American Express Blue Cash Everyday® review: A no-annual-fee card for everyday purchases

AMERICAN EXPRESS BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® BENEFITS

If you are looking to have a little more purchasing power at your favorite stores (and websites!), the CardName may be the solution for you. This no-annual-fee card has been a longtime shining star for our readers, and for good reason. (American Express is a CardRatings advertiser. See Rates and Fees.)

Top Blue Cash Everyday® benefits include:

• An intro 0% APR period lasting 15 months on purchases and balance transfers, then RegAPR. ( See Rates and Fees.)
• No annual fee. (See Rates and Fees.)
• Earn 3% cash back when you use your card at participating U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations and on U.S. online retail purchases (up to $6,000 spent per category each year and then 1% cash back thereafter); and 1% back on other purchases.
• Earn a $200 statement credit after you spend $2,000 in purchases on your new card within the first six months.
• Terms apply.

FEATURED CARD

 

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

• 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.
• 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.

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Terms and Limitations Apply

Credit Needed:

Good, Excellent

BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® BONUS OFFER

We don't ever recommend applying for a new credit card exclusively for some sort of welcome bonus offer, but when a card does offer such an incentive, it's always nice. Especially if the card doesn't charge an annual fee...

With this card, cardholders can earn a $200 statement credit once spending $2,000 in purchases on the new card within the first six months.

BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® ANNUAL FEE

Great news— there isn't one! As its name suggests, the Blue Cash Everyday® is a goood solution for everyday expenses. This card is especially good if you're a casual credit card user since there is no annual fee unlike sister card CardName, which offers higher rewards for a AnnualFees (We compare these two cards in further detail below.) (See Rates and Fees.)

BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® CREDIT SCORE

Although American Express doesn't explicitly state the credit score needed to qualify for the CardName, this card is reserved for those with good to excellent scores. A good FICO score is typically anything above 670, according to the credit scoring agency Experian. However, having a score above 740 or even 800 may further increase your chances of approval. Please note, however, that these numbers can vary between different bureaus.

BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® ONLINE PURCHASES

Earning 3% cash back at U.S. online retail purchases is a huge incentive of the CardName given the ever-growing online shopping opportunities.

There are a few things to keep in mind, however. For instance, you must make the purchase must be made on a website or a digital app from a "U.S. retail merchant that sells physical goods or merchandise directly to consumers," according to American Express' terms. Note that online purchases made at restaurants, supermarkets, gasoline stations or automotive dealers, nor purchases of travel, entertainment or other services will qualify for the 3% cash back. You also can't order the purchase online and then pay for it in store if you want to earn the 3% cash back.

Even with those rules, there are PLENTY of online shopping opportunities that will qualify for the 3% cash back on up to $6,000 spent in that category in a year.

BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEE AND OTHER POTENTIAL DOWNSIDES

This handy blue card doesn't have any major red flags, but you need to know that since this cash-back rewards card doesn’t tout travel rewards, bonus points only kick in when making purchases in the United States. For example, grocery shopping at a U.S. supermarket will earn you 3% cash back (on up to $6,000 in purchases annually); shopping at a French supermarket while on holiday, on the other hand, will not.

Additionally, all foreign transactions made with the CardName will cost an extra foreign_fee. This card is a great option for everyday purchases made in the U.S.; however, it might not be the best choice for frequent international travelers. (See Rates and Fees.)

BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® CARDHOLDER SCORES

CardRatings conducts a survey annually to learn what actual cardholders think of their cards. Here are the results:

HOW BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® COMPARES TO OTHER CREDIT CARDS

Blue Cash Everyday® vs. CardName

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The CardName is another no-annual-fee card which earns bonus rewards at supermarkets and gas stations, albeit just a bit less than the Blue Cash Everyday®.

With the Citi Rewards+® Card cardholders can earn two ThankYou Points at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 per year and then one point thereafter, plus one point on other purchases. What's unique about this card though is that it automatically rounds up to the nearest 10 points on each purchase you make. So for example, say you spend $55 at a local restaurant, you'll earn 60 points instead of just 55, or you spend $102 at the supermarket, you'll earn 210 points instead of 204. When it comes to point earning, every little bit helps, which makes this a nice perk. Another unique feature is that Citi will give you a 10% rebate on the first 100,000 ThankYou Points you redeem each year. In other words, if you redeem 20,000 points, Citi will put 2,000 points back into your ThankYou account.

The Citi Rewards+® Card also features an opportunity to earn 20,000 bonus ThankYou Points after making $1,500 in purchases within the first three months. Plus, new cardholders can earn 5 ThankYou Points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked via the Citi Travel portal through June 30, 2024. There's also a 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 15 months from the date of first transfer (must be made in the first four months) and on purchases from the date of account opening (then RegAPR. A balance transfer fee applies: BalanceTransferFees

Blue Cash Everyday® vs. Blue Cash Preferred® from American Express

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Though both the Blue Cash Everyday® card and CardName are cash-back cards from the same family, they have some significant differences. The most obvious is that the Blue Cash Preferred® charges a AnnualFees

It may be worth paying an annual fee to get the additional rewards offered by the Blue Cash Preferred® card, though. With the Blue Cash Preferred® new users can earn a $250 statement credit once spending $3,000 in the first six months of opening an account. On an ongoing basis cardholders earn 6% cash back on up to $6,000 at U.S. supermarkets each year while Amex Blue Cash Everyday® only awards 3% cash back for those purchases. The Amex Blue Cash Preferred® card also gives 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming services, 3% cash back on transit and gas purchases at U.S. gas stations, and 1% cash back on other purchases.

Blue Cash Everyday® vs. CardName

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If you want to stick with a no-annual-fee card, the CardName is another solid choice. This card offers unlimited 1.5% cash back on purchases, with no categories or spending caps to think about. Additionally, you can take advantage of an introductory 15 months no interest on purchases and balance transfers (before regular ongoing RegAPR APR applies). This is a good card for anyone who doesn't spend heavily in one category, and wants to earn bonus rewards on all purchases, and it's also a good fit for someone looking for intro APR on purchases or who needs to make a balance transfer.

In addition to having no annual fee, this card also doesn't charge foreign transaction fees to it's a good fit if you're looking for something to take abroad with you.

IS BLUE CASH EVERYDAY® A GOOD CARD?

Yes, the CardName is a good go-to credit card when you make purchases as part of your regular, weekly errands – filling up at the pump, buying groceries for the week and picking up some new pieces of wardrobe via an online shopping spree are the sorts of purchases that rack up your cash back. This card has no annual fee so it's a simple way to earn rewards on purchases you'll have to make regardless, without worrying about offsetting the cost of the card.

Survey Methodology: CardRatings commissioned Op4G in September and October 2022 to conduct surveys among 1,554 cardholders nationwide. CardRatings website analytics from Jan. 1, 2022-Aug. 31, 2022 were used to determine a selection of the most popular cards and additional cards were included to add survey breadth. Responses to each of nine questions were given on a scale of 1-10 and respondents' scores were then averaged under broad topics. To determine the overall score, responses from questions 1-8 were summed and the answer to "How likely are you to recommend this card to a friend, coworker or family member?" was double weighted. "Current Scores" reflect scores from the most recent survey (2022); "Past Scores" reflect scores from the 2021 survey.

To see the rates and fees for the American Express cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: CardName (See Rates and Fees); CardName (See Rates and Fees); CardName (See Rates and Fees)