Why Amex Blue Cash Preferred Is a Good Card
Table of Contents
Introduction
Amex Blue Cash Preferred card is this the best cash back credit card for most categories. Let’s find out why it’s one of the best cash back card in this article. You get $300 additional cash back if you spend $3000 in the first six months. So $500 per month spend for 6 months will earn you $300 bonus. This card gives you 0% APR for the first 12 months on purchases. Then these cash back categories are where the card really stands out.
Benefits of Amex Blue Cash Preferred
- Blue Cash preferred card gives you 6% percent cash back on groceries up to $6000 dollars. So that’s up to $500 per month or around $115 per week. If you’re spending that amount of money on groceries then it makes up for the annual fee of this credit card.
- A new perk was added in 2022 for Amex Bluecash preferred card gives you $7 cashback if you sign up for $13.99 Disney+ & Hulu bundle subscription.
- 6% percent cash back on streaming services like Netflix, Spotify, Disney plus, HBO max. It’s is like another six bucks per month cash back if you are spending $100 approximately.
- 3% percent on transit such as parking tolls Uber, Lyft, trains, Buses and any type of public transit.
- You also get 3% percent cash back on Gas Purchases.
- Buy Now, Pay Later option: Enjoy $0 intro plan fees when you use Plan It to split up large purchases into monthly installments. Pay $0 plan fees on plans created during the first 12 months after account opening. After the promo period it will have a monthly plan fee up to 1.33% of each purchase amount.
So what I recommend doing is having a 2% cash back credit card such as the Wells Fargo active cash card can be kind of your floor for your spending. Anything that is not one of these categories you would use a two percent cash back card then you could use these this card for these four categories mentioned above. You can add an additional cashback credit cards that have high cash back in certain categories after having this card.
How much cash back you can earn in a year
Here is the Amex blue cash preferred card example of how much you can earn as cashback. So you can see six percent on groceries, three percent gas stations, six percent on streaming and then three percent on transit. I’m going to take out the $95 annual fee so in the first year you would get the whole $720 in cash back. From second year and beyond it would be $625 after taking out the $95 annual fee.
There are several cards where you can get five percent cash back such as the Citi Double Cash card the US Bank Cash Plus card. These cards comes without any annual fee but cash backs are in certain categories. If you are spending in a bunch of different categories, then it will be useful to have these cards. I was basically using the Amex blue cash preferred card in the categories where they have 6% or 3% cash back.
Cons for Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card
- One downside to this credit card is the annual fee but there’s no annual fee in the first year then it’s $95 annual fee for the second year and beyond.
- Amex doesn’t offer Balance Transfer options generally like other credit cards.
- When you take it to use internationally, it’s not as widely accepted as VISA or Mastercard.
- This card charges a 2.7% foreign transaction fee.
Final Thoughts
Amex Blue Cash Preferred is an excellent card which has sign on bonus of $300, great cash back categories up to 6% and no annual fee for the first year. It also comes with other Amex benefits like travel protection, extended warranty and Amex offers through their website. If you have a credit score of 690 or more, you have better odds of approval on this card. I hope this article was helpful to evaluate if this Blue Cash Preferred is a good fit for you. Let me know you thoughts or suggestions in comments.