Brief History - For the longest time, the original "Blue Cash" was the flagship cash back card of American Express. That all changed in 2011¹ when they announced changes to the cash back formula and rebranded their card.

I personally have the old Blue Cash and prior to that, there was a tiered formula, whereby you could earn 5% cash back on gasoline, supermarket and drugstore expenses once your annual spending exceeded $6,500. But I think Amex realized that not everyone was thrilled with the idea of having to cross a spending threshold to earn the maximum cash back.

To rectify that, they came up with two new cards (still under the Blue Cash Family). The first is the "everyday" version (which we are reviewing here) and the other is the "preferred" version with an annual fee. These cards did away with the tier structure and instead was replaced by a simply straight formula. The original Blue Cash has been grandfathered in that the old cash back formula is still in place for existing card members.

How Do You Earn Cash Back - The Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express allows you to get 3% cash back at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets, 2% cash back on gasoline at U.S. stand-alone gas stations and select major department stores; 1% cash back on other purchases. One thing to note is that the first $6,000 of purchases at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets in a calendar year qualifies for 3% cash back; 1% thereafter.

Another thing to note is that this is the only card we know of that allows you to earn 3% cash back from all U.S. stand-alone supermarkets. This is very important because the best 'standalone supermarket credit cards" at best allow you to earn 3% cash back only if you purchase their "in-house" brands. It is also the only cash back card we know of that allows you to earn 2% rebates when you shop "off line" at any stand-alone department store. Hence, if you have store credit cards, this could also be a great additional card to have because you are unlikely to only shop at one or two stores regularly.

Holders of any of the American Express Blue card series can access deals with their partner merchants. I frequently check out the blue deal page (see screen shot below) for any deals to take advantage of. If you are diligent, you can save quite a bit of money just being alert to these things.





How to Redeem Cash Back - The cash back that you earn can be redeemed in a variety of ways. For example, they can be redeemed in the form of a statement credit. You can do this once you have earned $25 in cash back. They can also be redeemed for gift cards and some merchandise.

Sign Up Bonus - For those sitting on the fence, Amex is giving a sign up bonus to new card members. Once you have spent $1,000 within the first three months on the card, you will get $100 bonus in reward dollars.

Now that we have gone through the main features, let us now look at them in greater detail.

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References
1. New Blue Cash® credit cards from American Express help put cash back in consumers' pockets with up to 6% back from everyday shopping