Increased Bonus on Both Blue Cash Cards, Up to $450/$400 with 10% Wireless Savings

The Offer

Blue Cash Everyday Offer

Direct Link (go incognito if you don’t see it)

Press release

Signup for a new Blue Cash Everyday card from American Express, and receive two bonus offers:

• Up to $200 cash back in the form of statement credits with this new offer that offers 10% cash back on the first $2,000 spent at U.S. Wireless Telephone Service Providers through December 31, 2016
• $100 bonus after spending $1,000 within 3-months
• Others are seeing the same offer but with a $200 bonus instead, for a total bonus of $400

Blue Cash Preferred Offer

Direct Link

Signup for a new Blue Cash Preferred card from American Express, and receive two bonus offers:

• Up to $200 cash back in the form of statement credits with this new offer that offers 10% cash back on the first $2,000 spent at U.S. Wireless Telephone Service Providers through December 31, 2016
• $150 bonus after spending $1,000 within 3-months
• Others are seeing the same offer but with a $250 bonus instead, for a total bonus of $450

The Fine Print

• Must apply for cards by 6/15/16

10% wireless offer terms:

When you apply by 06/15/2016, you get 10% back at US Wireless Telephone Service Providers as statement credits, on the first $2,000 in purchases made on the Card Account from the date your account is approved through 12/31/2016 (up to $200 back). Purchases may fall outside of this period in some cases, such as a delay in merchants submitting transactions to us or if the purchase date differs from the date you made the transaction. (For example, if you buy goods online, the purchase date may be the date the goods are shipped.) Purchases from third parties and resellers are excluded. Merchants are assigned codes based on what they primarily sell. You will not get 10% back if the merchant’s code is not eligible. You may not get 10% back on purchases made through a third-party payment account, at an online marketplace, or using a mobile card reader.

Card Details

Blue Cash Everyday

• U.S supermarket purchases get 3% back on the first $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%)
• U.S gas station purchases and select department stores get 2% cash back
• All other purchases get 1% cash back

No annual fee.

Blue Cash Preferred

• U.S supermarket purchases get 6% back on the first $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%)
• U.S gas station purchases and select department stores get 3% cash back
• All other purchases get 1% cash back

There is also an annual fee of $75, not waived the first year.

Our Verdict

Very interesting that Amex is offering a different sort of signup bonus, and they even put out a press release on this, indicating that this is a sort of strategy. We’ve recently seen some people get targeted offers on the Platinum card with a spend-based bonus, and I won’t be surprised to see many more of these from Amex in the future.

Is this a good offer? Not necessarily.

When comparing this to the standard offer of $100 on the Blue Cash Everyday card, this offer seems quite good. However, we’ve seen public offers of $250 recently (and some targeted offers of $300). And we’ve seen offers of $300 on the Blue Cash Preferred card.

While this bonus is technically $50 higher than the public offers, it requires spending $2k on wireless by year’s end. If we assume a cellular bill of $100 per month, that puts us at just around $900 for the year. Also, remember, that you can get 5x points with INK on cellular, and there are also occasionally Amex Offers on cellular, so there is an opportunity cost in using the Blue Cash offer.

If you get the $400/$450 offers mentioned above, that is much more enticing.

It is worth noting that the language of the fine print sounds like the 10% rebate is valid on ALL purchases from wireless providers, even the purchase of a phone, for example. For someone who spends a lot on cell phones or their wireless bill, this deal could make sense.

Before applying for an Amex card, it’s worth reviewing the 20 Things Everybody Should Know About American Express. In particular, remember that you can only get the signup bonus Amex cards once-per-lifetime, so many of us won’t be eligible for this bonus.