Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express Overview

Free money given to you just for going to the supermarket? Yeah, that sounds like a giant win in our book of amazing things the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express has to offer those who love a cash back credit card. Since the supermarket is the place I am almost positive 100% of our income goes (mostly to Goldfish and Cheez-its), I’d say this card needs no more explanation. However, I am never one to mince words or make a long story short, I’m going to tell you straight up that I’m not done telling you about all the good things this card has to offer. Prepare yourselves; I’m on a roll.

There is a lot to love about this cash back credit card, but there are also a few small concerns with the card. Overall, though, I rate it as pretty fantastic on a scale of good to great. If you are in the market for a very practical cash back credit card, allow us to tell you the many reasons this might just be the card for you.

What We Love

This is about to become a very long list, since we do love so much about this particular credit card. What we love most is the sign-up bonus. If you are able to apply for this card and open your account, you have 90 days to spend $1,000 and earn $150 cash back. It comes in the form of a statement credit, but that only means more cash back in your pocket when you don’t have to pay that portion of your bill at the end of the month. Who doesn’t love that kind of savings?

Something else we really love about the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express is the merchant return policy. I know that I regularly purchase items I need to return for some reason or another. It doesn’t fit, it’s not the right item, it’s not the item I thought it might be in terms of usefulness, I hate it, it’s no longer practical; I return things all the time. When you buy something with this card and you have to return it, it’s just a minor inconvenience. That minor inconvenience turns into a huge inconvenience, however, when the merchant refuses to accept your return for some reason.

Fear not, however, since American Express will take bac that item within 90 days even if the merchant refuses to take it back. It’s called the AmEx Return Protection Policy, and it’s good for up to $300 per item until you reach $1000 in purchases per calendar year. That’s a really nice perk that not many cards offer.

If you are able to sign up for the card by August 3, you also only have to pay $75 per year as an annual fee. That’s $20 per year less than the standard $95 fee – but it’s less than other cards in the American Express family, which is nice. Additionally, you’re going to earn some serious cash back with this card.

For all your supermarket purchases, you’re going to earn 6% cash back on all your purchases up to $6,000 per year. For all your gas and department store purchases, you’ll earn 3% cash back with no limitations or restrictions. All other purchases are worth 1% cash back.

What We Love Less

Not all good things are perfect – just ask my husband. While we do love much about this cash back credit card, we also don’t love a few things. For instance, we don’t love that the 6% cash back on supermarket purchases is limited to only $6,000 – I can spend that in less than three months at the supermarket with a family of 6 – but we love it even less since there are a number of restrictions in place. For one, you cannot use the card at your local wholesale stores. It’s not good at Sam’s, BJs, Costco or even Walmart – and alcohol purchases do not apply (there goes my grocery cash back).

Another issue we have is the annual fee. There are cards that don’t charge one, and that makes it more of a good concept. However, this is a good card to have since it is a great card for cash back purposes, and you can begin to redeem your cash back at any increment so long as you redeem the cash in $25 increments.

All in all, this is a great card for people who buy a lot of gas and spend a lot of time in department stores. If you can reach your $6,000 per year supermarket purchase, you’ll earn cash back of $360. That’s well worth the $95 or $75 annual fee alone. Everything else is just an added cash back bonus when you take the time to do the math.

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