Cash back card question

[haulingthescoreup]

Here ya go:

Blue Cash calculator

And remember, with Blue Cash you start all over again every January 1st. It's not 12 months from whenever you started, it's calendar year.*

I'd say that for those interested in Blue Cash, get it at the very beginning of the year to maximize your reward, as opposed to in August or something.

Also, hitting the high rewards tier isn't retroactive. It only applies to purchases after that, for the remainder of that calendar year. Since $6,600 seems to be the magic figure, this means that if you charged $13.2K, double the $6.6K, your total rewards will work out to point-8-something percent on general purchases and 2.5% on gas/ grocs/ drugstores. The more you go over $13.2K, the closer you will get to averaging 1.25% / 5%.

Don't forget, if you already have (or had) any American Express account, the new card will pick up the month in which you get it + the year in which your oldest account opened, assuming that they still have it on record. (No, old AU accounts don't seem to work.)

Anyway, Blue Cash can be a great card IF you are prepared to run $6K through it before getting the good rewards.


* edited --it goes by your anniversary date, not by calendar year. Thanks to LustForTheMoment who provided the correction (below)!

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-17-2010 04:31 AM

[Anonymous]

I I would check cash returns online mall for merchants you might use and you can actually get the bonus at some brick & mortar location's

[Cstl05]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I I would check cash returns online mall for merchants you might use and you can actually get the bonus at some brick & mortar location's

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what do you mean a card that suffers from pms 

[Anonymous]

I don't see why anyone would want american express, they are hard to get, they charge the highest fees, yuck..

[Creditaddict]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I don't see why anyone would want american express, they are hard to get, they charge the highest fees, yuck..

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Fees, what fees... they are a little more expensive for a merchant to except but I wouldn't say they are more expensive for you to carry unless you pick a rewards program that has an annual fee.

[Anonymous]

AmEx is coveted for the great benefits you can recieve.  The very basics from AmEx for example is extended warranty that adds up to one year to the manufactuer's warranty increases it warranty automatically.  So for example you buy a computer with the 1 year warranty that comes with it using your card automatically increases coverage to 2 years.  Also there is theft and damage protection up to 90 days after purchase. There are lots of other benefits that you can recieve from AmEx that you won't get with Visa or Master.  If you dont want interest then simply get an AmEx charge card.

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Here ya go:

Blue Cash calculator

And remember, with Blue Cash you start all over again every January 1st. It's not 12 months from whenever you started, it's calendar year.

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Incorrect. Blue Cash cashback runs on an anniversary year, NOT a calendar year; in my case, it's OCT to OCT. I receive my annual cashback rebate on my NOV statement.

[haulingthescoreup]

Thanks for the correction! You're absolutely right, and I don't know where I picked up that incorrect info.

This is from American Express's website for Blue Cash:

Receive cash automatically

Look for your rebate as a credit on your statement one month following your Card anniversary date (if you opened your account in January, for example, you should expect to see your rebate in February the following year).