Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express Review | Bankrate (2024)

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As far as no-annual-fee cards go, the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express is one of your best options for earning rewards on everyday spending. The card offers strong, year-round cash back at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations and U.S. online retailers.In fact, the Blue Cash Everyday is one of few cards to offer ongoing, boosted cash back for U.S. online retail purchases, which is a potentially valuable category if you frequently shop online.

While the Blue Cash Everyday card’s generous rates in everyday categories can make it a great fit for many shoppers, it’s not the strongest cash back card on the market. Some cards include more bonus categories or offer greater rewards on all purchases, giving them more cash back potential if you don’t spend heavily at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations or U.S. online retailers. And if you’re willing to pay an annual fee, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express could offer even more cash back on groceries than the Blue Cash Everyday.

That said, while the Blue Cash Everyday card’s generous rates in everyday categories can make it a great fit for many shoppers, it may not be the most lucrative option. Some cards include additional bonus categories or offer rewards at a higher flat rate on all purchases, giving them more cash back potential for cardholders who don’t spend heavily at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations or U.S. online retailers. And if most of your spending goes toward U.S. supermarket purchases and you’re willing to pay an annual fee, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express could offer even more value than the Blue Cash Everyday.

• Rewards

  • 3 percent cash back at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations and U.S. online retail purchases of up to $6,000 per calendar year in purchases in each category (then 1 percent)
  • 1 percent cash back on other purchases

  Expert Appraisal: Exceptional
  See our expert analysis

• Welcome offer

  • Earn a $200 statement credit after you spend $2,000 in purchases on your new card within the first six months

  Expert Appraisal: Typical
  See our expert analysis

• 0% APR offer

  • 0 percent intro APR on purchases for 15 months from the date of account opening
  • 0 percent intro APR on balance transfers for 15 months from the date of account opening (greater of $5 or 3 percent balance transfer fee)
  • 19.24 percent to 29.99 percent variable ongoing APR

  Expert Appraisal: Good
  See our expert analysis

• Rates and fees

  • No annual fee
  • Cash advance fee: The greater of $10 or 5 percent of the amount advanced
  • Foreign transaction fee: 2.7 percent of each transaction after conversion to U.S. dollars
  • Late payment fee: Up to $40
  • Returned payment fee: Up to $40
  • Overlimit fee: None

  Expert Appraisal: Typical
  See our expert analysis

• Other cardholder perks

  • Pay It, Plan It
  • American Express Experiences
  • Global Assist® Hotline
  • Dispute Resolution
  • Complimentary ShopRunner Membership
  • The Disney Bundle credit

  Expert Appraisal: Good
  See our expert analysis

The Blue Cash Everyday card is a great choice if you’re just getting started with cash back rewards and aren’t quite ready to commit to a rewards card with an annual fee. Its cash back program is simple and rewards you for common household purchases.

Rewards rate: Simple cash back for everyday staples

The Amex Blue Cash Everyday earns cash back at the same generous rate in multiple categories, making it easy to track your earnings and manage your cash back strategy. You can earn 3 percent cash back on your first $6,000 in spending per category (then 1 percent), per calendar year in each of the following:

• U.S. supermarket purchases
• U.S. gas station purchases
• U.S. online retail purchases

Benefits: Cardholder perks carry value beyond cash back

Not many no-annual-fee cards offer perks with monetary value, but the Blue Cash Everyday card has two notable perks that outclass what even some annual fee cards carry.

The most notable is the Disney Bundle credit, which is one of the best streaming perks on any rewards card. When you spend $9.99 or more each month on an eligible subscription to the Disney Bundle, you’ll get $7 back each month (enrollment required; subject to auto-renewal) — about a 54 percent discount. Since the Disney Bundle includes popular streaming services Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, this gives the card an impressive amount of additional value, especially for households with kids, sports fans and binge watchers.This perk alone will get you close to offsetting the annual fee on many rewards cards.

The Everyday card also includes a complimentary ShopRunner membership for as long as your card is active. You’ll need to enroll first, but when you pay with your card, you receive free two-day shipping and returns with participating retailers.This perk is especially nice because it pairs well with the Blue Cash Everyday card’s 3 percent cash back for U.S. online retail purchases.

