American Express Blue Cash Everyday and Blue Cash Preferred Review
Updated September 20, 2020.
The Facts
This review covers both the non-fee Amex Blue Cash Everyday and the $95 Amex Blue Cash Preferred.
Amex Blue Cash Everyday
Amex Blue Cash Preferred
The Math
Blue Cash Everyday vs. Blue Cash Preferred: If your grocery spending is roughly over $3,200 a year, you should upgrade to Blue Cash Preferred since $3,167 x 3% = $95 annual fee on the Preferred card. In addition, you also gain an additional 5% on streaming and 1% on gas & transit.
Blue Cash Preferred (BCP) vs. Amex EveryDay Preferred (EDP): They have the same $95 annual fees. They also have similar bonus categories: groceries as the primary (4.5x for EDP and 6% for BCP; both have a $6K annual spending cap) and gas (3x for EDP and 3% for BCP) as the secondary. One difference is that BCP has additional bonus categories - streaming services as 6% and transit as 3%. If you prefer cashback over EDP's miles/points transfer option, BCP is an easy pick; however, if you are comfortable with the miles/points transfer, EDP might actually return higher rewards, for example, 6.75%, 4.5%, and 2.25%, for groceries, gas, and general spending, based on our current valuation.
The Conclusion
If your annual grocery spending exceeds $3,200, you should definitely consider upgrading from Blue Cash Everyday to Blue Cash Preferred. Blue Cash Preferred is arguably the best cashback card for grocery spending, even after after Amex started imposing the $6,000 annual spending cap. The 2019 enhancement to add streaming as a 6% category was of course a good news.
The Facts
This review covers both the non-fee Amex Blue Cash Everyday and the $95 Amex Blue Cash Preferred.
Amex Blue Cash Everyday
- Annual Fee: none
- Signup Bonus: up to $350 ($150 after you spend $1,000 within 6 months of new account opening, and 20% cashback on Amazon.com purchases within 6 months of new account opening, up to $200 in cashback). Sometimes, you need to use private browsing mode in your browser to see the offer. The signup bonus is not available to applicants who have or have had this card. Historical best bonus: up to $350 ($150 + 20% of Amazon.com purchases within 6 months) in 2020.
- Application landing page Blue Cash Everyday
- Rewards: 3% U.S. groceries (up to $6,000 in purchases a year), 2% U.S. gas stations & U.S. department stores, and 1% everywhere else.
- Other Benefits: (1) Amex Offers - you receive savings in form of statement credit or earn bonus MR points on select merchants when using your Amex card; you need to manually add an offer to your Amex card to be eligible for savings or bonus, and unlike other savings/bonus programs, you don't need to shop through a certain portal. (2) ShopRunner membership for free 2-day shipping with select merchants. (3) Entertainment Access including American Express Presale and Premium Access (Dining Access).
Amex Blue Cash Preferred
- Annual Fee: none for the 1st year and $95 thereafter
- Signup Bonus: $300 after you spend $1,000 within 3 months of new account opening. Sometimes, you need to use private browsing mode in your browser to see the offer. The signup bonus is not available to applicants who have or have had this card. Historical best bonus: $300 in 2020.
- Application landing page for Blue Cash Preferred
- Rewards: 6% U.S. groceries (up to $6,000 in purchases a year) and U.S. streaming services, 3% U.S. gas stations & transit (e.g., taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more), and 1% everywhere else.
- Other Benefits: the same as Blue Cash Everyday (see above).
- History: The "Old Blue Cash" was replaced by the new dual Blue Cash cards in 2011. Gone the catches in fine prints and came the simple cash back formulas, and we welcomed the changes. However, it was sad to see Amex started imposing the annual spending cap ($6,000) for both cards in late 2012. Amex kept the Old Blue Cash unadvertised but available for new applicants for a few year until 2018. Amex raised the annual fee from $75 to $95 in 2016. In 2019, Amex added U.S. streaming services as a 6% category and replaced U.S. department stores with transit as a 3% category.
The Math
Blue Cash Everyday vs. Blue Cash Preferred: If your grocery spending is roughly over $3,200 a year, you should upgrade to Blue Cash Preferred since $3,167 x 3% = $95 annual fee on the Preferred card. In addition, you also gain an additional 5% on streaming and 1% on gas & transit.
Blue Cash Preferred (BCP) vs. Amex EveryDay Preferred (EDP): They have the same $95 annual fees. They also have similar bonus categories: groceries as the primary (4.5x for EDP and 6% for BCP; both have a $6K annual spending cap) and gas (3x for EDP and 3% for BCP) as the secondary. One difference is that BCP has additional bonus categories - streaming services as 6% and transit as 3%. If you prefer cashback over EDP's miles/points transfer option, BCP is an easy pick; however, if you are comfortable with the miles/points transfer, EDP might actually return higher rewards, for example, 6.75%, 4.5%, and 2.25%, for groceries, gas, and general spending, based on our current valuation.
The Conclusion
If your annual grocery spending exceeds $3,200, you should definitely consider upgrading from Blue Cash Everyday to Blue Cash Preferred. Blue Cash Preferred is arguably the best cashback card for grocery spending, even after after Amex started imposing the $6,000 annual spending cap. The 2019 enhancement to add streaming as a 6% category was of course a good news.