Amex BCE vs Consumer CU visa signature cash rebate

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

Amex BCE is going to be less used from now on ,will not be my main card for grocery spending. Consumers CU visa signature card has everything that Amex BCE offers (pls correct me if i am missing anything here) it gives 3% on grocery , 2% on gas and 1% on everything else.

The pros - If you have a rewards checking with consumers cu and have some savings put aside to earn interest , by spending 500$ on groceries every month using

their visa sig cash rebate , you can earn 3.59% interest on your savings apart from 3% cash rebate rewards that you get by using the card itself. And since the annual spend limit is 6000$ on the groceries (BCE has the same limit i suppose?), if you can spend 500$ more in other categories permonth making the total spend 1000$ then you get 4.59% on your savings (up to 20000) in addition to all the rewards cash. The redemption is automatic every month , no wait time like BCE. and definitely not in 25$ increments, there is no such limitation. Another major point is this card has no balance transfer fee or cash advance fee, and has the introductory 1.99% apr for 12 months and sometimes 15months for both cash advance and balance transfer. you can move the money out of the credit card to rewards checking and earn 3.59% to 4.59% interest on it while you pay only 1.99%.

Another plus point for me at least it apparently codes Walmart as groceries. so walmart purchases get 3% as well which Amex does not have.

I am loving being part of the Consumers CU IL. So far they have been excellent in their customer service. They work with you as per your individual situation and make exemptions to the rules, for me they approved auto loan just with bank statements and did not ask for any income proof for the Visa signature CC , probably the auto loan was just a week old and i had provided all that was needed in my case bank statements mainly because i am self employed. They look at your overall relationship with them , savings , other products etc and take that into consideration as well.

Cons- you have to be a member of this CU to get the card.

What do you guys think? Does AMEX BCE have any other features (apart from bonus ofcourse, which i have already got) that are better or different than this card that i am missing?

https://www.myconsumers.org/credit-cards/visa-cards/visa-signature-cash-rebate-card

jacetx · ‎08-23-2017

BCE has also 2% at Department Stores.

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

Hmm thats a good feature of BCE , thanks!. I just notcied that Consumers cu card gives 3% on groceries and convenience stores. This made me wonder if instore purchase of gas at quick trip, caseys , 7/11 etc count for 3% ? Then would be super cool. I can totally replace aarp with this for gas. I spend around 250 per month on gas and my spouse does the same. We both use my aarp card right now for 3%

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

Your analysis is spot-on. I'm a big proponent of this CU and the strategy you lay out.

Ironically, I'm not using it right now. I still have $10k in the checking account, and I'm doing the debit card transactions to get the 3% APR, but my grocery spending is being diverted to my USBank Altitude card to meet the initial spend. Almost all of my grocery spend is at stores that take Android pay, so that's counting for 3x points (worth 3% cashback or potentially 4.5% toward travel) *and* meeting my initial spend, and the rest of my general spend is getting 3% cashback (for a few more months) on my Alliant CC.

Apart from a temporary situation like this, the CCU checking/debit card/credit card combo is a winner.

I wanted to note that sometimes I've been surprised (in a good way) by how things code. Walmart (at least those that MCC as 05411) does count as grocery. And I found out by accident that the service department at the car dealership I use codes as a 2% category. So if I'm planning to meet the spending threshold for the current month and I have to charge something at the dealership, I'll use the CCU credit card there (as opposed to using the CC at places that only result in 1% back).

And one other nice thing about CCU (as opposed to all of the other rewards checking accounts I've used) is that they give you a status screen when you log in that shows how many debit card transactions you've done and what dollar amount of credit card transactions you've done and the resulting interest rate you've qualified for so far this month. Nicer than having to keep track of it yourself.

Chris.

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Hmm thats a good feature of BCE , thanks!. I just notcied that Consumers cu card gives 3% on groceries and convenience stores. This made me wonder if instore purchase of gas at quick trip, caseys , 7/11 etc count for 3% ? Then would be super cool. I can totally replace aarp with this for gas. I spend around 250 per month on gas and my spouse does the same. We both use my aarp card right now for 3%

As both the Consumer Credit Union and BCE limit you to 6k a year on groceries why not just use them both? Also when I use my cards at convience stores that have Gas they always come up as gas even if I purchase food. You can get more than 3 percent on gasoline if you have a Bank of America cash rewards card and have any kind of account with Bank of America. Minimum reward would be 3.3 percent.

