Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List

At a Glance

The Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List cardholders will enjoy the highest rewards – 8X points for shoe, cosmetic, and fragrance purchases and 4X points per dollar spent on everything else. This card cannot be applied for directly, and is an automatic upgrade given to current Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card owners once they spend $3,500 a calendar year.

Ideal for Those Who:

• Annually spend at least $3,500 at Bloomingdale’s
• Own a fur and need a place to store it during the summer
• Prefer not to carry shopping bags around and would rather have items delivered
• Frequently shop at Bloomingdale’s to find gifts for others

Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List Review

The Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List is the premier version of the Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card. This status upgrade brings along with it an even higher point-earning rate of up to 8X points per dollar spent, two additional Triple Point Days (for a total of four), as well as a host of other luxurious perks for an unrivaled shopping experience making this card more than the most powerful a tool for earning $25 Bloomingdale’s rewards at the fastest rate possible, but also for providing a VIP Bloomingdale’s experience. While there is no annual fee, the top-tier Bloomingdale’s credit card is only eligible to those who spend at least $3,500 at Bloomingdale’s each calendar year, giving it a steep unofficial cost. Additionally, cardholders should be wary of a high fixed-rate APR (which means your interest charges will be high no matter how good your credit score is) and the inability to perform balance transfers. This card is not designed to help shoppers manage their debt or improve their credit score, instead, those considering it should do so solely for the sake of enjoying the shopping and earning perks – and with the intention of paying off their balance in full each month.

What is Bloomingdale’s Top of the List Status?

‘Top of the List’ is the status that Bloomingdale’s gives it’s high-spending cardholders, those who spend $3,500 or more each year. Although this status is treated as an extension of Loyallist perks, this status can only be earned by those who own a Bloomingdale’s credit card (either the store card or the open-loop card). Top of the List Benefits:

• More Loyallist points per dollar
• Free shipping with no minimum purchase (includes shipping upgrades up to $28)
• Unlimited gift wrapping (where services are available)
• Four Triple Point Days
• Early access to Friends & Family Sale
• Exclusive offers and events
• One free fur storage during the summer

How to Get the Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List

The Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List cannot be applied for directly. Instead, potential cardholders must meet two requirements:

1. Currently own the purple Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card
2. Spend $3,500 at Bloomingdale’s during the calendar year

Once the minimum spend requirement has been met, those individuals will be upgraded to Top of the List in 30 days – this is also when they will begin earning at the new, higher rate and be able to partake in all Top of the List perks. Top of the List credit cards are black (instead of purple) and will be shipped out to newly eligible cardholders typically after one billing cycle. Unfortunately, qualifying for Top of the List status is not permanent and must be earned every calendar year. If you do not meet the spending requirement you will be issued the standard purple Bloomingdale’s American Express once again.

Will Top of the List Status Affect Your Credit History?

There are plenty of instances where a card issuer offers an upgrade comes at the cost of your existing account, forcing you to close your existing account to accept the new offer, negatively affecting your average age of credit. Fortunately, this is not the case with the Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List upgrade. While your account number will change, your card history will remain active and intact.

Signup Bonus & Introductory Offers

The Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List does not offer any kind of welcome bonus or special interest financing. While the Top of the List credit card offers more perks than its standard Bloomingdale’s counterpart, the most impressive feature is still the card’s point earning capabilities and the rewards for outside purchases:

• 4X points for every dollar spent at Bloomingdale’s
• 8X points for every dollar spent on cosmetics, shoes and fragrance at Bloomingdale’s
• 4X points for every dollar spent outside of Bloomingdale’s

Points have a below-average value 0.005¢ each but is offset by the card’s strong earning rate. Taking this into consideration, Top of the List cardholders are essentially earning 4¢ for every dollar spent on shoe, cosmetic, and fragrance purchases at the Bloomingdale’s counters, and an impressive 2¢ for all other purchases—earning rates that exceed even some of the most popular rewards cards.

Purchase Type	Required Spend for Top of the List Credit Card	Required Spend for Standard Bloomingdale’s Credit Card	Required Spend for Non-Cardholders
Shoes, Cosmetics, Fragrance	$625	$834	$2,500
Other Bloomingdale’s Purchases	$1,250	$1,667	$5,000
Non-Store Purchases	$1,250	$1,667	–

Owning this card is the fastest way to earn Bloomingdale’s $25 rewards and—although the spend is still high for the reward you receive compared to other retail cards—means a drastic reduction in how much one will need to spend to earn 5,000 points when compared to regular Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card owners and even more so for non-cardholder Loyallist members.

