Amex Everyday Vs Blue How Hard to Get
Points Panda has partnered with a variety of financial companies including CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points Panda and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. For more information please read our full Advertiser Disclosure.
The Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express is a cashback credit card that offers modest perks. But you might be wondering. Is the Amex Blue Cash Everyday a good enough card for 2021? It depends on your goals and plans for the year but in general, it could be said it is a good choice.
The global travel landscape is still rather chaotic, the situation, rules, and restrictions change every day. In this context, many prefer to stay home and earn cashback rewards rather than travel points. Moreover, if you typically prefer cashback cards to travel credit cards, the Amex Blue Cash Everyday can be a decent choice. Without further ado, let's see the details.
Does Amex Blue Cash Everyday have an Annual fee?
One of the biggest advantages of the American Express Blue Cash Everyday is the fact it is a no-annual-fee credit card, meaning you don't have to pay anything to AMEX on an annual basis for owning this card. And yes, as of the time of this writing it isn't just for the first 12 months, is permanently a no annual fee card (note Amex could change this in the future).
As such, this card is suitable for students or young professionals looking to build their credit score without paying hefty annual fees or spending too much with credit cards every month. So it's a good budgeting card option that can earn decent rewards on your everyday expenditures. However, with a 2.7% foreign transaction fee, it's not the best option for frequent travelers.
Is Amex Blue Cash Everyday worth it?
Despite not having an annual fee, the Amex Blue Cash Everyday also comes with a classic 0% introductory APR for the first 15 months, calculated from the day of account opening. That makes it a quite cheap alternative to premium credit cards that don't always have annual fee waivers and introductory offerings.
After the 0% introductory offer expires a standard APR will apply. Good so far, now let's see the reward categories. The Blue Cash Everyday Card could be lucrative for users who spend a lot on groceries at U.S. supermarkets and have everyday gas station purchases.
Another thing we like about this cash back card compared to many competitors in this entry level space is the bonus categories stay the same and don't change every quarter, so if you already know you spend a lot at grocery stores, department stores and gas stations you can already be sure to know you'll get a lot of value out of it.
● 3% cashback at selected U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 annually, then 1%
● 2% cashback at U.S. gas station
● 2% cashback at selected U.S. department stores
● 1% cashback on all other eligible purchases.
American Express issues your cashback in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed in three ways.
1. In the form of a statement credit – meaning you can use your cashback towards your next credit card bill (minimum payment due excluded from this rule). The lowest amount of award dollars you must generate before getting a credit statement is 25.
2. As a gift card – with a variety of eligible retailers, and companies in travel and dining. Again, rewards are disbursed in increments of 25 reward dollars usually equal to $25.
3. In the Amex online Reward Dollars portal – again for shopping purposes for a variety of retail merchandise like electronics, office goods, fashion, and more, having in mind the same 25 reward dollars rule.
Considering both the gift card and the reward dollars portal provide the same value as a statement credit they're not very compelling unless there is a sale or particular promotion. However, some people may find the option convenient to have the gift cards sent to them to use as gifts. Also on occasion there may be a sale or cheaper price on the reward dollars portal for an item you're looking for which would make a redemption there make sense.
The Blue Cash Everyday card also provides a welcome bonus which gives you the ability to earn $200 back (as a statement credit) after spending $2,000 in the first 6 months from opening your account.
Spending $2,000 for the first 6 months shouldn't be much of a challenge compared to other credit card welcome bonuses that usually require significantly higher spendings to qualify for a welcome offer.
For example, the Amex Blue Cash Preferred has a $300 statement credit if you spend $3,000 in the first 6 months.
The American Express Blue Cash Preferred does have a $95 annual fee (waived for the first year) but you can earn 6% on groceries and selected U.S. streaming subscriptions which is much higher than with the Blue Cash Everyday.
A middle option would be the American Express Cash Magnet Card that has a $100 welcome bonus after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months, 1.5% flat cashback rate instead of 1% on every eligible purchase, and again, no annual fee.
Nevertheless, Amex has a once-per-lifetime rule which disallows you to get this initial bonus if you have applied for the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card in the past. Not only that but they also have other welcome bonus eligibility criteria.
To make your life easier and not having you guessing whether or not you will be eligible for the welcome bonus, Amex has created a bonus eligibility tool. It can help you see if it's worth applying for the Blue Cash Everyday and other Amex credit cards before incurring a hard credit check.
Bonus Perks with AMEX Blue Cash Everyday
As with most other credit card offerings, the American Express Blue Cash Everyday comes with some additional perks you can take advantage of. Here are some of them:
● Accidental damage protection
Whether you prefer to travel by airplane, local bus, train, taxi, or by boat, if you use Amex Express Blue Cash Everyday for booking the tickets for the mentioned means of transportation, you will get travel accident insurance as a bonus. As a user of Amex Express Blue Cash Everyday, you typically won't have to rely on other travel insurance companies and their policies to keep you stress-free when traveling.
●Roadside assistance hotline
The users of Amex Express Blue Cash Everyday can avail of the free facilities of a locksmith, tow operator, vehicle mechanic, and other such emergency helpers. These facilities are available around the clock 24/7, 365 days a year. But you must remember that you will be responsible for paying for the services of any third parties involved in helping you in an emergency.
● Purchase protection
This is one of my most favorite features of Amex Express Blue Cash Everyday card. You can do lots of stress-free shopping using your card because if the products you purchase with the Blue Cash Everyday get stolen or break within the first 3 months of purchase, you will get a full refund for the products without being asked any questions.
Amex Express Blue Cash Everyday will cover expenses of up to $1,000 per incident and up to $50,000 US dollars per calendar year which is quite the amount. So you don't have to worry about any unpredictable mishaps while shopping.
● Fraud protection
If you end up losing your Amex Express Blue Cash Everyday or someone steals it from you and then conducts scams, hacking, and other illegal activities, you will not be held responsible by the authorities for these unlawful and fraudulent activities and transactions.
● Access to ShopRunner
There are over 140 stores included in ShopRunner . Here is a list of the top 5 most popular online stores included in the service:
- American Eagle Outfitters
- Bergdorf Goodman
- Calvin Klein
- GNC
- Ray-Ban
Furthermore, the users of Amex Express Blue Cash Everyday can enjoy free two-day shipping and free returns while shopping online from all of these stores which is essentially a free Prime experience.
At the end of the day, is Amex Blue Cash Everyday a good card? If you spend a lot on gas and groceries, don't want to pay annual fees, and don't care about travel perks, then this could be a compelling card for you. If your credit score is still lower than 700 this could also be a good option to continue building your credit until you qualify for some higher tier cards.
Source: https://pointspanda.com/blog/amex-american-express-blue-cash-everyday/
0 Response to "Amex Everyday Vs Blue How Hard to Get"
Post a Comment