Old Blue Limits to $50,000, Includes Initial $6500

We’ve spoken about the new limit on the Amex Old Blue Cash (here, here, here). Previously, this was a favorite for those who wanted to manufacture spend since it offered an unbeatable 5% cashback at drugstore/grocery and there was no limit to how much you could earn. A couple of months ago, Amex capped the bonused rewards at $50,000 of spend per year. After hitting that limit, you’ll earn 1% on all purchases.

Existing Cardholders

The new limit was originally mentioned for new cardholders, but soon existing cardholders saw on their statements that Amex updated the terms to limit them to the $50,000 as well.

amex old blue statement

This has now been confirmed on Flyertalk that the $50,000 limits are kicking in and halting any further 5% earnings.

Initial Spend

Another interesting thing has been noted regarding the question of how precisely the new terms will work. Under both the old and the new terms, the first $6500 of spend gets 1% at drugstore/grocery and .5% everywhere else. After that initial spend, the card earns 5% and 1% respectively. Some speculation ensued about whether the initial $6500 of spend is included in the $50,000 cap. If one were to spend the initial $6500 in drugstore/grocery, would they still earn another $50,000 of 5% at drugstore/grocery, or would they earn another $43,500 since they already ‘used up’ $6500 with the initial spend?

One Flyertalk member’s experience indicates that the $6500 will count toward the $50,000 limit and will reduce the total 5% earnings to $43,500.

After maxing out on his $50,000, he calculated his total Reward Dollars for the year and it came out to $2347. Now, if we don’t count the initial $6500, then there would be $2500 of Reward Dollars from the drugstore/grocery spend, plus whatever small amount from regular spend and from the initial spend. The total could not be less than $2500. It now seems that Amex is capping us at $50,000 of drugstore/grocery spend total, including the initial spend.

Optimal Spend Pattern

Based on this, we come to an important point in regard to optimizing the Old Blue card. Instead of spending the initial $6500 on drugstore/grocery spend at 1% cashback, it would be wiser to spend the initial spend elsewhere, so that we’ll be able to subsequently get 5% on the full $50,000 at drugstore/grocery. We will be losing slightly in the initial spend, since we’ll only be getting .5% instead of getting 1% for drugstore/grocery spend, but we’ll them be positioned to get a full $50,000 of drugstore/grocery spend for $2500 of total cashback.

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10 Comments
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DannyDealGuru
DannyDealGuru (@guest_77954)
February 17, 2015 18:34

Amex used to be my favorite card. , but they have been going downwards for sometime now. Chase is the new star in the CC arena.

KYBOSH
KYBOSH (@guest_77826)
February 17, 2015 14:21

Dr… you just got trolled.

Curtis
Curtis (@guest_77701)
February 17, 2015 09:37

Yeah, I disagree as well. It clearly states that the 5% is on the NEXT $50k spent.

William Charles
Admin
February 16, 2015 20:31

I think that FT data point might be an anomaly. The terms from that screenshot make it pretty clear that after the 6.5k spend you’ll earn 5% on the NEXT $50,000 in purchases.

Will Gates
Will Gates (@guest_88460)
March 15, 2015 11:42

“After your first $6,500 in purchases, you will receive 5% on Everyday Purchases up to $50,000 and 1% on other purchases.”

everyday Purchases = U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations & select U.S. drugstores … so the 5% only counts towards those after 6500, otherwise it’s 1%… aka if you surpassed your 6500, then went to Target to RB on your Amex Blue <Cash… you'd only get 1%.