Updated with improved $120 Disney Streaming Credit (now up to $10 per month with no minimum or bundle required). The card_name is one of my longtime keeper cards even with an annual fee. The headline feature is 6% cash back at US stand-alone supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in eligible purchases (then 1%), but I also use it for 6% cash back on all my streaming subscriptions. If you spend $100 a week at supermarkets, that alone will earn you over $300 a year in rewards. The welcome offer is also currently very generous. The highlights:
- Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months.
- 0% Intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months from the date of account opening. After that, your APR will be reg_apr,reg_apr_type.
- 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in eligible purchases (then 1% after that).
- 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions.
- 3% cash back at eligible U.S. gas stations.
- 3% cash back on eligible 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 and at Amazon.com checkout.
- $120 Disney Streaming Credit. Get up to a $10 monthly statement credit after using your enrolled Blue Cash Preferred(R) Card for a subscription purchase, including a bundle subscription purchase, at disneyplus.com, Hulu.com, or Plus.espn.com U.S. websites. Subject to auto-renewal.
- Apply with confidence. Know if you’re approved for a Card with no impact to your credit score. If you’re approved and you choose to accept this Card, your credit score may be impacted.
- $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
- See Rates and Fees
Max out your benefit by buying gift cards at US supermarkets. I use this card to buy gift cards at eligible supermarkets to use up the annual limit and get 6% back. My local Safeway has an entire wall of options, but I usually go with Amazon, Apple, or Starbucks (gifts). You can easily confirm that your purchase still gets 6% cash back on your account online:
Supermarkets details. “US stand-alone supermarkets” means that superstores, convenience stores and warehouse clubs are not considered supermarkets. This means no Super Wal-Mart, no Super Target, no Costco. Examples of merchants that do count (and this is not a complete list!) are (source):
ALDI
FreshDirect
Gelson’s
Hy-Vee
Kings Food Markets
Meijer
ShopRite
Smart & Final
Stop & Shop
Trader Joe’s
Vons
Whole Foods
Winn-Dixie
Gasoline details. “US stand-alone gas stations” means that superstores, supermarkets, and warehouse clubs that sell gasoline are not considered gas stations. This means no Target, no Costco, no Sam’s Club. Examples of merchants that count (again not a complete list!) are Exxon, Mobil, Hess, Shell, Gulf, Murphy USA, Murphy Express.
US Streaming Subscriptions details. These are all included at 6% cash back:
Amazon Music Unlimited
AMC+
Apple Music
Apple TV+
Audible
Britbox
DirecTV Stream (formerly known as AT&T TV or AT&T TV NOW)
Discovery+
Disney+
ESPN+
Fubo TV
HBO Max
Hulu
iHeartRadio
Kindle Unlimited
Luminary
MGM+
MLB.TV
NBA League Pass
Netflix
Pandora
Paramount+
Peacock
Prime Video
Sling TV
SiriusXM Streaming and Satellite
Spotify
Starz
TIDAL Music
YouTube Music Premium
YouTube Premium
YouTube TV
Disney Streaming credit details (worth up to $120 a year). Now, with the enhanced $120 Disney Streaming Credit, you can earn up to $10 back per month as a statement credit when you use your enrolled Blue Cash Preferred® Card to purchase a subscription, or bundle subscription, on DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com, or Plus.espn.com U.S. websites, now with no minimum purchase requirement. Subscription is subject to auto-renewal.
If you already have this card, you can enroll in this offer here.
Annual fee. There is a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95, but with the improved Disney Streaming credit that works with no minimums from Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN+, that can already more than completely offsets any future annual fee on its own. We already pay for Disney+ with no ads, so we already max out the $120 in annual credits.
The 6% cash back category can also quickly help this card earn its keep. The max cap of $6,000 annually works out to a steady averaged rate of $500 a month, which at 6% back would net you $360 cash back in a year vs. $60 at 1% cash back. Heck, simply hitting the $100 mark in a single trip at the supermarket is far too easy these days.
Alternatively, the card_name offers 3% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $6,000 per year in eligible purchases, then 1%) and other perks but with no annual fee. Terms apply. (See Rates and Fees)
Cash back is officially given in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit, gift cards, and merchandise. You can also use it to offset your Amazon.com purchases at checkout. I usually just stick with statements credit to directly pay down my monthly bill.
