AmEx Blue Cash Everyday (BCE) Credit Card Review (2023.1 Update: $200+$150 Offer)

     2022-10-21     2023-10-06 99 Comments

AmEx

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Non-affiliate disclosure: all information about the this card have been collected independently by US Credit Card Guide and has not been reviewed by the issuer.

Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express (BCE) Review

2023.1 Update: The $150+$100 offer is expired. The current welcome offer is $200 offer or $200+$150 offer via Resy.

2022.10 Update: The new offer is $150 PayPal + $100: Earn 20% back as a statement credit on purchases via PayPal in the first 6 months, up to $150 back (i.e. $750 PayPal purchases). Plus, earn $100 back as a statement credit after you spend $2,000 in the first 6 months.

2022.7 Update2: Apart from the $250 welcome offer, there is another $200+$150 welcome offer you can choose via Resy: earn $200 cash back after spending $2,000 in first 3 months, plus earn 10% cash back on restaurants up to $150 back. If you eat in restaurants a lot this may be a better offer.

Application Link

Benefits

  1. $200+$150 offer: in first 6 months, earn $200 cash back after spending $2,000; earn 10% cash back on restaurants, up to $150 back.
  2. Earn 3% cash back at US supermarkets, US gas station, and US online retail purchases; 1% cash back on other purchases.
  3. Here is the definition of US online retail purchases: “The purchase must be made on a website or a digital application (an app) from a U.S. retail merchant that sells physical goods or merchandise directly to consumers.” If you are not sure, before making big purchases, you’d better do a small purchase and see whether you actually earn 3% on that merchant.
  4. Easy to get approved, you can try to apply for this credit card when you only have a credit history for 3 months (make sure you can see your credit report before applying).
  5. With this credit card, you can get access to Amex Offers, which often offers very good discounts at some stores. In the past we have seen offers like: Spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; Spend $75 or more and get $25 back on Amazon.com.
  6. Refer a friend: You can earn $75 for every approved account you refer, up to $550 per calendar year.
  7. No annual fee.

Disadvantages

  1. You can only earn 3% cashback on the first $6,000 purchases for each bonus category per calendar year, after that you can only earn 1%.
  2. According to the definition by American Express, Target, Walmart, and Costco don’t count as supermarkets, and thus you will only get 1x when shopping there.
  3. This credit card is on American Express’s Network, not Visa or MasterCard, so some small stores may not accept it.
  4. The 3% bonus categories are limited within the United States. Well, the Foreign Transaction Fee exists anyway, so better not use it outside the US.

Recommended Application Time

  1. You can only get the welcome bonus once in a lifetime, so be sure to apply when the historical highest offer appears.
  2. [New] [Family language] AmEx begins to add family language: higher annual fees cards will affect the welcome offers on lower annual fee ones in the same family series. Specifically, having held BCP makes you ineligible for the welcome offer of BCE. So if you want both, you should apply for BCE first.
  3. AmEx doesn’t care about the number of hard pulls.
  4. You can try to apply for it when you have a credit history of 3 months.
  5. You must wait at least 90 days between the application for BCE and BCP, otherwise the application will be cancelled.
  6. Only 2 AmEx credit cards can be approved within 90 days, but this rule does not apply to charge cards. Multiple cards approved in the same day will only have one Hard Pull.
  7. You can keep at most 5 AmEx credit cards, but this rule does not apply to charge cards.

Summary

Although this credit card has no annual fee, our most recommended grocery credit card is not this card, but should be one of AmEx Blue Cash Preferred (BCP), AmEx EveryDay Preferred (EDP), see Best Rewards Credit Cards For Grocery.

Benefit before 2022.7
  1. $250 offer: earn $250 cash back after spending $2,000 in first 3 months.
  2. Earn 3% cash back at US supermarkets; 2% cash back at US gas station; 1% cash back on other purchases.
  3. Easy to get approved, you can try to apply for this credit card when you only have a credit history for 3 months (make sure you can see your credit report before applying).
  4. With this credit card, you can get access to Amex Offers, which often offers very good discounts at some stores. In the past we have seen offers like: Spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; Spend $75 or more and get $25 back on Amazon.com.
  5. Refer a friend: You can earn $75 for every approved account you refer, up to $550 per calendar year.
  6. No annual fee.
  7. Only your first $6,000 purchases per Calendar Year at US supermarkets can earn 3% cash back, after that you can only earn 1%.

Related Credit Cards

After Applying

  • Click here to check AmEx application status.
  • AmEx reconsideration backdoor number: 877-399-3083. The 「real」 backdoor number of Amex is well protected. Different from Chase, the representatives from this AmEx reconsideration backdoor number only have the right to help you submit requests.

Historical Offers Chart

Note1: There were offers like $250 + $200 in the past. But the $200 part is actually 10%/20% cash back on some category in the first 6 months.

Note2: The $300 offer was actually: For each of the first 6 calendar months, you can earn one $50 statement credit after you spend $500 in that month. It’s really a hustle.

Application Link

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