I have been accumulating membership rewards points via my Amex Gold Card since 1995. Now that I have Blue, it is also enrolled and earning points. Annual spend is approx $20K combined Blue/Gold. Would I be better off converting Blue to Blue Cash and using that exclusively (would also not have to pay Gold annual fees)? Or, are the Membership Rewards points more valuable than the cash reward I would get. In other words, which is better? -20K MR Points -Cash back on $20K from Blue Cash - approx. 1/2 of this would be "Everyday Spend"
Niceguy, what's up? I've been thinking the same thing. I've picked about 7k pts. in the last three months. But thinking what if I had the Blue Cash instead of the Green and the Blue rewards card. Best regards, Mirage
in my opinon, I earn about 20,000 MR points a year, via around 15-17,000 in spending, varying double pts offers etc, anyways, I have decided that since it only earns 1 ticket a year on southwest(their merchandise is ridiculously overpriced point wise), and I would most likely only use it for a ticket I could find for around 200 (unless it was an emergency), I am getting a better value using blue cash or a card with less than a 130 or 110 dollar annual fee (since using the non-preferred version only gives you 1 point per 2 dollars spent unless it is an everday merchant). So now I use blue cash, and also, a no fee AAdvnatage card (the bronze) to accumulate miles on AA in case of emergency tickets, sure they don't rack up as fast 2$ per mile, but it keeps my points from expiring. My .02c worth Plus the Blue cards have the same consumer protections, too.
I have been battling the, pay 50$ annual fee for AAdvantage world mastercard, earn 15k+ miles a year, or use blue cash and earn 150-200 a year cash back, for forever, still don't know what to do, but think I am going to be better off doing the cash back, so am sticking with that route for now.
Thanks, everyone. I've been thinking about this the past several days and it looks like I should definitely trade in my Blue for a Blue Cash. Especially when I factor in the annual fee I am currently paying for Amex Pref Reward Gold ($130), my Membership Rewards points are virtually worthless compared to the cash, even with the tiered structure, since my annual spend will definitely exceed the $6K. Has anyone here traded in the Blue 7.9% Fixed for the Blue Cash, or did you apply for a new account? I am still in the 0% period for my Blue. If so, do they automatically assign you the lowest variable APR for Blue Cash (8.99%) since you had the lowest for Blue? Unless I'm missing something here, Membership Rewards points simply seem like a bad idea with the advent of Blue Cash. It seems like Amex is going to kill its own program!
If half of that was everdyay spend, and you carried a balance of the Amex BLue cash qualifying for the 5%, you would get $500 back on that $10k alone. Even if you didn't carry a balance you would get the 3% on the 10K and get back $300. But if this was on the rewards, you would get a $100 gift certificate on that $10k. Since the next $10k aren't everyday, you would only get a max of 2% on the cashback, $200. That is still better than the $100 gift certificate you would get with the rewards. Even if you didn't carry a balance and get the extra .05% on the non-everday purchases, you would still fare better with cash back than rewards. I had enough room for one more CC, and I needed a rewards one. When I went over the programs, Amex Blue seemed the best choice for anyone who spends over $6k a year.
