Blue Cash Everyday ® Card from American Express – Review, Now With Amazon Prime and a $50 Bonus

American Express has a great card in it’s “Blue” family – the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express.

This is a nice no-nonsense cash back card that’s easy for people to understand.  These days that’s getting harder to find as credit card companies make their rewards harder to get or increase the annual fee to make up for the benefits of the card.

Let’s take a look at what the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express has to offer.

Welcome Bonus – $50

The Blue Cash Everyday now has a limited time bonus – If you spend $1,000 within the first three months of card membership you will get a $50 cash back bonus.  This is only valid for first-time American express card-members.  Your bonus will be given in the form of 50 Reward Dollars which you can redeem.  You will receive the bonus 6-8 weeks after you meet the $1,000 spending threshold.

Amazon Prime Free For a Year

This is a pretty cool new perk that American Express is offering.  You can get Amazon Prime free for a year!  You need to satisfy the spending requirement above for the bonus points to get this.  You receive a statement credit for the cost of Amazon Prime after you sign up.

I’ve had Amazon Prime for a couple of years now and love it.  It’s well-worth paying for but it’s even better if it’s offered free for a year.  If you didn’t know what Amazon Prime is it gives you 2-day shipping on most purchases on Amazon (3rd party sales tend to not have this since it ships from the retailer not Amazon).  You can also get one-day shipping for $3.99.

Cash Back

The Blue Cash Everyday cash back program has three tiers:

• Earn 3% cash back at stand-alone U.S. supermarkets
• Earn 2% cash back at stand-alone U.S. gas stations and select major department stores
• Earn 1% cash back on all other eligible purchases.

When you make purchases you receive reward dollars for your eligible purchases (superstores and wholesale clubs are not eligible).  Your reward dollars can be redeemed for statement credits and sometimes for things like merchandise or gift cards.  You can redeem your rewards once your reward dollar balance is 25 or more.

For supermarket rewards up to $6,000 you spend in a calendar year gets 3%.

There’s no spending minimum to receive rewards, no enrollment is required, no rotating categories, and no limit on the cash rewards you can earn.  Like I said, easy to understand.

If you add family to your account then you earn rewards based on their purchases as well.

Do you automate payments, like your phone bill?  Enroll your card in Automatic Bill Payment to pay those recurring bills and earn rewards on those payments.

Cash back is only earned on eligible purchases.

Shopping

The Blue Cash Everyday is one of those cards that has a chip in it so you just need to hold your card up to the card reader rather than scan it.

Does this save a whole lot of time?  Meh.  But it’s still pretty neat and can be a little convenient when you have a toddler in your arms and you’re contorting your body to slide the card otherwise.

Purchases made with the card will extend the original manufacturer’s warranty up to one year for items with U.S. warranties of 5 years or less (somehow the things I buy know about this and break down after the additional year).

With Return Protection (included), if you purchases something and the retailer won’t take ti back within 90 days, American Express will refund the purchase price up to $300 per item ($1000/year max.).

You also get fraud protection and won’t be held responsible for fraud charges.  [Some time ago, using a similar Blue card with the same fraud protection, I found a fraudulent tip that was added to a restaurant bill.  American Express took care of it immediately.  They froze the questionable amount and investigated with the restaurant.  The issue was resolved and I wasn’t responsible for the amount – it was taken off of my statement.]

Travel

If you are renting a car you can be covered with Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance at no extra charge.

Should you ever need help while on vacation, you have access to the Global Assist® Hotline, which is available 24/7 for needs such as medical, legal, financial, and other emergency assistance when you travel more than 100 miles from home.

Annual Fee

There is no annual membership fee for this card.

Annual APR

Depending on your credit, you can be eligible for up to 15 months of 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers.  After the intro APR expires you’ll have a variable APR, currently 12.99%-21.99%.  [Take a look at how we used a 0% APR card from American Express to pay for our wedding expenses and earn gift certificates.]  Of course, you want to pay your balance in full and avoid interest anyway, otherwise the rewards you earn aren’t really worth much.

Summary

So you can see, the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express has the great benefits you expect to see in an American Express card as well as an easy-to-understand cash back rewards program.  There’s also the $100 bonus for new card members.  All this and no annual fee and you start off with 0% intro APR on purchases with a similar option for balance transfers.

Looks like a great everyday card to me!

Terms & restrictions apply.

*As you always should, make sure you read through the card details to make sure this card fits your needs and you understand the terms and conditions. Be aware that the terms may change after this article’s publication.

“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.”