American Express Blue Cash Preferred Review: The Ultimate Family Card

The annual fee on the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express sets a high bar for its rewards. You can clear it fairly easily if you regularly spend a lot at the supermarket or the gas pump, on streaming or on commuting. And if you earn the card's welcome offer for new cardholders, the card will effectively cost you nothing for a good, long while. Here are the card's top features:

6% at the supermarket. Repeat: 6% at the supermarket.

Industry-leading grocery rewards have been the signature feature of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express for as long as there has been a Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, and they're why it has been a NerdWallet Best-Of Award winner every year since 2016. You get 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $6,000 a year in spending. After you hit the cap, supermarket spending earns 1%. Terms apply.

The grocery rewards were the reason I applied for the card in the first place. I had two ravenous children, and our grocery spending averaged close to $500 a month. The first full year I carried the card, I earned 6% cash back on $5,829.61 worth of supermarket spending, good for just under $350 in rewards. That covered the annual fee multiple times over. If you reach the $6,000 annual cap (averaging $500 a month), that's a cool $360 (plus 1% on spending above the cap).

Here's a quick calculator that shows you how much cash back you could earn just on your supermarket spending:

But see that "terms apply" a couple of paragraphs back? As attractive as the 6% supermarket rewards are, there's a little unpacking to do when it comes to where you earn 6% and how much spending is eligible for that rate. We'll get into that in the drawbacks section below. (Spoiler: Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs don't qualify.)

Strong gas and transit rewards

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express bolsters its claim to the title of best credit card for families by offering 3% cash back at U.S. gas stations, with no cap on the amount of spending eligible for that rate. (Note that this applies only to stand-alone gas stations, not to supermarkets, superstores and warehouse clubs that sell gas.) Don't drive? Or do more parking than driving? You also get 3% on transit, including buses, trains, subways, taxis, rideshares, tolls and parking. Terms apply.

» MORE: NerdWallet’s best gas credit cards

Outstanding streaming rewards

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express had been my mainstay for years before a 2019 refresh of the card made the value equation even stronger. That update added 6% cash back on select streaming services on top of the 6% at U.S. supermarkets. The list of services eligible for the 6% is long and includes nearly every major audio and video streaming platform, from behemoths like Netflix, Disney+, Spotify and YouTube TV to more niche providers like Britbox, AMC+ and MGM+. If you insist on paying for Peacock, well, they've got you covered, too.

That 2019 update was timely, to say the least. Media consumption habits, including mine, were in transition. Instead of watching ad-choked linear TV and listening to ad-choked terrestrial radio like some sort of 20th-century caveman, I was increasingly relying on streaming video and audio. I was ready to cut the cord on my awful cable provider, and the streaming benefits of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express made that decision that much easier.

Further, if you subscribe to the Disney+ Bundle, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is about as close to a no-brainer as you can get. That's because the card gives you up to $10 a month in statement credit for eligible Disney subscriptions (enrollment required; terms apply). Do the math: $10 times 12 equals $120 a year. If you're going to be subscribing anyway, this credit flat-out pays your annual fee and then some.

As of this writing, my family subscribes to four services and gets heavy, heavy use out of them: Netflix, the Disney+ Bundle, YouTube Premium and YouTube TV. All told, the packages and plans we have add up to $164.74 a month. (I know, I know.) At 6% cash back, that's $118.61 in rewards per year. Which would cover the annual fee ... if the Disney+ credit wasn't already covering the annual fee.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best credit cards for streaming services

New cardholder offer

As of this writing, a $200 bonus is more or less standard for a no-annual-fee cash back card. As such, you'd expect that a card with an annual fee would offer something a bit richer. And the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express does: Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months. Terms Apply. That's enough to cover two-plus years' worth of the fee ... once that fee starts getting charged.

New cardholders also get a break from interest with a 0% intro APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers, and then the ongoing APR of 19.99%-28.99% Variable APR.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best credit card bonuses right now

Amex Offers

Most major credit card issuers have an "offers" platform, which gives you the ability to earn discounts or bonus rewards on purchases from select merchants. In my experience, Amex Offers has been among the strongest, with meaningful opportunities to earn 10% to 20% back on shopping, travel and entertainment spending with prominent brands I've actually heard of.