Intro APR: Intro offers and Pay It Plan It form a user-friendly combo

This card’s introductory APR is quite good for a no-annual-fee cash back card, as many cards typically offer just one type of intro APR offer. It pairs well with American Express’s exclusive Pay It Plan It program: the intro APR offer gives you breathing room on purchases or balance transfers, and you can also carry a balance while avoiding interest charges on eligible purchases with the Plan It feature.

Rather than add new purchases directly to your balance and accumulate interest, Pay It allows you to pay upfront for qualifying purchases less than $100. Plan It lets you combine up to 10 purchases of more than $100 each into extended payment plans for a fixed fee.

Of the two Pay It Plan It features, Plan It is more useful since it can allow you to make several large purchases and pay them off over time without paying interest, for a small fee. However, you should always calculate your Plan It fees ahead of time to determine if the fixed plan fee is more affordable than the interest you would pay at the card’s regular APR. Fortunately, you can enjoy $0 intro plan fees on Plan It monthly installment plans for your first 15 months with the card. After that, you’ll have the normal monthly plan fee of up to 1.33 percent of each purchase amount moved into the plan based on its plan duration. The card’s regular APR would otherwise apply to the purchase.

If you want to avoid fees or you want a more attainable welcome offer, you should look elsewhere. You may also find the annual spending caps on its best rewards rates a burden if you’re a big spender.

Welcome offer: High spending requirement on a no-annual-fee card

The Blue Cash Everyday card’s welcome offer is the same as what you can expect on most other no-annual-fee credit cards, but its spending requirement is twice as high as comparable cards. Although you have a longer-than-average period to meet the spending requirement, chasing the bonus could lead to overspending if you don’t usually spend $2,000 on your credit card in six months.

A total bonus value of up to $200 is impressive for a no-annual-fee cash back card. But the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card and Citi Custom Cash® Card — two other terrific, no-annual-fee cash back cards — have welcome offers of equal value and lower spending requirements than the Blue Cash Everyday (See Rates & Fees for the Capital One SavorOne).The Custom Cash card requires spending $1,500 in the first six months, while the Capital One SavorOne only requires cardholders to spend $500 in the first three months.

Fees: Transaction fees and penalties can add up quickly

Aside from an annual fee, the Blue Cash Everyday card charges just about every typical card fee. Although it’s not unusual for a cash back card to charge fees for late or returned payments, many similar cards don’t charge foreign transaction fees.

Plus, if you’re new to rewards cards or aren’t the most practiced credit user, you could risk missing a payment, which would incur a pricey fee. Fees for missed and late payments combined with interest that builds on your balance at this card’s regular APR can quickly amount to more money than you might be able to pay off.

Spending cap: A $6,000 limit may be too low for some cardholders

Spending limits can be restrictive for cardholders who use one card for all purchases. The Blue Cash Everyday card is a great pick because it includes several categories in its best rewards tier. However, if you spend more than the card’s $6,000 spending cap in each boosted category, you might want to pair it with another card to continue maximizing your earnings.

According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the average American household spends around $5,700 a year on groceries. This cuts it close to the Blue Cash Everyday’s $6,000 yearly spending cap for that category. If you spend more than $500 a month on groceries, then you’ll hit the cap before the end of the year and the card’s U.S. supermarket category’s cash back rate drops to 1 percent.

The Blue Cash Everyday Card is a card Katie Genter, a travel rewards specialist at The Points Guy, had recommended to her parents.

My parents dislike paying annual fees, and many of their purchases are for groceries at U.S. supermarkets and online retail purchases with U.S. merchants. So, the Blue Cash Everyday Card’s lack of an annual fee and 3 percent cash back categories are a good fit for their lifestyle.

— Katie Genter, Senior Writer, The Points Guy

The Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express is worth it if you want to earn excellent cash back in common categories such as groceries, gas and online shopping without paying an annual fee. However, if you don’t do much online shopping, fear you might run into the card’s spending cap or don’t mind paying an annual fee, you might look to other popular cash back cards for a better value.

For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Everyday Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred Card, please click here.

Eligibility and Benefit level varies by card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefits guide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.

All information about the Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The issuer did not provide the content, nor is it responsible for its accuracy.

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest).

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review:

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