Blue Cash Preferred Card By American Express June 2023 Review

TheValu's Breakdown of The American Express Blue Cash Preferred Credit Card

The Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express features competitive cashback rates on everyday purchases like gas, travel, groceries, and streaming services. The Blue Cash Preferred cashback program is one of the top cashback credit card reward programs in the world. This card is perfectly fit for individuals who commute for work, active professionals, and home cooks because of the competitive rewards program.

Pros

• Return protection, purchase protection, and extended warranty benefits included.
• Outstanding tiered cash back on groceries, gas, transportation, and streaming services.
• Includes a free ShopRunner membership.
• 6% cashback on groceries, and 3% cash back on gas and travel.

Cons

• Balance transfers not offered to new customers
• Fewer rewards redemption options than similar credit cards.
• 2.7% foreign transaction fees on charges outside of the United States

Blue Cash Preferred Card Cash Back Program

Blue Cash Preferred by Amex features tiered cashback, this means you earn different reward rates across multiple categories.

Most tiered rewards cards apply spending caps on your high-earning bonus categories, in most cases, your rewards are changes to 1 percent after spending $1,500 a quarter.  The Blue Cash Preferred card by American Express offers 6 percent on U.S. supermarket purchases for up to $6,000.

Cashback Program

With the Blue Cash Preferred Credit Card, cashback is initially as “Blue Cash Reward Dollars” which can then be redeemed for a statement credit.

You can earn cashback on category purchases at the following rates:

• 6 percent: United States supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year, then 1 percent) and select United States streaming services (ex. Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Spotify, etc.)
• 3 percent: United States gas stations and transportation (ex. rideshares, taxis, parking, tolls, public transit, etc.)
• 1 percent: All other purchases

Featuring multiple rewards categories, this card is ideal for consumers who spend a lot on groceries, gas, and streaming services as the cashback bonus are 6% or 3%. With the Blue Cash Preferred card, you also have the opportunity to earn rewards with the Amex Offers program. Amex Offers contains limited-time deals. These deals can be activated to earn extra cashback or Membership Rewards points on purchases from participating retailers, such as Hulu or Uber.

Receiving cashback

The only opinions to redeem your rewards are through statement credits, gift cards ($25 minimum), or merchandise.

Cashback cannot be direct deposited or sent via a check. However, rewarding statement credits with your Amex Blue Cash Preferred is identical to buying power.

How much are reward points worth?

With the cashback reward program of the Blue Cash Preferred Card, you earn “Blue Cash Reward Dollars” which is equivalent to actual dollars. So for every Blue Cash Reward Dollar, you are earning the same buying power as one U.S. dollar.

Annual Fees and APRs

This card offers a 12-month 0% introductory APR on purchases which allows you to try out the card for up to a year with no interest, allowing you to see if this card is a good fit. After the first year, the APR range changes to 13.99% - 23.99% variable.

Amex isn’t accepting balance transfers to this card, so if this a major factor on your credit card decision you might want to look elsewhere.

If you frequently travel outside of the United States, a 2.7 percent foreign transaction fee is applied.

Although the $95 annual fee might be a turnoff, it only takes spending a minimum of $132 every month on groceries to fully reimburse your annual fee.