This card isn't for everyone. As with any rewards card that charges a fee, it's going to be difficult to extract sufficient value if you don't spend a lot in the card's top rewards categories. Here are a couple of other things to keep in mind.

Supermarket rewards come with caveats

There are some footnotes and fine print associated with the 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express. These rules aren't "gotchas," and they haven't meaningfully affected the value I get from the card, but they're still worth chewing over before you commit:

The 6% rate applies only at "U.S. supermarkets." If you occasionally or not-so-occasionally buy bread or milk at a convenience store (guilty) or chips and soda at Home Depot (no comment), those purchases won't earn 6%. Nor will purchases at specialty food stores like, uh, cheesemongers. That's because the rewards rate isn't based on what you buy but where you buy it. In other words, this card does not earn "6% on groceries." It earns 6% at U.S. supermarkets. And American Express' definition of a U.S. supermarket does not include superstores like Walmart or Target, or wholesale clubs like Sam's Club or Costco. (Not that you could use it at the latter anyway; Costco doesn't take AmEx.)

• If the bulk of your food spending takes place somewhere besides a supermarket, look into a card that earns rewards specifically at the places you do shop. For example, see our best cards for Target, our best cards for Walmart or our best cards for Costco.

The bonus rewards are capped at $6,000 a year in spending. This limit hasn't changed in the 10 years I've carried the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, yet food prices have risen (and risen) (and risen). According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average household spent $4,015 on "food at home" in 2015, the year I got the card. In 2023, the most recent data available at the time of this writing, that figure had risen to $6,053 — the first time it exceeded this card's annual cap. That means a lot of households are hitting the ceiling.

• If you know you're going to blow past the $6,000 cap, consider strategically combining the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express with another card. For example, cards with rotating bonus categories usually offer 5% cash back at grocery stores at least once during the year. You could shift food spending to one of those while the 5% is in effect, then move it back to the AmEx afterward. Or you could just choose not to worry about it. It's not like you earn no rewards whatsoever on spending over $6,000. You still get 1%. Terms apply.

High annual fee for a cash-back card

Let's talk about that annual fee. For the most part, cash back credit cards don't have annual fees. Annual fees are for airline cards that give you free checked bags, or for chi-chi premium cards made from titanium and bald eagle feathers that give you a $300 credit toward your next Maserati. But not cash back cards designed to be used at the supermarket and the gas station, right?

To charge an annual fee, especially one as high as this card does, a cash back card has to deliver something really special. I'd argue that the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express does just that. A number of no-annual-fee cards pay 3% at supermarkets and/or on streaming, but the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express overtakes them relatively quickly even when taking the fee into account.

NerdWallet credit cards writers are familiar with the value "$31," because for more than a decade we've been writing that this card pays for itself with just $31 a week in spending at U.S. supermarkets ($31 x 52 x 6% = $96.72). But a more useful number might be $132. If you spend a combined $132 a month at U.S. supermarkets and on streaming services eligible for 6% cash back, this card pays for itself. And of course, if you are a Disney+ Bundle subscriber, the credit is already covering your annual fee. That's not even taking into account the 3% rewards on transit and at U.S. gas stations. Terms apply.

The point is, many cardholders can erase the annual fee quickly. (And keep in mind the actual fee structure: $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.) You can use our calculator below to determine whether this card is a good fit.

Even so, some people refuse to pay an annual fee under any circumstances. For them, there's a sibling card, the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express, which offers similar bonus categories without an annual fee. This card earns 3% cash back at U.S. supermarkets, at U.S. gas stations and on U.S. online retail purchases (on up to $6,000 per year in spending in each category). Other purchases earn 1% back. Terms apply (see rates and fees).

The natural question, then, is: At what spending level is the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express a better deal? Going only by groceries, if you spend at least $61 per week at U.S. supermarkets, you’ll earn more with the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, even after the annual fee.

» COMPARE: How the Blue Cash cards stack up against each other

Other no-fee alternatives include the low-hassle Citi Double Cash® Card, which pays 2% cash back on all purchases — 1% when you make them and another 1% when you pay them off. Or if you dine out as much as you eat in, the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card is a top choice. You'll earn 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and at grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target); 8% cash back on Capital One Entertainment purchases; 5% back on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cards booked through Capital One Travel (terms apply); and 1% on all other purchases.