How to get the most out of Amex BCE?

[simplynoir]

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Amex can't see my receipt, how would they know if it's a gift card or bread I purchased?

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Exactly, perhaps we should get a group of people whom would like to test this out during a statement....🤔🤔

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I think you will find that LOTS of people have been doing it here for quite a while!

Re concerns: the BCP is capped low, so it is very unlikely that Amex will put effort into researching use of gift cards on this credit card.   Eventually they got concerned with the uncapped OBC, but there have been NO reports of any issues now that that card is capped at $50K a year.

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Considering the card looks discontinued at this point AMEX should have even fewer worries on the OBC MS concerns.

[Gregory1776]

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I've purchased gift cards occasionally with Amex and they code as groceries along with everything else I'm buying that day.

Those terms are there so that if you go hog wild and buy $800 in gift cards, they can claw back those benefits and point to the specific place in the contract where it says they can.  They definitely can see if you doing MS to max out rewards, and they REALLY don't like it when people do that. Will they contact the merchant or anything to check what was bought or anything? That seems absurd. I’ll start getting gift cards, I have no intention on waiting 3 months to figure out if I’m getting the rewards. THANKS! 😁

My BCE was my first foray back with Amex after a bad end to our relationship a decade ago.  I got a great bonus from it, and my first 3x CLI.  Since then I have gotten approved for several more Amex cards with no HPs.  Getting that BCE was one of the best things I did for my credit.

That said, I probably won't keep it.  The rewards scheme on the Amex blue cash cards is truly medieval.  I can get 3% on groceries with my Synovus card and don't have to wait two statements to see it, and can redeem as much as I want.  If I was to put my grocery spend on the BCE, I'd have to spend over $833 before I could see any rewards, and I can't even redeem all of it because of the mandatory $25 increments.  For me, this is not a keeper card.

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[Gregory1776]

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It sounds like the overall tone from this thread more or less aligns with my original feeling that the BCE really isn't all that great of a card outside of the grocery category.  As others have stated, rotating cards sometimes offer 5% on groceries.  Discover has this going on from April-June, basically making my BCE irrelevant for those 3 cycles.  I guess I could look further into Amex offers and see if anything is appealing there. 

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Sorry to hijack the thread...

I like the card (BCP), and am ok with the Af, I can cover it with gas and groceries and other spending I may put through it. Originally I was going to get the BCE but wanted the BCP more.

[longtimelurker]

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I've purchased gift cards occasionally with Amex and they code as groceries along with everything else I'm buying that day.

Those terms are there so that if you go hog wild and buy $800 in gift cards, they can claw back those benefits and point to the specific place in the contract where it says they can.  They definitely can see if you doing MS to max out rewards, and they REALLY don't like it when people do that.

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While true, this is where cost/reward comes in for the issuer!   If you buy $800 gift cards with the BCP, you are making $48, AND using up your $6K grocery cap against "real" purchases.   The cost of verifying that these were "bad" and the risk of alienating a good customer is too high for this.  Issuers don't care at this level.    In my bad days, I was buying $30-40K per month, and this was very small compared to many.  Once enough people were earning 5% on $100K+ a month, Amex decided to care!

[Anonymous]

I too think I keep the card around because it's my highest CL, which I suppose "counts" for something.

I've never looked into any other Amex products, but perhaps a PC from the BCE to something else would be beneficial.

[redpat]

BBS.  Take a look at the EDP card.  Try to get the 30k MR sign-up bonus and you will probably have no HP if you get the card.  You then can combine the CL of your BCE card latter on.  4.50 points for grocery, 3 points for gas and 1.50 points for everything else.  Granted you need 30 swipes a month to to get the 50% monthly bonus, but if you stop for daily coffee it's really not that hard.  I really think this is one of Amex's best cards and you will start getting MR point offers along with Cashback offers.

You may like MR points better than their archaic cashback rewards.

[kdm31091]

You can only PC a BCE to a BCP card. You can't go to the ED series or anything.

You may find MR points better but really they are only valuable (IMO) for travel related redemption and some gift cards. Anything else you're looking at less than a 1% return at the base level, so it doesn't beat even your BCE. Just depends on what you want your rewards to do for you. If you do want travel, MR points can be great. If you want to redeem for statement credit type of things, MR points convert poorly.

[Anonymous]

Unless you have the Charles Schwab Amex Platinum. At a cash redemption rate of 1.25 cpp (compared to the usual 0.6), the Everyday card effectively has 3% CB on groceries - assuming you get 20 transactions per month on that card.

[morgacj2004]

I recently noticed I have Not been getting the 6% back from my local Fred Meyers store where I usually shop because it appears they are coding that as a "super store" giving me only 1% a little irritated as I like Fred Meyers. I could go back to Carrs Safeway but that is not my first choice for groceries.

[Gregory1776]

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BBS.  Take a look at the EDP card.  Try to get the 30k MR sign-up bonus and you will probably have no HP if you get the card.  You then can combine the CL of your BCE card latter on.  4.50 points for grocery, 3 points for gas and 1.50 points for everything else.  Granted you need 30 swipes a month to to get the 50% monthly bonus, but if you stop for daily coffee it's really not that hard.  I really think this is one of Amex's best cards and you will start getting MR point offers along with Cashback offers.

You may like MR points better than their archaic cashback rewards.

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What can you get out of the MR points?