Blue Cash® Card from American Express Review

Overview

The Blue Cash® Card from American Express is a category rewards card from American Express, running on the Amex network. The Blue Cash® Card from American Express advertises up to 5x on groceries, gas, and drugstores, but only after a $6,500 annual spending hurdle, so its everyday return is far lower than that rate suggests. There is no annual fee, which means every dollar of rewards is pure profit. New cardholders can earn Not available (no longer open to new applicants).

On paper it looks like a strong no-fee category card, but the spend-gated tier is the catch: the headline rate only kicks in after you clear a sizable annual spending hurdle, so its real-world return lands well below cards that pay their bonus rate from the very first dollar.

Our 1.5 out of 5 rating

Each score weighs the rewards rate, value after the annual fee, welcome offer, points flexibility, and perks, with every point valued at a flat 1 cent. This is our editorial assessment to help you compare cards, not a guarantee of approval or of the value you will get.

Rewards: how it earns

On paper the Blue Cash® Card from American Express earns 5x on groceries, gas, and drugstores, but that rate is gated. Every purchase earns just 0.5x to 1x until you spend $6,500 across a card year, and only after clearing that hurdle do the bonus categories pay their full 5x (with everything else stepping up to 1x). So the 5x never applies to that first $6,500 of spending. Blended over a typical year of household spending, that works out to roughly $537 in rewards before any welcome bonus, well short of what the 5x headline implies.

The fine print on rates: Tiered: 1% at U.S. supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores (0.5% elsewhere) on the first $6,500 of annual spend, then 5% at U.S. supermarkets, gas and drugstores (up to $50,000) and 1% on everything else.

Every point and mile above is valued at a flat 1 cent, the same honest standard we use for every card. Run your own spending through the calculator to see what this card would actually return for you.

Pros and cons

The welcome bonus

The current welcome offer is Not available (no longer open to new applicants). Stacking the welcome offer on top of a typical year of rewards and accounting for no annual fee, the first year is worth roughly $537.

Is the annual fee worth it?

The Blue Cash® Card from American Express has no annual fee, so there is no break-even math to worry about. Every dollar of rewards is profit, and you can keep it open for free, which also helps the average age of your credit over time.

Benefits and protections

Beyond the rewards, the perks and protections worth knowing about include:

• The original Blue Cash, replaced for new applicants by Blue Cash Everyday and Blue Cash Preferred in 2014
• Earns cash back as Reward Dollars, not Membership Rewards

Statement credits

This card does not come with recurring statement credits. Its value is in the rewards rate and welcome offer.

Who should get it, and who should skip it

It is best for people whose biggest monthly spending is groceries and gas and who want to maximize those categories without paying an annual fee.

Skip it if your spending does not line up with its bonus categories, or if you would rather not think about where you swipe at all.

Frequently asked questions

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