Amex Blue Cash Everyday / Preferred

Amex recently came out with the Blue Cash Everyday and Blue Cash Preferred Cards. I still prefer the Starwood Amex if I were to only have one card, however, if you want to carry a 3rd card in your wallet, this may be it.

*First note that the 3%/6% supermarket spend only counts on the first $6,000 of groceries, so if you are big family that buys a lot of groceries, consider getting a second account for a family member. Also note that there are some limitations to this such as they only count stand-along gas stations and certain department stores. Don’t worry, they aren’t trying to trick you here, like all of these type of offers, it depends how the business is coded with the credit card issuer. Generally, stores like Walmart and Costco don’t count as supermarkets even though they sell food. This is since the credit card company only knows where you shop, not what you buy.

Redemption: Throughout the year with a $25 minimum.

Tricks: Note that many supermarkets sell gift cards for other stores.

I use this card for all my groceries and gas. I consider this card superior to the Amex Costco Card, which only beats this one on restaurant spend, but there is the Citi Forward to deal with that. With the Preferred Card, you earn your Annual Fee over the Everyday Card at $2,500/year in grocery spend and over the Costco card at $1,500/year in grocery spend.

I do not, however, use this card for spending other than Groceries, Gas and Department Stores. I believe the Capital One Venture card and Starwood Amex to be clearly superior to 1% back!

In the first 9 months of 2012, I earned about $275 from this card, $240 of which was from grocery spend (I don’t drive a lot). Not bad, huh?

Updated 10/3/2012 – primarily to note Amex’s clarification to the definition of the bonus categories and my experience.