Update 12/30/20: Reader HJ received a $150 upgrade offer showing in the AmEx login, along with the $95 annual fee waived the first year as well. Terms link
Update 4/10/19: Another round has gone out. Subject line is ‘Congratulations, <name> ! Special offer inside.’ Valid until 5/9/19. Hat tip to reader Kenny
Update 1/17/19: Another round of these offers has gone out again. This time valid until 2/14/2019. Hat tip to reader @MordyNY
Another round of this offer has gone out. Valid until 11/23/2018.
The Offer
Sent out via e-mail, subject line is ‘Congrats, we’re grateful for your loyalty, now you’re invited to request an upgrade for your credit card!’. No link is offered as the links are unique and tied to card number.
- A number of readers are reporting receiving upgrade offers via e-mail. There are two versions:
- Get $250 bonus when converting the card to Blue Cash Preferred and spending $2,000 within 3 months
- Get $150 bonus when converting the card to Blue Cash Preferred and spending $1,000 within 3 months
Card Details
- Blue Cash Preferred has a $95 annual fee
- Earns 6% back on groceries, up to $6,000 per calendar year
- Earns 3% back on gas
- Earns 1% back on all other purchases
Our Verdict
These Amex upgrade offers typically don’t have any sort of lifetime language so even if you’ve already gotten a bonus on the Blue Cash Preferred card it should work. And it won’t show up as a new card account to count against your 5/24 so there really isn’t downside in taking up the offer assuming you already got the BCP bonus and assuming you can meet the spend.
Definitely worth logging into your Amex account to see if the offer shows. Should be a net gain even if you won’t utilize the higher cashback rates at all, and more-so if you’ll gain from the 6%/grocery and 3%/gas-dept earnings rate.
Hat tip to reader Abey
View Comments (198)
I just got a snail mailer for an upgrade offer for my BCE to BCP for $75 bonus with 1k spend in 6 months. No credit check. I don't recall ever getting one of these offers for my BCE so I'm probably going to do it even though I won't get much value from the extra cashback right away between my Citi Custom cash and digital wallets Disocver Q4 coming up @will @chucksithe
Getting targeted via amex.com landing page, goes to this link, worked for me: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/blue-cash-preferred/?intlink=hp-ug-bcp&eep=36182 @will @chucksithe ($75 for $1000 spend first 6 months with waived annual fee first year).
I'm seeing the $75 bonus, but not seeing the waived annual fee
The link doesn’t seem to work on mobile for me at all, but I clicked under Terms & Conditions I believe and it lists annual fee is $0 first year. I did save those terms when I clicked through
EDITED TO ADD: another one https://pieventscapture.americanexpress.com/personalization/v1/treatments/customers/events?client_id=MYCA&channel_id=WEB&locale=en-US&page_id=CM_CARDSHOP_CCSG_CardDetailsPage&name=USCardShopBlueCashPreferredQENApplyCMO_MycaAgile_BCPUpgrade_75SC_WOCBCPUP75_PZNC3977_Cardshop25x25px&event_name=Clicked&placement_id=Product&locationURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanexpress.com%2Fen-us%2Fcredit-cards%2Fapply%2Fupgrade%2Fpersonal-card%2Fblue-cash-preferred-credit-card%2F38133-WOCBCPUG75%3Fpmccode%3D796&intlink=US-Acq-Shop-Consumer-PDP-BCP-CardMember-Upgrade-BCP-CompareCards-CompareOverlayFooter&pub_guid=dd7afb2360abd4b68c39663b6696488a
Interesting. By me it says there is a $95 annual fee.
Here is a link to the terms https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/credit-cards/apply/upgrade/print/personal-card/blue-cash-preferred-credit-card/38133-WOCBCPUG75 that have the $0 annual fee first year
Interestingly, it seems to work also when I log in to my old BCP account that I downgraded to BCE in past month or two, although I don’t really want to convert that one due to cash back on online purchases (although am honestly thinking about it).
For me the second link errors out. The first link takes me to this page with a $95 fee https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/credit-cards/apply/upgrade/print/personal-card/blue-cash-preferred-credit-card/36195
+1 same for me as well. Wonder if it has got anything to do with if this is your first time upgrading. The only BC account I have has already been subjected to at least a couple upgrade/downgrade cycles and I am seeing the same as Chuck.
Maybe, I’ve never upgraded or downgraded this particular blue cash everyday card previously.
Btw, I did try my first link on my other BCE account (separate login) that was only downgraded from BCP 1-2 months ago. It showed me the $75 offer with waived annual fee but then when I clicked through to request upgrade it goes to an error page. So I think even if the link works (maybe because it is tied to SSN rather than AmEx login?) it doesn’t seem like it will work for any card, only the specific one targeted.
Ok, thanks for trying! Sounds like still targeted despite the link
Ok weird, maybe it is super targeted. Thanks for trying. Hope you tried the new link too that I added to the post.
Amex is so weird. Two weeks ago my Preferred annual fee posted, tried to get a retention offer and was only offered $35 if I spend $1000, no fee waiver. So I downgraded.
Now today, I get emailed this offer, to upgrade the same card I just downgraded.
The even weirder thing, is that I have another Blue Cash card with the same offer. So I upgraded them both. Shrug.
@guest_1253632 Were you able to get the bonus for the second time?
Did you get both bonuses for the second time?
once i upgrade from BC to BCP, does the $6k grocery spend count get reset, or will grocery spend on BC so far this year also count towards the $6k limit?
1 time I did this and had a lot of spend on the BCE and it DID NOT reset. I ended up earning only 1% on some of my BCP spend before figuring this out. Test it out on a small amount on the 1st statement to see what happens.
thanks for the info. already spent 6k on BCE this year. i won't upgrade at all if i don't get 6% on $6k.
Got targeted. How long does this type of offer typically last in the account?
Got cold feet reading the comments. I downgraded this card from BCP to BCE only seven months ago.
If I take the offer by upgrading my blue cash card to this preferred card, will there be a hardpull?
Just received the $150 credit yesterday, a couple of days after meeting the $1000 requirement. Original BCP with sign-up bonus -> downgraded to BCE -> this offer.
I received this offer via email in mid November ($150 with $1k spend, waived AF for a year) and put $1k organic spend (Christmas, yay) on it. Just rec'd a statement credit today and it's coding as from Amazon Marketplace? Anyone know anything about this? I didn't have any Amazon messaging in the offer so I'm confused. I also didn't add any Amazon offers to the card as I didn't see any.
Usually Amex statement credits lag at least one cycle before they hit (right?).
Did you use the card for Amazon recently? I think that's transaction which met the $1000 requirement.
Yes! That makes sense. I was surprised at how quickly the bonus hit. Pleasantly surprised, that is!
P1 and P3 have had the same offer since October, showing up with Amex offers. One is on a BCE and the other one is on a Cash Magnet. P3 also received a couple of physical mailers for the same offer.
Are card members only eligible for one upgrade bonus per card, specifically, or one per product, generally? Or can we double and triple dip over the years?
Year 0: Opened Blue Cash no-fee with bonus.
Year 1: Upgraded to BCP via targeted bonus.
Year 2: AF hits on BCP, downgrade back to no-fee.
Year 3 (this year): Receive Amex Offer AND snail mail with RSVP code to upgrade (a second time) with this $150 offer. Attempted via Amex Offers (denied) and RSVP code (denied again). Called Amex, no dice.
Any Amex aficionados out there?
Hey Charles, I’m pretty sure the BCP doesn’t have cash back on department stores anymore. 😊🤷🏽♂️