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.
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.
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.
Yeah, everything has its ups and downs.
Dr… you just got trolled.
Yeah, I disagree as well. It clearly states that the 5% is on the NEXT $50k spent.
I also think that’s what’s indicated in the terms, but I’m less convinced than you are that it’s coded that way.
My personal inclination right now is to believe this data point that the $6500 is included. But I obviously could be wrong.
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.
Yeah, I also updated my last post a while back that from the terms it seemed clear that you’ll get 5% on a full $50k. We’ll have to wait to hear more data points.
“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%.
Target isn’t a supermarket, so you’d get .5% until you meet the $6500 threshold, and 1% after threshold is met.