Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card

At A Glance

The Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card amplifies the existing benefits for Loyallists (the Bloomingdale’s loyalty program) by significantly boosting point-earning power (up to 9 points per dollar) and providing exclusive shopping perks and early access to sales and other store events, but the bestfeature is that even non-store purchases will still earn 3X points wherever American Express is accepted – hard to believe that such a valuable card has no annual fee!

Ideal for Those Who:

• Current Loyallist member
• Spend at least $3,500 at Bloomingdale’s each year
• Have a credit score of at least 700
• Will pay off monthly balance every month

Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card Review

If you are a current Loyallist member that wants a faster route to earning $25 Bloomingdale rewards (or simply a fan of the department store and want to earn rewards you can use to shop more often), the Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card makes for a compelling credit card. Thanks to the card’s healthy awarding of points for both store and non-store purchases it makes surprisingly well-rounded option. The open-loop Bloomingdale’s would be a powerhouse of a retail card if not for the below-average point value. The card offers all of the benefits that the Bloomingdale’s loyalty program entails (free shipping, a perk of the month, etc.) but has a significantly increased earning rate that will allow cardholders to earn 5,000 points far faster than non-cardholding counterparts. More importantly, cardholders will earn just as many points when using your card outside of Bloomingdale’s. While the card itself does not provide exclusive discounts, cardholders will be able to enjoy a signup bonus for up to $250 in savings on their immediate purchases. Bloomingdale’s American Express® has no annual fee, but considering how high the fixed-rate APR is (a great credit score makes no difference on the interest rate assigned) this could is a bad fit for those who would be unable to pay their balance in full each month.

Signup Bonus & Introductory Offers

New cardholders will not find any 0% APR promotion to help them finance a particularly big shopping trip. Instead, the Bloomingdale’s American Express card offers a unique twist on a familiar welcome bonus offer. Many other retail credit cards offer a 20% discount as a sign up bonus, but unlike those other card, with the Bloomingdale’s American Express card the 20% discount can used multiple times over the course of two days (begins the day the application was submitted and continues until the end of the following day), on a total of $1,250 in purchases. This two-day window takes a lot of pressure of a potential applicant who will not have to try and purchase everything they want in a single shopping trip and instead, can enjoy the 20% off as items come to mind. However, it is still recommended that cardholders have a few items in mind at the time they submit the application.

Earning Loyallist Points

Owning the Bloomingdale’s credit card will triple the number of points that shoppers earn from store purchases from what they would earn as a standard Loyallist member. Even more exciting, however, is that cardholders will be able to earn just as many points for making purchases outside of Bloomingdales – an unheard-of benefit that few other credit cards can boast. Aside from Triple Point Days(not available to regular Loyallist members), and Power Point deals, cardholders will earn the bulk of their points from the following purchase categories:

• 3X points for every dollar spent at Bloomingdale’s
• 6X points for every dollar spent on shoes, cosmetics, and fragrance counters at Bloomingdale’s
• 3X points for every dollar spent outside of Bloomingdale’s

The Bloomingdale’s credit card’s greatest strength is its earning potential. It drastically reduces the amount of time (and money) shoppers will need in order to accrue the 5,000 points for a $25 Reward Card. The card does an outstanding job in this capacity – especially for a card that has no annual fee.

Purchase Type	Required Spend for Cardholders	Required Spend for Non-Cardholders
Shoes, Cosmetics, Fragrance	$834	$2,500
Other Bloomingdale’s Purchases	$1,667	$5,000
Non-Store Purchases	$1,667	–

Points have a below-average value 0.005¢ each, however, this is offset by the card’s strong earning rate.

Triple Point Days

An exclusive benefit available only to Bloomingdale’s cardholders, these individuals may select two (2) days every year where they will earn 9 points per dollar spent at Bloomingdale’s (both in-store and online) on all categories of merchandise. 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.
• Nespresso shops
• Store restaurants
• Select leased brands
• Store services
• When redeeming a gift card or rewards certificate

However, these days can be combined 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 a singular triple point bonus (9X 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 American Express® Card faces a significant draw back 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. Besides being incredibly frustrating, this also poses an issue for those trying to validate making their Bloomingdale’s American Express their main credit card. If you rack up the majority of your points towards the end of the year but fail to reach 5,000 – that’s potentially a lot of money you could’ve earned elsewhere from another card.

Redeeming Loyallist Points

Frequent Bloomingdale’s customers likely will not mind that the only redemption method available for their points are Bloomingdale’s rewards (referred to as Reward Cards). These are available at a set rate of $25 each and require 5,000 points to earn. Once cardholders have enough points in their account, Reward Cards are automatically generated and made available online through your Bloomingdale’s account (bWallet) and can also be used 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 the to 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?

If you’re already a member of Bloomingdale’s Loyallist program trying to work your way towards $25 Reward Cards, this card would be a valuable one to own. The Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card provides little more than expedited point-earning capabilities, but does it so well – and without having an annual fee – that it’s easy to overlook that lack of exclusive shopping benefits (most of the one’s you would expect like free shipping are already including once you join the free loyalty program). Our favorite feature of this card is the fact that you earn 3X points on all purchases outside of Bloomingdale’s. Taking into consideration that each point is worth 0.005¢ each, you’re essentially getting 1.5¢ for every dollar you spend on groceries, utilities and gas, which rivals the earning rates of some of the most popular flat rate cash back credit cards available on the market. If not for the pesky point expiration system this credit card could have easily served as your main credit card to use for everything. Alas, since points expire at the end of every year potential new cardholders will want to be strategic with their timing of purchases and should aim to spend on card in 5,000-point intervals (or as close to it as possible) to minimize the number of points being wasted. This credit card is better suited to someone who shops at Bloomingdale’s on a regular basis (not concentrated towards the end of the year). However, this card is a definite must if you spend over $3,500 a year at Bloomingdale’s as you will then be eligible to be upgraded to the premium version of the Bloomingdale’s American Express® Card at no additional cost (it also has no annual fee). This upgrade is regarded as “Top of the List” status and entitles eligible members to a sleek new black Bloomingdale’s card as well as an entire host of additional cardholder benefits such as complimentary fur storage, unlimited gift wrapping, and – most importantly – even higher point rewards. If your spend isn’t anywhere close to $3,500 – or even $1,000 – but you still want more than 1 point per dollar for your Bloomingdale’s purchases, consider a general use cash back card like the U.S Bank Cash+ Visa Signature which offers customizable 5% back categories and includes department stores.