Triple Point Days

An exclusive benefit available only to Bloomingdale’s cardholders – choose four days in the calendar year to earn 12 points per dollar spent at Bloomingdale’s on all categories of merchandise both in-store and online. Exclusions where Triple Points cannot be earned include:

• Purchases outside of Bloomingdale’s

• Purchases at Bloomingdale’s The Outlet Store
• Purchases at Bloomingdale’s outside of the U.S.
• Louis Vuitton merchandise
• Nespresso shops
• Store restaurants

• Store services
• When redeeming a gift card or rewards certificate

Feel free to combine your Triple Points Day with merchandise discounts and Power Point offers. The only restriction is that if your selected Triple Points Day falls on a store event that also features double or triple points, you will only receive one of point bonuses for the highest amount possible (12X points). Triple Point Days can be scheduled any time between January 1st and December 31st and can be done in three ways: via your online account, in-person with a Sales Associate at check out, or calling the phone number on the back of your credit card.

Loyallist Point Expiration

The appeal of the Bloomingdale’s credit card faces a significant drawback despite its many features due to Loyallist points having an extremely short shelf life. Regardless of when points were earned, users will lose 75% of any unredeemed points on December 31st of each year. Seeing as how it can take up to 30 days for points to show on your account, this could pose a problem for those who spend most heavily towards the end of the year.

Redeeming Loyallist Points

Both the Bloomingdale’s loyalty program and credit card rewards program have the same singular redemption option: $25 rewards cards that can be used at checkout. Once cardholders have 5,000 points their account, Reward Cards are automatically generated and made available online through your Bloomingdale’s account (bWallet). Cardholders can enjoy the convenience of always being able to use the rewards the same day that they are issued. Unfortunately, Reward Cards expire 180 days from when they were issued. If there is any remaining value on the card at the time of expiration, the unused value will be forfeited.

How Bloomingdale’s Reward Cards Work

Reward Cards can be used for any type of Bloomingdale’s purchase except purchases made at Nespresso shops or for Bloomingdale’s gift cards. There is no limit to how many rewards can be applied to a transaction at one time and can be used for full or partial payment. To use a Reward Card in-store, inform the Sales Associate that you would like to use any available rewards – they will be able to pull the information through your account. Applying rewards online is easy and simply requires being logged in at the time of checkout – when you get to the payment options section you will be prompted to choose if you would like to redeem any available rewards. It is important to note that any purchases made with a Reward Card will not earn any points. Additionally, payments made entirely with a Reward Card will not be eligible for “Use Your Card” event discounts (so be sure to use your credit card instead if you are purchasing an item that’s less than $25).

Should You Apply for the Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at the Top of the List?

If you already spend more than $3,500 a year at this department store without hesitation, this card is a well-fitting upgrade that will naturally be made available to you (granted that you’re a current Bloomingdale’s American Express Card owner). One of the most unique perks that make this card standout is the fur storage – a testament to the luxurious lifestyle this card was designed to cater towards. If you spent the $3,500 minimum over the course of your four Triple Point Days (spending $875 each time), you would earn a whopping 42,000 points (that’s enough for $200 worth of Reward Cards). However, if you don’t normally spend that much at Bloomingdale’s and are wondering whether the card’s perks are worth the hefty spend requirement, you might find the card’s exclusive perks short-lived since you have to maintain that high level of spending to enjoy the benefits. When it comes to earning $25 rewards, the Top of the List version of the American Express would only save shoppers a few hundred dollars when compared to the standard Bloomingdale’s credit card and isn’t a significant enough different to warrant spending several thousand dollars. Still, cardholders should keep in mind that even with Bloomingdale’s premier version of their credit card, it still requires a high spend for a small reward (minimum $1,250). Most other retail rewards credit cards only require spending $500 for a $25 worth of rewards. Overall, the Top of the List perks are handy but not so lucrative that they would justify going out of your way to spend $3,500. The average Bloomingdale’s shopper would likely do just as well with the standard Bloomingdale’s American Express or a general use cash back rewards card like the Citi Double Cash Card which offers 2% back on all purchases – the cash equivalent of what the Top of the List AMEX comes out to.