The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express offers plenty of value for your, but you’ll have to know its details to reap all the benefits.
You can start earning extra value for your spending right away thanks to the $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95. But after that first year, you might want to know all the ways to start earning rewards that can cover that cost.
- Earn the welcome bonus
- Learn the spending categories … and their limits
- Get the $84 Disney Bundle credit
- Consider the 0% intro APR for big purchases
Earn the welcome bonus
You can jump-start your cash back earnings in the first months of card ownership by making sure you qualify for the welcome bonus.
Currently, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express comes with a statement credit worth $250 if you spend $3,000on eligible purchases during the first 6 months from your account opening. But you might have been offered a different bonus, depending on when and how you applied.
Regardless of what you were offered, that bonus could be worth more than a year of the card’s annual fee by itself.
Learn the spending categories … and their limits
If you want to maximize the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, your first few months with the card are a great time to start building up your rewards balance.
Besides the welcome bonus, spending on the card’s bonus categories is the quickest way to rack up rewards dollars. The card currently offers:
- 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%). Keep in mind that warehouse clubs and superstores like Target and Walmart are excluded.
- 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions, including popular services like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Apple Music, ESPN+ and Kindle Unlimited.
- 3% cash back at U.S. gas stations
- 3% cash back on transit (including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more)
- 1% cash back on other purchases
These rewards rates make the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express one of our favorite cash back cards, but the categories come with limitations.
If you want to maximize rewards value, keep in mind that you’ll earn just 1% on U.S. grocery purchases after you hit the $6,000 annual spending cap. And while the rewards rate on streaming subscriptions covers many of the most popular apps, it might not cover everything you use. If you want to make sure your service is covered, check with American Express.
Get the $84 Disney Bundle credit
If you’re looking to save on the costs of streaming, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express can help you cover it.
The card offers a $7 monthly statement credit (up to $84 annually) for Disney Bundle subscriptions, which include Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. To qualify, you need to enroll and spend at least $9.99 each month on an auto-renewing subscription using the card.
While the monthly credit doesn’t cover the full cost of subscription, it’s a strong value for existing subscribers, and a possible reason for people who’ve been considering the Disney Bundle to start subscribing.
Consider the 0% intro APR for big purchases
If you’re planning to make a big purchase and need time to pay it off, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express could also help you save money on interest charges.
The card offers a 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months after account opening. But make sure to try to pay off your purchases and transfers before the intro APR expires, or you’ll be charged a variable regular APR of 18.24% - 29.24% on both.
Balance transfers must be requested within 60 days of account opening to qualify for the intro rate, and there’s also balance transfer fee: Either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
While the balance transfer offer could be helpful for those carrying debt on other cards, we recommend that cardholders using the card for other benefits try to stick to the 0% intro purchase APR offer. In general, it’s a good idea not to use the same card for both new purchases and managing existing debt — juggling both balances can get complicated, and you could end up in more debt than when you started.
Next steps
Your Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express comes with other benefits, like purchase protection and return protection. But the perks we’ve called out above are most likely to help you find value early in your card membership. Once you start using your card more often, you might find it has some gaps you’d like to fill. For example, if you’re looking to maximize your rewards balance for redemptions, you may want to add another American Express card to improve on any rewards rates you get from this card.