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How To Find The No Annual Fee Welcome Bonus Offer for the Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card

Carissa Rawson's image
Carissa Rawson
Carissa Rawson's image

Carissa Rawson

Senior Content Contributor

244 Published Articles

Countries Visited: 51U.S. States Visited: 36

Carissa served in the U.S. Air Force where she developed her love for travel and new cultures. She started her own blog and eventually joined The Points Guy. Since then, she’s contributed to Business ...

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American Express has spent the last few years enticing new customers with a variety of card refreshes and hefty welcome offers. Now, we’re seeing these same incentives on the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, whose offer includes the ability to miss out on the first year’s annual fee.

Let’s take a look at different ways to find this offer, the card’s benefits, and ways to maximize the rewards you’ll earn.

Targeted offers are discussed in the article below. Please note that these offers are not available to all applicants. Any information related to targeted offers has been collected independently and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card Welcome Offer

The Amex Blue Cash Preferred card comes with a variety of different welcome offers depending on how you’re targeted. The publicly available offer and annual fee are:

  • Earn a $250 statement credit after spending $3,000 in purchases in the first 6 months.
  • $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95

So how does one find these improved offers?

Option 1: Check on Amex Directly (Try This First)

If you’re looking to apply for the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card with the highest offers, we recommend that you begin your search directly on the American Express website. It’s easy to check and see if you’re pre-approved for any higher offers and only takes a few seconds to complete.

HIGHEST CASH BACK
Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American ExpressTerms Apply / Rates & Fees

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

U.P. Rating
The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the in's and out's of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

This card is great for those who want to earn cash-back with U.S. supermarkets, U.S. streaming subscriptions, transit, and U.S. gas stations.

Learn More(at Amex's secure site)

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

This card is great for those who want to earn cash-back with U.S. supermarkets, U.S. streaming subscriptions, transit, and U.S. gas stations.
Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months.
$250
$0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
19.24%-29.99% Variable,0% on purchases for 12 months
Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.
Good to Excellent (670-850)

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is a stellar cash-back credit card for those looking to maximize every purchase they make.

With bonus categories like U.S. supermarkets, select streaming services, U.S. gas stations, and transit purchases, this card rewards you for the items you spend the most on in a big way! For those looking to earn up to 6% cash-back on their purchases, this could be the card for you!

Pros

  • 6% cash-back at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year) and on select streaming services
  • 6% cash-back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions
  • 3% cash-back on U.S. gas stations and transit (including rideshares, parking, etc.)
  • 1% cash-back on all other purchases

Cons

  • $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95 annual fee (rates and fees)
  • Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months.
  • $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
  • Buy Now, Pay Later: Enjoy $0 intro plan fees when you use Plan It® to split up large purchases into monthly installments. Pay $0 intro plan fees on plans created during the first 12 months from the date of account opening. Plans created after that will have a monthly plan fee up to 1.33% of each eligible purchase amount moved into a plan based on the plan duration, the APR that would otherwise apply to the purchase, and other factors.
  • Low Intro APR: 0% on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months from the date of account opening. After that, your APR will be a variable APR of 19.24% - 29.99%. Variable APRs will not exceed 29.99%.
  • 6% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%).
  • 6% Cash Back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions.
  • 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.
  • Cash Back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit or at Amazon.com checkout.
  • Get up to $120 in statement credits annually when you pay for an auto-renewing subscription to Equinox+ at equinoxplus.com with your Blue Cash Preferred® Card. That’s $10 in statement credits each month. Enrollment required.
  • Thinking about getting the Disney Bundle which can include Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+? Your decision made easy with $7/month back in the form of a statement credit after you spend $9.99 or more each month on an eligible subscription (subject to auto renewal) with your Blue Cash Preferred® Card. Enrollment required.
  • Terms Apply.

Financial Snapshot

  • APR: 19.24%-29.99% Variable,0% on purchases for 12 months
  • Foreign Transaction Fees: 2.7% of each transaction after conversion to US dollars.

Card Categories

Rewards Center

Redeem cash-back through your American Express account

Like most issuers, American Express occasionally runs increased bonus opportunities on its suite of credit cards — including the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card. In fact, checking directly with American Express is the best place to look for increased offers because it offers a pre-qualifying tool that allows you to quickly check and see if you are targeted for any increased offers.

Simply click Check for Offers and enter your details and you could receive an offer of up to $300 in cash-back on the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card.

Option 2: Check on CardMatch

If you strike out on the American Express website, then the second option that we recommend is checking via the CardMatch tool. CardMatch uses a soft credit check to find offers available to you, which means it won’t affect your credit.

Option 3. Targeted Email Offers

If you’ve opted-in to receive New Card and Credit Offers through your Amex account’s General Marketing Email Preferences, you’ll want to keep an eye out for targeted emails. This is also true for good old snail mail — Amex does occasionally send out targeted mailers to its customers.

Hot Tip: The Amex Blue Cash Preferred card comes with rental car insurance as long as you use your card to pay for the vehicle and decline the rental company’s insurance. 

Benefits of the Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card

As a mid-tier card, you can expect a few different benefits from the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card. However, its best feature is its ability to earn a high amount of cash-back on a variety of categories:

  • 6% cash-back at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year)
  • 6% cash-back on select U.S. streaming services
  • 3% cash-back on U.S. gas stations 
  • 3% cash-back on transit (including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses, and more)
  • 1% cash-back on everything else 

Other card benefits include:

  • Up to $120 Equinox+ credit: $10 in statement credits per month on membership fees for a stand-alone monthly membership to the Equinox+ app. Enrollment required.
  • Access to Amex Offers
  • Complimentary ShopRunner membership. Enrollment required.
  • Annual Fee: $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95 (rates & fees)

Maximizing Your Reward Dollars

The Amex Blue Cash Preferred card is a true cash-back card. It earns Reward Dollars, which can then be redeemed as statement credits against purchases you’ve made or at Amazon.com checkout.

Although you won’t be able to transfer these Reward Dollars into hotel or airline points, the ability to earn 6% cash-back on your purchases is pretty compelling. To maximize your earn, you’ll want to hit the full $6,000 cap offered at U.S. supermarkets each year.

Earning 6% cash-back on select streaming services is also nice, but one can only have so many charges, so you’ll want to focus your remaining spending on U.S. gas stations and transit purchases. It shouldn’t be hard to rack up the cash-back with gas prices these days.

Final Thoughts

If you don’t already have the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card, consider checking for one of these targeted offers. You can expect to receive a higher welcome bonus, which offer substantial value to any cardholders.


For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, click here.

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About Carissa Rawson

Carissa served in the U.S. Air Force where she developed her love for travel and new cultures. She started her own blog and eventually joined The Points Guy. Since then, she’s contributed to Business Insider, Forbes, and more.

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