Bottom line. The card_name has the key feature of 6% cash back at US supermarkets (on up to $6,000 per year). You can now also get 6% cash back on Netflix/Spotify/HBO Now as well as 3% cash back at US gas stations and transit (Uber/Lyft/train). This has been a “keeper” card for me for many years now. I treat it like one of my 5% cash back cards, except there are no rotating categories or activations to worry about. They also just improved their Disney Streaming credit to be worth up to $10/month ($120 annually), which I also utilize.
Rates and Fees for Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express :Rates and Fees for Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
Rates and Fees for Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express: Rates and Fees for Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
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Add it works on gas cards from the grocery store too, which if you are willing to put in the effort it will give you 6% back on gas not 3%, I get Shell gas cards (which occasionally they have them 10$ off $50 at Publix)
I have purchased various gift cards (e.g., Subway, Michael’s, Old Navy, McDonalds, Cold Stone, Target, JCPenny) at a local Safeway with 6% cash back success.
In WA state, no sales tax on the gift cards. I can’t imagine any supermarket charging sales tax. If so, you’d be taxed twice – once to purchase gift card, and then again when you use it.
RE: “You can buy Visa/MC reloadable cash cards, yes. I don’t think they can be used directly to pay off other credit cards though.”
So if you buy these reloadable VISA/MC cash cards through your grocery store, you now have a VISA/MC cash card that has provided you 6% cash back. Am I missing something here?
atc1: Most of the reloadable Visa/MC cards (at least in MA) carry a fee. Might be flat but I’ve seen it for around $5. So $100 card wouldn’t be much benefit, but if the fee is flat for higher values, it might still make sense.
I’m planning to use my Chase Freedom and/or Discover More Cards when the categories switch to reward Groceries at 5%. That should keep me within the 6k limit on AMEX. If I have not used up my AMEX 6k limit at the end of the year I can still buy GC’s.
my wife and i both have the amex preferred, i do the majority of the shopping, anyone have an idea if she can add me as an authorized user on her account even though i currently have my own account? Thanks for the feedback!
@brian – Yes, you can do that, no problem at all.
Jonathan, quick note about “You can easily track how much you’ve spent on groceries on your online account. Just go to “Statements & Activity” > Chart logo (Graph and Filter your Transactions), and then click on “Merchandise and Supplies”. Adjust dates as necessary.”
I used this method as well until about a week ago. I noticed I had reached $6k on groceries and called AMEX just to verify before I switched to another card for late December groceries. The rep quoted me a grocery total of closer to $5k toward the grocery total for the year, thus giving me about $1k to spend at 6%.
It turns out the “Statements and Activity” method was counting our local deli as a grocery store, where we buy not only deli items but beer and wine and soft drinks regularly, but the 6% cashback offer does not count it as a grocery store. This was particularly interesting because during the quarter that Chase Freedom did 5% at grocery stores, the same deli indeed DID count as a grocery store. So, your reader may want to call and check if there’s any iffy-ness about reaching the $6k total.
Thank you for the informative article. As much as I despise annual fees, I think this one may be okay for me.
I have the no-annual-fee version of this card and you answered tmy main question. You calculated that $31/week at supermarkets at 6% cash back will pay for the annual fee. This means that $62/week at supermarkets will break even with the no-annual-fee card (3% cash back at supermarkets). I think it is safe to say that I spend more than that at Publix every week.
The aditional 6% cash back from US streaming services (Pandora, Spotify, YT Premium for me) will help lower that weekly grocery spending.
Right now I’m getting 5% cash back from Chase Freedom this calendar quarter, so this would be a 1% improvement.
I’m confused, why are these comments so old? Is this a new or old post?
Don’t gift cards in grocery stores have fees to use them?
Thanks!
This is an older review that I have updated with new details. Thanks for the feedback though; I’ll try to prune some of the confusing comments.
If you have a Visa/Mastercard gift card, there are usually fees. However, you can buy gift cards to retailers without fees. For example, you can buy a $100 Amazon gift card at your supermarket with no fees. You get 6% cash back on this card, and then just redeem the gift card at Amazon for the full $100.
