For quite some time American Express hasn’t publicly advertised the ‘Old Blue Cash Card‘ in their credit card line up, but there has been a working application link. Unfortunately that application link now automatically redirects applicants to the Blue Cash Everyday card (regardless of whether you open in the link in incognito mode or not). In April 2017, American Express made changes to how the reward year was calculated on their blue cash products. It isn’t clear if American Express plan to cut off new applications for the Old Blue Cash card permanently, or if this is a temporary issue. In addition it isn’t clear what, if anything will happen to existing cardholders.
This card is of particular interest to a lot of readers as it earns 5% cash back on grocery stores, drugstores and gas stations up to a limit of $50,000. The downside is that the initial $6,500 annual spend on this card earns 1% cash back in those categories and 0.5% on all other purchases.
Hat tip to reader Max
Old thread but noticed today that my reward year hasn’t advanced to this year on the website and I am no longer seeing a reward spend breakdown on my statement. Cardmember terms remained unchanged however. Anyone else experiencing this issue?
I don’t understand how the rat patrol lets people spend 50,000 on groceries if you put down say 100,000 income. If they looked at it they must think, man that guy is an overeater.
It is possible to buy a lot of non-grocery items at a grocery store, and that doesnt even include grocers that have all-in-one stores like Meijer.
Until they change thr card, i will hold on to the OBC and Blue Sky.
never hear of Blue Sky. how good is it?
Blue Sky effectively earns 1.3%, has no annual fee, and for me provides access to Amex Offers and keeps AAoA growing as an old card in my wallet, even if i dont use the card every day, or even month.
We don’t have Meijer around here but we have Fred Meyer, which is primarily grocery but also has variety, clothes, hardware, sporting goods, electronics, etc. “One Stop Shopping” as they like to say.
Unfortunately Amex has decided that they are *not* “grocery”, so OBC has always been useless to me, since FM is where we do most of our grocery shopping.
The OBC is my second oldest card, but I have not been able to earn any rewards from it except a few Amex offers each year. I MS about $50,000 in groceries in a calendar year but these are for minimum spend requirement.
This seems like the sort of thing that will cause people to prioritize all their spend in the next month to get in while they can. I somewhat like casually doing 2500 a month, whenever there’s a Stop n’ Shop / Giant deal. Hope this lasts a long time, but it’s not a good sign.
Not a good sign.
Hopefully it’ll stay the way of the INK+ though.
If they actually shut down this card, that will probably be the end for Amex cards for me. The amex offers hardly cover the annual fees anymore on the others. Without a normal spend card, it’s just not worth the hassle of tracking every month.
Amex Blue Sky is dead now too. Link is redirecting to Blue Cash Everyday. Lots of cuts and reductions at Amex. Let them wither on the vine.
Did I miss something? Was the Blur Sky card particularly interesting? I only heard about the card from a friend yesterday for the first time and now it’s gone apparently 😅
I know people swear by this card, but IMO $1,905 profit AFTER spending $6,500 and liquidating just ain’t worth it to me.
Dang. That’s cool if you don’t want to liquidate but if you do liquidate please share what we should be doing to get a better return?
If you spend the full $56,500 on groceries, gas, and pharmacy, you’re looking at an overall 4.54% return. Nothing is going to top that.
If you spend the initial $6500 and then only spend $25,000 afterwards, you’re still earning 4.17%.
The break even point of this card relative to a 3% card is just $13,000 total ($6500 at 1% and $6500 at 5%).
So even if you’re just using it as your daily expense card without any MS, you’re going to do well with it.
This assumes you spend $56,500 at groceries, gas,pharmacy which we don’t. MS is my only route here and since I liquidate at grocery stores I’m not willing to do it. Plus, 25 trips just isn’t worth the squeeze when I have other MS plans that also rely on grocery stores. 3% is available with other cards. Bottom line is I would barely even hit $6,500 if this were everyday card.
You don’t have to spend $56,500 at groceries, the first $6,500 can be a single SM/WM trip for many around here, i can do that any day and it will take me no more than 1 hour in my bike, i do exercise and MS at the same time, it works for me.
i like how u think amex wouldnt give a shit with their new rules making it undeniably clear that they know. keep doing wat ur doing.
This one hurts. I was hoping it would last until June or July after I’ve dropped back to 4/24.
You were my boy Blue!