American Express Blue Cash Preferred $300 Signup Offer With First-Year Fee Waiver

Update 2/21/21: Deal is available again. Hat tip to reader Miggy.

The Offer

American Express cardholders can find their referral link in their Amex login or via public link. Check for the following offer:

  • Apply for the Blue Cash Preferred via a referral link and the new member gets $300 after $3,000 in spend within 6 months. Annual fee is waived the first year.

Card Details

  • Annual fee of $95 waived first year
  • Card earns at the following rates:
    • 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 in spend annually, then 1%)
    • 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions
    • 3% cash back at U.S. gas stations
    • 3% cash back on transit (e.g taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more)
    • 1% back on all other purchases
  • You can only get the sign up bonus on American Express cards once

Our Verdict

I’m not seeing this on my Blue Cash Preferred, but sfplat on Reddit reports finding such an offer and I’m seeing the same. Within my AmEx login it shows a $250 offer, but when I actually open the referral link the $300 offer pops up. Not sure if it’s showing for everyone or YMMV.

We saw a similar offer via referral for $300 on $1,000 spend, but the annual fee wasn’t waived there. $300 + fee waiver + bonus for referrer is about as good as you can get. Not sure if we’ve ever seen the annual fee waived on BCP before. The standard offer on BCP just increased to $250 with no fee waiver.

Since American Express released universal referrals, I assume just about everyone has a friend with an AmEx card, so I’m thinking we won’t do a referral thread for now. Do not leave referrals in the comments.

Hat tip to sfplat

Post history:

  • Update 12/9/20: This offer is slated to expire on December 10th.
  • Update 9/18/20: Looks like this is now available at the public signup link as well. Obviously better if you can get the offer to show via referral and help your friend get a bonus too, but good to see it publicly available now.
    Chuck
  • On February 21, 2021, 11:00
Tags: blue cash

View Comments (167)

  • After getting a message in the process of applying for Blue Cash Preferred (on April 28, see my message below) saying I was not eligible for the $300 cash back offer & annual fee waived for first year .... I now have an offer within my AmEx account for the Blue Cash Preferred with $150 cash back & annual fee waived for first year.

    Debating just going for the $150 cash back as I wonder whether, even with increasing my spend on existing Blue Cash (not Preferred) card, they'd approve me for a bigger offer.

    Can someone tell me .... if you get these offers within your AmEx account, is the card typically APPROVED and you get the cash back offer specified? I especially DON'T want to go through the application, get approved for the card, spend money on it, and then be told I'm not eligible for the bonus.

    (To me, if they did that, that would be FRAUD on AmEx's, because the offer was made within my AmEx account, and they should have been able to determine eligibility. But realistically, it wouldn't be worth the effort to fight them - the time involved would be worth more than the $150 cash back. My credit score it 800+ so that wouldn't be the issue.)

  • 4-5 years ago, it used to be that 'lifetime' in AmEx speech in regards to signup bonuses meant you couldn't get a bonus on card you had opened previously (even if you didn't get any bonus on that card) within about 7 years.
    Is that still the case? Or have they lengthened that period?

  • Tried for the $300 bonus.
    I've never applied for or had the Blue Cash Preferred card. Around 800 credit score. Haven't applied for an AmEx card in 4 years.

    Entered all my info, then got this message. Needless to say, I cancelled the application.

    "based on your history with credit card balance transfers, American Express welcome offers, introductory APR offers, or the number of Cards you have opened and closed, you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer, intro APRs, and intro plan fees.

    We have not yet performed a credit check. Would you still like to proceed?

    Note: Your application will be considered withdrawn if no action is taken on this page.”

    • Amex said I am pre-approved for this offer but then came the famous pop-up window, LOL.

    • Welcome to Amex pop-up land. Try putting spend on your existing Amex cards and apply again in 6-12 months. Good luck!!!

      • Thanks for the hint - am now doing that, for the 3% on groceries.
        Had been using the Chase Freedom Flex for groceries as I got 5% for 1 year, followed by the 5% extra bonus on grocery stores for first quarter of 2022. Also had opened a couple other cards in the last 2 years for their bonuses so wasn't using AmEx much. Getting close to 5/24, so will use it now for a while.

  • In researching a new card for a friend who is over 5/24 and doesn't want to pay an annual fee, I was considering this card. I checked my Gold card referral bonus offers at Amex, and found this language, which just seems way too good to be true, as it says the person I refer can choose any available card and get 60,000 Amex points, which is WAY better than the $300 offer, even if it requires 4k spend instead of 3k:

    Your friend can earn:
    60,000 Membership Rewards points after they use their new Card to make $4,000 in purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership. Your friend will be able to choose from all available American Express personal and business Cards, including the Rose Gold color option. You can receive your referral bonus no matter what card your friend is approved for.

    What am I missing?? My other referral offers were limited to cards in the same family and carried much smaller bonuses.

    • Please understand that I'm just speculating, but I don't think that offer would extend to this card. Most Amex cards use Amex rewards. This card is different - it is straight cash rewards. Cash rewards are my preference, so that works for me, but Amex does not allow points on this card to transfer to another card, so I don't think it would work.

  • This news to be updated. It's now:

    After you use your Card to make $1,000 in purchases in your first 3 months. You will receive the $75 back in the form of a statement credit.†

  • So if the new terms are 20% back from amazon, is amazon gift card reloads the way to go or the way to get shutdown?

  • How fast does BCP SUB statement credit post after meeting MSR?

    Cross posted on other thread too.

  • I just got $400 total offer as stated below, $200 cash statement plus 200/20% Amazon spend

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