Love the card. So I cashed in my rewards balance which took care of the total balance due and then some.
Then I notice that one can't make the minimum payment with rewards dollars, so I make the minimum payment.
I log on today and my total balance due and current due are way off, but no minimum due. I call Amex.
They tell me that the rewards credit takes 30 days to be applied. **bleep**? Okay.... so I owe the current due or I pay interest, I ask. "Yep" is the reply.
I tell the nice guy I haven't paid interest on a card since the 20th century and I don't plan on doing it now. (His immediate response: "I see you have never carried a balance" so they have that metric at their fingertips. So I log on an pay the damn bill and will apparently have a large credit next month.
I am in a Fellini film? Does this make sense to any of you? And, at the present time, I am sober.
@IgnatiusReilly wrote:And, at the present time, I am sober.
Well there's your problem right there! 
Just about every CC company will tell you that your minimum balance cannot be paid with a rewards redemptions. In reality though, if that redemption brings your current balance down to $0 (different than the statement balance) then it satisfies the payment. You said you were expecting to have a credit balance after the redemption, or were you just talking about the _statement_ balance amount being covered "and then some"? Redemptions don't usually take 30 days assuming you had the points given to you and were allowed to request the redemption. Why not just give it 2-3 days and check to make sure it posted? Unless you were down to the last minute, that is.
One source of confusion might be the terms you're using. There's no "total balance DUE" as far as I know (I don't have the BCP but I've had many other Amex cards, just as a disclaimer). There is a "Total Balance" (but not due), which is what other normal CC companies just call "balance". This has nothing to do with what you need to pay in order to avoid interest. Just your current balance including new charges since your last statement. The one that matters is the other figure they give you, which is the amount of your last statement minus any payments you have made since then... in other words the amount you still need to pay by the due date in order to avoid interest. If you make multiple payments this might be confusing at first because the 3 numbers won't match. If you only make one payment, then the "remaining statement balance" should always be your last statement balance, or $0, depending on if you've paid it yet.
