Amex Blue Cash Preferred no longer offering 3% cash back at select Department Stores?

[Anonymous]

So I got an offer to upgrade my Everyday to Preferred, and noticed that the Department Store cash back feature is missing from the listed features.

I contacted customer support to inquire, and they said the bonus was still in effect, but was unable to give me a link to a page that mentioned it. I was assured I'd still get the bonus.

Can anyone with the card confirm if the 3% cash back at select Department Stores is still a feature of this card? Are new cards perhaps stripped of this feature?

Thank you!

[Blodreina]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I got an offer to upgrade my Everyday to Preferred, and noticed that the Department Store cash back feature is missing from the listed features.

I contacted customer support to inquire, and they said the bonus was still in effect, but was unable to give me a link to a page that mentioned it. I was assured I'd still get the bonus.

Can anyone with the card confirm if the 3% cash back at select Department Stores is still a feature of this card? Are new cards perhaps stripped of this feature?

Thank you!

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I still see department stores as 3% for me.  But that doesn't mean anything.  The terms visible on your application are what your terms will be.  It's likely a change they made to new applicants; when I pull up a new application, department stores is missing.

[kilroy8]

Still there for me. I think if it would have been nerfed there would have been some talk about it around here.

[Anonymous]

This may only apply to new applicants. You can be assured that you will receive a revised Cardmember Agreement if your rewards are altered with the option to accept the changes or reject (results in card closure).

[kdm31091]

Looks like that benefit is gone for new apps. Existing cardholders would be notified as mentioned above.

[UpperNwGuy]

I assume the Blue Cash Everyday is dropping the 2% back at department stores to be consistent with the Blue Cash Preferred.

[Lurker22]

Very strange not listed at all when looking at the "offer" information but if you pull up the full cardholder agreement it's listed (effective 9/30/18 so it's possible they are going to change shortly)

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/pdf/cardmember-agreements/blue-cash-preferred/Blue_Cash_P...

[Anonymous]

I noticed on the website that the Blue Cash Everyday card still shows 2% for department stores.

As far as Preferred goes, I sure hope that the omission of 3% department stores is a clue that 3% on something else is coming.

I would love the 3% to be on dining, since I have SD-ed Savor to concentrate on  only two drivers in the wallet, AMEX BCP and Citi DC.

It is hard to take away a category without adding one to replace it, especially on an annual fee card.

We will see, I guess.

I am sorry for the department store shoppers, but I believe that most of these shoppers are dedicated to a particular store, like Kohls, and already have their store card. The others are occasional department store shoppers and may not care if the category goes away.

And yes, they should also add the new category, if there is one, as 2% on the Blue cash Everyday, to be fair.

[Anonymous]

I have an update after talking to a supervisor (in U.S.) at AMEX.

The reason that reference to the department store categories is gone is because it stipulated that the rebate is at "select" department stores.

The category (2% on BC Everday and 3% on BCP) is still given, but it seems that AMEX wants to pick and choose when and where they give it.

I know that whenever I shopped at Carson's (part of Bon Ton) I would only get 1% because it was not coded as "Bon Ton."

That's the latest. I guess that some of you will be happy, but before you go to a certain store, if you care enough, call AMEX and ask if that store is honored. 

Too much work for me.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have an update after talking to a supervisor (in U.S.) at AMEX.

The reason that reference to the department store categories is gone is because it stipulated that the rebate is at "select" department stores.

The category (2% on BC Everday and 3% on BCP) is still given, but it seems that AMEX wants to pick and choose when and where they give it.

I know that whenever I shopped at Carson's (part of Bon Ton) I would only get 1% because it was not coded as "Bon Ton."

That's the latest. I guess that some of you will be happy, but before you go to a certain store, if you care enough, call AMEX and ask if that store is honored. 

Too much work for me.

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That sounds somewhat unlikely to me!    If there is no stated requirement to give 2/3%, I would be surprised if Amex found any motivation to give it because somehow the user had managed to use the "correct" store.   I wonder what really changed

(With the OBC, they give a list of four pharmacy chains that can be used for 5%, with notification that other pharmacies won't receive the rewards, this seems like just a bigger version of that)