topic Re: blue cash preffered amex card in Credit Cards

blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:52:26 GMT

anyone have one of these cards (blue cash preffered card) ? rewards seem good, didnt know how hard it is to get? has a $75 annual fee tho

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:24:57 GMT

Probably one of the best rewards cards for families since it has 6% back at grocery stores. The $75 annual fee will be worth it if you spend enough on the card to compensate. There is also the free version with less rewards. I personally use it enough to more than compensate for the fee vs the free version, but depending on your spending patterns it might or might not work for you.

I originally got approved for the card about 3.5 years ago when it was just the "Blue Cash." Last time I checked my scores it was an EQ fico of 803 I believe. It is going to be more difficult to get than say the Zync, but I've heard AmEx approval standards aren't as stringent as they used to be.

Good luck!

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

DI — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:41:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Probably one of the best rewards cards for families since it has 6% back at grocery stores. The $75 annual fee will be worth it if you spend enough on the card to compensate. There is also the free version with less rewards. I personally use it enough to more than compensate for the fee vs the free version, but depending on your spending patterns it might or might not work for you.

I originally got approved for the card about 3.5 years ago when it was just the "Blue Cash." Last time I checked my scores it was an EQ fico of 803 I believe. It is going to be more difficult to get than say the Zync, but I've heard AmEx approval standards aren't as stringent as they used to be.

Good luck!

AMEX not as stringent because it wants to keep its Financial Review Dept. busy.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

tntexans72 — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:21:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
anyone have one of these cards (blue cash preffered card) ? rewards seem good, didnt know how hard it is to get? has a $75 annual fee tho

Do you have a family? Like OP say, this card will be ideal for a family or if you spend more than $300 per month on grocery.

Lets say you spend $300 per month on grocery.....

$300 x 12 months = $3600 annually.

6% cashback at grocery stores

$3600 x 6% = $216 cash back annually

That figure will justify the $75 AF. If you are a family of 4, your grocery bill each month would avg. around $500 x 12 months = $6000. You'll save $360 than.

Bottom line, you just have to figure out what rewards works best for you base on your spending.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

clocktick — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:25:47 GMT

I have it. I don't provide for a family, however, my SO and I do a lot of grocery shopping including the local health food store that seems to be coded as a grocery store. Between this, the gas 3% back (which beats my lousy 5 cents/gallon off Shell card) I use when not using a 5% back card, 1% off everything else and 3% department stores (plan on using a lot for Christmas), this is my go to card without a doubt.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:40:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
anyone have one of these cards (blue cash preffered card) ? rewards seem good, didnt know how hard it is to get? has a $75 annual fee tho

I got the Blue Cash Preferred just this past May, and I absolutely love it for the 6% at grocery stores! Amex is still offering the $100 "Welcome Bonus", so the AF will be covered during the first year if you're not quite certain (yet) that your spending patterns will overcome the AF.

Have you tried checking to see if you have any pre-approval offers from Amex? You can check right on their website. It doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be approved, but if you're sans any recent major derogs, you've not recently opened a ton of credit, and your utilization is low, I'd think that it wouldn't be "hard" to obtain.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

clocktick — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:44:07 GMT

What exactly are the terms of the $100 Welcome Bonus? I would like to call and ask them about it. Thanks.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:06:39 GMT

@clocktick wrote:
What exactly are the terms of the $100 Welcome Bonus? I would like to call and ask them about it. Thanks.

It looks like it may be slightly modified since May, when I got it, but here it is--

Availablefor first-time American Express Cardmembers only. (When I applied, it was available to any first time "Blue" card holder)
To qualify you must make $500 or more in purchases (it excludes BTs, Cash Advances, Traveler's Checks, Finance Charges & fees, and gift card purchases) within your first 90 days of Cardmembership.
The bonus is awarded in the form of Reward Dollars, which will be added to your Reward Dollar balance 6-8 weeks after the spend threshold is met

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

tntexans72 — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:59:50 GMT

This is the card I will app for next come January. Just playing it safe and waiting for my last Amex apped to aged 6 months than I will hit the submit button

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:25:43 GMT

@DI wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Probably one of the best rewards cards for families since it has 6% back at grocery stores. The $75 annual fee will be worth it if you spend enough on the card to compensate. There is also the free version with less rewards. I personally use it enough to more than compensate for the fee vs the free version, but depending on your spending patterns it might or might not work for you.

I originally got approved for the card about 3.5 years ago when it was just the "Blue Cash." Last time I checked my scores it was an EQ fico of 803 I believe. It is going to be more difficult to get than say the Zync, but I've heard AmEx approval standards aren't as stringent as they used to be.

Good luck!
AMEX not as stringent because it wants to keep its Financial Review Dept. busy.

lol

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:27:26 GMT

Do you need excellent credit to get this card? Or will they approve with a bk on file? im assuming not

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

DI — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:29:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Do you need excellent credit to get this card? Or will they approve with a bk on file? im assuming not

Yes, you need excellent credit with little to no credit card balances to get approved for the Blue Cash card. A BK may disqualify instantly, regardless how old it is.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

tengtengvn — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:34:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Do you need excellent credit to get this card? Or will they approve with a bk on file? im assuming not

Yes. AMEX credit cards is even harder to get than their charge card. When I applied I make sure my credit report was clean with 2 out of 9 cards reporting a small balance.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

NeedinHelp42 — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:00:34 GMT

We actually product changed from the regular Blue Card to this one. It's worth 6% cash back on groceries and 3% cash back on gas, and I believe 1% on everything else. The 1% deal isn't particularly different or in most cases even as good as a lot of other cards out there, but for the parents of three kids who are constantly running to practices and feeding growing bodies, we can't beat this card. Heck, when we did the math, we pay for $75 annual fee at 6% cashback in what we spend on milk in a year alone. Everything in gas and groceries beyond that goes directly back into our pockets. We also don't carry a balance, as we've basically just stopped paying for gas and groceries with a check card and started using this instead.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:03:44 GMT

you got this card with a score in 600's?

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

clocktick — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:03:18 GMT

I do not believe you need "excellent" credit to receive this card.

I forgot to add, there is no cap on rewards!! This is different from Discover and other cards.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

tntexans72 — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:54:33 GMT

@clocktick wrote:
I do not believe you need "excellent" credit to receive this card.

I forgot to add, there is no cap on rewards!! This is different from Discover and other cards.

YMMV......in the end, you don't know til you try.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Open123 — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:54:17 GMT

Hard to say what sort of credit one needs for Amex, since the have their own Ex proprietary score amongst other different factors in their scoring model. During one of their investor conference calls, Ken Chenault did reveal that Fico counts for about 20% in their scoring model.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:14:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
you got this card with a score in 600's?

The person did a product change from another Amex, so it's possible that they had a higher score when they originally applied. Also, Amex does not generally use Fico scores in their credit approval process.

Re: blue cash preffered amex card

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 22:20:05 GMT

I recently gotten the preffered. Two things I noticed, the price of the "reward store" and that you can only apply cash back credit to your account in $25 increments.

I just stumbled on this blog after searching the net wondering why the reward store is so expensive (their prices are 2-3x MSRP), so I'll just link it: http://www.thousandaire.com/blog/american-express-rewards-suck/

I also didn't know that you can only claim cash back to credit balance in $25 increments, that makes little sense. Otherwise it's a great card and well worth the annual fee, seeing how easy it is to make it up and gain money by spending on groceries and gas, along with all the other benefits that come with AMEX.

I especially like that Americans answer whenever I called customer support, instead of 100% Indians as is the case with Chase