AmEx BCP Fee Increasing to $95 for new apps after 8/3

[jacetx]

I'm hoping this change doesn't come to the Hilton Surpass card which is at $75 now. $20 more won't break the bank as the free breakfast saving alone is greater than the AF but it would be nice not having an increase.

[Anonymous]

Not sure how they figure a cash back card is worth that much of AF. If you spent a ton at grocery stores i guess it could be, but as mentioned a single person would really not benefit at that point.

I spend around 200 per month on groceries, and that is the only reason i had been considering this card as a fall back if Sallie Mae ever is shut down but creeping that AF up even more likely would make it not even worth using.

[Imperfectfuture]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@takeshi74 wrote:

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@UncleB wrote:

For the record, this is legit spending.

Though you're walking the fine line with MS. Be careful with that here.

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While I appreciate your concern, I'm not taking any chances at all. 

Without derailing this thread, I'll just say that there's nothing manufactured about my spending; neither Amex or the grocery store cares one bit what I put in my basket.  

I think you're conflating gift cards that can be redeemed for merchandise/services with gift cards that are convertable to cash, which is beyond the scope of this forum.

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Amex has no problem with legit gift cards.  I always put one in the basket.  . Though if the fee goes up, this card may go back to BCE (are they that hard up for cash?  Costco must have hit them hard, and all us bad folks not carrying interest ).

[Imperfectfuture]

Man, I am using same browser, and they are hiding the fee from me everywhere. Have no idea what the fee is.

All it points out is no cash back on additional cards. Well, I did not think there were fees for additional cards before. Pay attention to your statements folks.

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Not sure how they figure a cash back card is worth that much of AF. If you spent a ton at grocery stores i guess it could be, but as mentioned a single person would really not benefit at that point.

I spend around 200 per month on groceries, and that is the only reason i had been considering this card as a fall back if Sallie Mae ever is shut down but creeping that AF up even more likely would make it not even worth using.

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Pretty much agree. For a single person, a $95 annual fee is steep for a cash back card. Yes you can buy merchant gift cards, but honestly, that's kind of a hassle and then you lose any purchase protections. Just depends how far you want to go for the cash back. For me, I wasn't really a fan of the buying gift card thing.

[Anonymous]

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@Imperfectfuture wrote:
Man, I am using same browser, and they are hiding the fee from me everywhere. Have no idea what the fee is.

All it points out is no cash back on additional cards. Well, I did not think there were fees for additional cards before. Pay attention to your statements folks.

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Does that mean what it looks like it means? I'll have to go look. 

[satasat360]

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@UncleB wrote:

Excellent catch, even if less than excellent news! 

Hopefully they'll leave the fee at $75 for a little longer for the existing cardholders. <fingers crossed>

In any case it's still worth it... I would prefer to keep the extra $20, though. 

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I'm still paying 175 for my PRG (current is 195), so i believe you will pay 75 for the BCP

[longtimelurker]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@takeshi74 wrote:

---

@UncleB wrote:

For the record, this is legit spending.

Though you're walking the fine line with MS. Be careful with that here.

---

While I appreciate your concern, I'm not taking any chances at all. 

Without derailing this thread, I'll just say that there's nothing manufactured about my spending; neither Amex or the grocery store cares one bit what I put in my basket.  

I think you're conflating gift cards that can be redeemed for merchandise/services with gift cards that are convertable to cash, which is beyond the scope of this forum.

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Grocery stores only care in they end up on the hook for fraud.   It's probably the case that stolen cards are more likely to be used to buy $500 Visa cards than $500 Amazon cards.   Amex doesn't really care with low capped cards like the BCP anyway.

But: a colorable case could be made why CCCs might not like merchant gift cards.   Mainly, as in Uncle's case, it makes it much easier to meet caps, reducing profits. When designing a card, their calculations might include things like "average spend on grocery" and not take into account that cards allow you to shift spend from other categories to grocery.

But, again, with a BCP, no-one will care, except maybe MyFico

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Not sure how they figure a cash back card is worth that much of AF. If you spent a ton at grocery stores i guess it could be, but as mentioned a single person would really not benefit at that point.

I spend around 200 per month on groceries, and that is the only reason i had been considering this card as a fall back if Sallie Mae ever is shut down but creeping that AF up even more likely would make it not even worth using.

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Pretty much agree. For a single person, a $95 annual fee is steep for a cash back card. Yes you can buy merchant gift cards, but honestly, that's kind of a hassle and then you lose any purchase protections. Just depends how far you want to go for the cash back. For me, I wasn't really a fan of the buying gift card thing.

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exactly. annual fees only make sense to me for point rewards or big perks that end up being worth more than the AF itself. For a cashback card that was really only special for grocery spending, $95 AF doesn't make any sense at all unless you are feeding a small militia, as there are many 3% cashback for groceries cards with no AF that I speculate would net a higher return outside of very high grocery budgets.

And this thing still has Foreign Transaction Fees...

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Not sure how they figure a cash back card is worth that much of AF. If you spent a ton at grocery stores i guess it could be, but as mentioned a single person would really not benefit at that point.

I spend around 200 per month on groceries, and that is the only reason i had been considering this card as a fall back if Sallie Mae ever is shut down but creeping that AF up even more likely would make it not even worth using.

---

Pretty much agree. For a single person, a $95 annual fee is steep for a cash back card. Yes you can buy merchant gift cards, but honestly, that's kind of a hassle and then you lose any purchase protections. Just depends how far you want to go for the cash back. For me, I wasn't really a fan of the buying gift card thing.

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exactly. annual fees only make sense to me for point rewards or big perks that end up being worth more than the AF itself. For a cashback card that was really only special for grocery spending, $95 AF doesn't make any sense at all unless you are feeding a small militia, as there are many 3% cashback for groceries cards with no AF that I speculate would net a higher return outside of very high grocery budgets.

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Oh, there is a range of grocery spend where BCP makes sense (just narrower now than it was).  With Sallie Mae demise for new apps, BCE also makes sense.   

Depending what you mean by "very high grocery budgets", BCP usually doesn't make sense for those, you need the Blue Cash (OBC)