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FretlessMayhem wrote:
Is your 5 percent capped or any other sort of catch? That card sounds better and better with each post.
@Anonymous wrote:
@FretlessMayhem wrote:
Is your 5 percent capped or any other sort of catch? That card sounds better and better with each post.Well, I guess there are a couple of catches.First, there is a cap of 150K TYP per calendar year, regardless of whether they come at the 5:1 rate or the 3:1 rate. Depending on how much of your spending is in the everyday purchases categories, the max annual spending on which you can earn rewards will range from $30K to $50K, which is quite a lot.Second, if you redeem your TYP for fewer than 10K at a time, you won't get a 1% return per point (and therefore you won't get the 5% on everyday spending and 3% on everything else for the first two years). A $100 gift card is 10K points (5% return on everyday purchases, 3% return on all other purchases), but a $50 gift card is 6K points (only 4.17% on everyday purchases, 2.5% on all other purchases).I guess the only other "catch" is that after 24 months, it reverts to 1 TYP per dollar in all categories (straight 1%). There is also, of course, the $125 AF, waived the first year, but the other benefits of the card pay for that, IMO.
@athensguy wrote:
If you switch to it, I doubt they will give you the sign up bonuses.
@Anonymous wrote:Good luck, but I agree with athensguy. Even if you're able to switch, you're probably going to get a one point per dollar card from the very beginning. I really doubt you'll get the 5 points/3 points deal, and I'm sure you won't get the 15K free TYP to start.
@Anonymous wrote:That's not quite right.As far as rewards:Blue earns Membership Rewards Express points. These points are good for all the same things as regular Amex Membership Rewards except frequent flier miles, and perhaps a few other restrictions.Blue Cash earns cash back according to the following schedule:Annual spending up to $6500:Everyday purchases: 1%All other purchases: 0.5%Annual spending $6500.01 and up:Everyday purchases: 5%All other purchases: 1.5%There is also Blue Sky, which earns points that can be redeemed at a rate of 7500 points per $100 statement credit towards eligible travel-related purchases. This represents a 1.33% rewards rate.Clear earns a straight 1% in the form of Amex gift cards.None of these cards has an AF. Clear has no fees of any kind associated with it, including BT fees, OTL fees, or late payment fees (although you shouldn't be going over the limit or paying late anyway).Clear used to be the more difficult of these cards to get, although it appears standards have loosened a bit on Clear lately. Blue is probably slightly easier to get than Blue Cash. Blue Sky is about on the same level as Blue.
Message Edited by cheddar on 07-23-2008 01:14 PM
Interesting to see that the Blue Cash had a tiered cash back system at some point
@HiLine wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:That's not quite right.As far as rewards:Blue earns Membership Rewards Express points. These points are good for all the same things as regular Amex Membership Rewards except frequent flier miles, and perhaps a few other restrictions.Blue Cash earns cash back according to the following schedule:Annual spending up to $6500:Everyday purchases: 1%All other purchases: 0.5%Annual spending $6500.01 and up:Everyday purchases: 5%All other purchases: 1.5%There is also Blue Sky, which earns points that can be redeemed at a rate of 7500 points per $100 statement credit towards eligible travel-related purchases. This represents a 1.33% rewards rate.Clear earns a straight 1% in the form of Amex gift cards.None of these cards has an AF. Clear has no fees of any kind associated with it, including BT fees, OTL fees, or late payment fees (although you shouldn't be going over the limit or paying late anyway).Clear used to be the more difficult of these cards to get, although it appears standards have loosened a bit on Clear lately. Blue is probably slightly easier to get than Blue Cash. Blue Sky is about on the same level as Blue.
Message Edited by cheddar on 07-23-2008 01:14 PMInteresting to see that the Blue Cash had a tiered cash back system at some point
It seems like cards have flipped now.
Would you agree? Cards seem to offer their best rewards for the first $XXX per term, and then cap them after that. Rewards on $500 per month seems to be the norm for category bonus's.
@Dustink wrote:
@HiLine wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:That's not quite right.As far as rewards:Blue earns Membership Rewards Express points. These points are good for all the same things as regular Amex Membership Rewards except frequent flier miles, and perhaps a few other restrictions.Blue Cash earns cash back according to the following schedule:Annual spending up to $6500:Everyday purchases: 1%All other purchases: 0.5%Annual spending $6500.01 and up:Everyday purchases: 5%All other purchases: 1.5%There is also Blue Sky, which earns points that can be redeemed at a rate of 7500 points per $100 statement credit towards eligible travel-related purchases. This represents a 1.33% rewards rate.Clear earns a straight 1% in the form of Amex gift cards.None of these cards has an AF. Clear has no fees of any kind associated with it, including BT fees, OTL fees, or late payment fees (although you shouldn't be going over the limit or paying late anyway).Clear used to be the more difficult of these cards to get, although it appears standards have loosened a bit on Clear lately. Blue is probably slightly easier to get than Blue Cash. Blue Sky is about on the same level as Blue.
Message Edited by cheddar on 07-23-2008 01:14 PMInteresting to see that the Blue Cash had a tiered cash back system at some point
It seems like cards have flipped now.
Would you agree? Cards seem to offer their best rewards for the first $XXX per term, and then cap them after that. Rewards on $500 per month seems to be the norm for category bonus's.
Totally. It seems to me that a cap would favor cardholders that don't spend a whole lot, while a ceiling would attract more big spenders. The latter works like a loyalty program, and perhaps these days people don't tend to be exclusive with one card like they used to?