can earn with it. You just have to get creative. We like creativity, and we use it often; we’ll teach you to do the same.

One way to get creative is to go to the supermarket and buy yourself gift cards for stores you like to visit throughout the year so you can earn that amazing cash back. Let’s say you cannot possibly spend $6,000 per year at the supermarket, but you can spend $2,500. That leaves you with another $3,500 you need to spend at supermarkets if you want to make the most of the cash back offers that the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card offers to cardholders. Since you love stores like Gap and Amazon and Starbucks and you always spend a bunch of money on those, go to supermarkets and buy gift cards to those places. You can then buy what you actually want to buy where you actually want to buy it, but you earn the rewards and cash back offered through the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card since you bought the gift cards at supermarkets.

You can do the same thing for gas purchases if you also have a local gas station that sells gift cards. Not all gas stations are in the gift card market but if you can find one near you that it, we highly recommend that you use it to make gift card purchases and get yourself to the limit on this cash back reward. It’s the best way to make the most of your purchases.

Another great way to make this most of this cash back credit card is to use it all the time. Make this your primary card and use it for everything from paying your mortgage each month to paying your utilities and buying your groceries. If you do this, pay off the card in full, and max out your cash back reward categories, you can make a lot of money each year. Let’s say that you spend $45,000 per year on your living expenses, and that includes capping out your reward categories.

You’ve spent your $6,000 at supermarkets and your $6,000 at gas and/or department stores for cash back earnings of $540 using your American Express Blue Cash Preferred card. You spent a total of $45,000 this year, so if you take that $12,000 away, you are left with cash back earnings of 1% on $33,000. That’s another $330 in cash back. You just earned $870 in cash back – and we think it’s a great idea to redeem that for a statement credit once you do your Christmas shopping this year.

Make sure that you pay off this card in full each month or you will not be able to take advantage of the cash back rewards that the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card has to offer. That makes the card less worth it, and we want you to get the most out of this card, no matter what.

  • We’ve mentioned several times that participating department stores are eligible for American Express Blue Cash Preferred card cash back, and those stores include:
    • Bloomingdales
    • Bealls
    • Belks
    • Dillards
    • JC Penney
    • Kohls
    • Lord & Taylor
    • Neiman Marcus
    • Macys
    • Nordstrom
    • Saks Fifth Avenue
    • Sears
    • Several other smaller department stores not located nationwide

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