Review of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

Last Updated: 11/2/2012

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is without a doubt one of the best cash back cards out there, if not the best, and according to the GetDebit ranking engine, one of the absolute all-around top cards available. Add to that the support provided by Amex, and you may very well be looking at the Muhammad Ali of credit cards.

Continue reading to learn more about what makes this card so awe-inspiring.

Snapshot: Blue Cash Preferred® Card From American Express

Earning Rewards With the Blue Cash Preferred® Card From American Express

The earnings power of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card, is…well…remarkable. It’s the only card out there that I know of that offers 6% on anything, let alone the valuable supermarket category (e.g. 6% on movie tickets is much less interesting to write home about). While some may be scared away by the $75 annual fee, just spending $25 per week at US stand-alone supermarkets earns you $78, putting you ahead of the game. If you spend $160 weekly in the supermarket spend category, that would add up to $500 cashback for a year.

Note that your 6% cash back at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets is capped to $6,000 of spend per year, after which any additional spend at supermarkets earns at the more pedestrian 1% cash back rate. But that’s still $500 per month of spend that’s covered by an awesome bonus.

You also earn 3% cash back at U.S. stand-alone gas stations and select major department stores-rewards that anywhere else would be leading role material, but here are slightly overshadowed by the supermarket rewards.

Reedeming Rewards Is Straightforward

Really no tricks or complications here. Once you accumulate $25 or more in cashback, you can simply apply that amount as a statement credit. Statement credit redemptions are my favorite form of reward redemption-no worries about getting checks in the mail and so on. Not much more to write about here.

A Quick Note on the Blue Cash Everyday® Card Vs. the Blue Cash Preferred® Card

While it’s tempting to apply for the no-annual-fee version of the card (the Blue Cash Everyday® Card), I’d recommend against doing this unless your monthly spend on supermarkets is fairly low-$208 or less, to be exact. Furthermore, that $208 break-even point only moves higher if you also make gas and department store purchases, since the Preferred card has a slight rewards advantage there as well.

If you want to go into more detail on the comparison between the 2 cards, you can either read our post comparing the Blue Cash Everyday Card versus Blue Cash Preferred Card, or you can visit our GetDebit Ranking Engine (found from our home page), which will calculate our best estimate of what each and every card is worth to you, based on your unique spend profile.

GetDebit’s Closing Musings

By now hopefully it’s clear that if you spend even modest amounts of dough at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets (roughly, $200 or more per month), the Blue Cash Preferred® Card From American Express should be in your wallet (as it is in mine!). If you don’t buy food at supermarkets, gasoline for your car, or clothes for your body, then this card probably isn’t for you. But in that case, you’re probably living off the grid.

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

Related posts:

  1. American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card Review
  2. Comparing Blue Cash Preferred® Card Vs. Blue Cash Everyday® Card From American Express
  3. Review of the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
  4. Review of the American Express Blue Cash Credit Card
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