LadyJEsq · ‎08-23-2017

OMG! Another CC that would be perfect for me. I now have three CCs that I had no intention of apping for, itching my fingers now. This is why I had to avoid this site for so long. I plan on buying a car in the near future, and they have the lowest auto loan rate I have ever seen, 1.74% and that includes used cars. The lowest rates I've only seen for new cars, such as SDFCU, this one goes as far back as 2011. And it's located in IL with co-op branches near both my home and work, not that it matters since it only cost $5 to become a member! Yep, think I'm going to have to join.

**FICO 8 Scores EQ EX TU **

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hmm thats a good feature of BCE , thanks!. I just notcied that Consumers cu card gives 3% on groceries and convenience stores. This made me wonder if instore purchase of gas at quick trip, caseys , 7/11 etc count for 3% ? Then would be super cool. I can totally replace aarp with this for gas. I spend around 250 per month on gas and my spouse does the same. We both use my aarp card right now for 3%
As both the Consumer Credit Union and BCE limit you to 6k a year on groceries why not just use them both? Also when I use my cards at convience stores that have Gas they always come up as gas even if I purchase food. You can get more than 3 percent on gasoline if you have a Bank of America cash rewards card and have any kind of account with Bank of America. Minimum reward would be 3.3 percent.

I thought about using BCE as back up for grocery spending. Yes. One thing i am very disappointed about BCE though is 25$ incremental redemption. This alone makes me want to avoid the card. I had some 32$ rewards last month i could only redeem 25$. 12$ is sitting in as unusable cash back. And to make it whole 25 i have to plan the exact expense i will put on the card not more. And also wait like 2 months to actually use it in a meaningful way.

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Your analysis is spot-on. I'm a big proponent of this CU and the strategy you lay out.

Ironically, I'm not using it right now. I still have $10k in the checking account, and I'm doing the debit card transactions to get the 3% APR, but my grocery spending is being diverted to my USBank Altitude card to meet the initial spend. Almost all of my grocery spend is at stores that take Android pay, so that's counting for 3x points (worth 3% cashback or potentially 4.5% toward travel) *and* meeting my initial spend, and the rest of my general spend is getting 3% cashback (for a few more months) on my Alliant CC.

Apart from a temporary situation like this, the CCU checking/debit card/credit card combo is a winner.

I wanted to note that sometimes I've been surprised (in a good way) by how things code. Walmart (at least those that MCC as 05411) does count as grocery. And I found out by accident that the service department at the car dealership I use codes as a 2% category. So if I'm planning to meet the spending threshold for the current month and I have to charge something at the dealership, I'll use the CCU credit card there (as opposed to using the CC at places that only result in 1% back).

And one other nice thing about CCU (as opposed to all of the other rewards checking accounts I've used) is that they give you a status screen when you log in that shows how many debit card transactions you've done and what dollar amount of credit card transactions you've done and the resulting interest rate you've qualified for so far this month. Nicer than having to keep track of it yourself.

Chris.

Oh wow , if it counts car dealership service as 2% thats awesome. I take mine to goodyear , not sure if it will count as 2% .

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hmm thats a good feature of BCE , thanks!. I just notcied that Consumers cu card gives 3% on groceries and convenience stores. This made me wonder if instore purchase of gas at quick trip, caseys , 7/11 etc count for 3% ? Then would be super cool. I can totally replace aarp with this for gas. I spend around 250 per month on gas and my spouse does the same. We both use my aarp card right now for 3%
As both the Consumer Credit Union and BCE limit you to 6k a year on groceries why not just use them both? Also when I use my cards at convience stores that have Gas they always come up as gas even if I purchase food. You can get more than 3 percent on gasoline if you have a Bank of America cash rewards card and have any kind of account with Bank of America. Minimum reward would be 3.3 percent.
I thought about using BCE as back up for grocery spending. Yes. One thing i am very disappointed about BCE though is 25$ incremental redemption. This alone makes me want to avoid the card. I had some 32$ rewards last month i could only redeem 25$. 12$ is sitting in as unusable cash back. And to make it whole 25 i have to plan the exact expense i will put on the card not more. And also wait like 2 months to actually use it in a meaningful way.

NFCU has a 50 dollar incremental and Barclay Arrival + has 100 dollar redemption minimum. 25 dollars doesn't seem that big a deal. Bank of America also has 25 minimum but not the incremental . The BCE has no annual fee so there is no hurry to get the reward up to an incremental amount.

Anonymous · ‎08-23-2017

love consumers credit union. I also use the credit card to get the 4.6% on my checking account (up to 20 K). really great credit union, been a member for a few years now.