I thought I had added a comment about buying gift cards at Safeway using amex BCP card. I tried that method at the end of December 2018 and received only 1% cashback on amazon gift cards. Had I known that, I wouldn’t have spent $300 on amazon gift cards. Maybe they found a way to flag gift card purchases and categorize them as non-grocery item. I don’t know. I would try purchasing a small amount gift card to see what sort of cash back is earned on it, then decide on bigger gift card spending. I’m in San Francisco Bay Area, btw. Maybe it’s location specific.
Thanks for your comment. I can’t explain that, as it is inconsistent with my experiences for years, where I get 6% cash back every month on my Safeway purchases including any gift cards. How would they know if I added an Amazon or Starbucks gift card to my basket of bananas and milk? I don’t see how that is possible.
Thanks for the heads up on the changes, Jonathan. It lists “Prime Video Unlimited” as one of the qualifying streaming services. Does this mean the annual prime membership fee is included as one needs to have this in order to get Prime video unlimited?
I did read that Amazon Prime membership dues are not included. I believe Amazon Prime membership is coded differently from other Amazon purchases.
Yeah I don’t think that ‘Prime Video Unlimited’ is actually a thing. It could mean prime membership but I kinda doubt that. Maybe its for the optional subscription channels for Amazon prime video? e.g. you can sign up for HBO, etc through Amazon with a subscription fee. Doesn’t match the name cited though.
I’ve had this “Preferred” version of the Blue cash card in the past but the 6% didn’t work for me at grocery stores since our Fred Meyer where w eshop isn’t coded as grocery. 🙁 So I dropped it down to the plain Blue cash.
However Amex just offered me an upgrade the preferred version again with the $250 bonus so I took the deal for that.
After annual fee, it’s is equivalent to 4.4% or$265/year.
BofA Cash Reward with Platinum reward has 3.5% at grocery stores and 4.5% for drug stores (for gift card) up to $2500
Discover and Freedom have 5% back up to$1500 each usually every year.
Do you use this card just for the first year only?
Those are valid options, but each has their own disadvantages as well. Your percentages for BofA only apply for the Preferred Reward Platinum Honors tier that requires $100,000 in assets with Bofa/Merrill. Discover and Freedom usually only offer groceries as a categories for one or two quarters a year. For example, right now neither of them have 5% cash back on groceries.
The 6% back on streaming also helps to offset the annual fee.
Just clicked the referral link and saw:
“Earn a $300 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months.”
3k, not 2k, in purchases will get you $300 :).
Thanks as always for your posts!
Thanks, fixed!
Is safeway still a valid grocery store for amex blue cash preferred?
Yes!
this isn’t correct: “If you spend the max cap of $500 a month at eligible supermarkets, at 6% back that would net you $360 cash back in a year vs. $60 at 1% cash back.”
there is no $500 per month cap.
I have updated the language to reflect the 6k annual cap working out to 500 per month on average.
CBS All Access was rebranded to Paramount Plus many moons ago.
Have to think there are other services included too – like Peacock.
When is the last time you updated the streaming services section on this post ? 😀
You guys are sharp! I have updated the streaming list.
I have the Amex Blue 3% grocery card, while Blue Preferred is $95 per year with a sustainable max bonus of $360 cap – $95 annual = $265 net / 2 versus the no fee card = $132.50 incremental value. However, I have two other credit cards with quarterly 5% back at grocery stores, so I only use the Amex card about 6 months per year -> $132.50 / 2 = $66.25. It’s not worth it.
I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. I shifted many grocery purchases to Costco during the 2021 inflation spike. Even after the annual $65 membership fee, you can easily save far more than $360 per year versus regular grocery stores on eggs, cheese, yogurt, fruit, canned and dried stuff, coffee, etc. Many foods are 1/3rd off or 1/2 price by volume, and sometimes 2/3rds off. They only take Visa as of 2025, but I’m getting 2% back too.
I’ve never kept an Amex annual fee card very long, but they can be good deals during the initial year. However, the recent mailers for Amex Gold are weird and try to make cardholders extremely active and loyal spenders — they have lots of tacky stuff like a $7 per month credit at Dunkin’ Donuts.