New AMEX and impressed

[Ghoshida]

Copied from an earlier post:

My first and only AMEX has been the Blue Cash Everyday (3% groceries, 2% gas, and 1% everything else). $50 bonus. $1k limit. Best fit for my needs without annual fees.

Got with average scores. Denied for CLI. EX 663.

Card looks really nice. Reward % lower than Sallie Mae but easier to redeem.

My complain with AMEX BCE: Often misses out on rewarding the bonus, and the system is complicated. First, I need to look at the previous month's (not current) billing statement to match the bonus category spendings. Then they miss out on groceries: Whole Foods and Randall's. Whole Foods was on AMEX website list of supermarket examples ! 

I have complained twice, then moved my grocery purchase to Sallie Mae. Easier to spot the rewards (posted on every transaction). The first chat rep tried to tell me there was nothing AMEX could do (Whole Foods was not a supermarket blah blah) then I copied their supermarket list link. The rep was decent enough to credit due cash back immediately. Second time (Randall's) I sent a mail. I got a reply in a week citing errors on their technical side and got the credit back in the next statement.

However, I am not so happy about back-checking every month. Anybody else got this problem?

[longtimelurker]

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@Ghoshida wrote:

Copied from an earlier post:

My first and only AMEX has been the Blue Cash Everyday (3% groceries, 2% gas, and 1% everything else). $50 bonus. $1k limit. Best fit for my needs without annual fees.

Got with average scores. Denied for CLI. EX 663.

Card looks really nice. Reward % lower than Sallie Mae but easier to redeem.

My complain with AMEX BCE: Often misses out on rewarding the bonus, and the system is complicated. First, I need to look at the previous month's (not current) billing statement to match the bonus category spendings. Then they miss out on groceries: Whole Foods and Randall's. Whole Foods was on AMEX website list of supermarket examples ! 

However, I am not so happy about back-checking every month. Anybody else got this problem?

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This is really my #1 complaint about Amex, apart from the delay in getting rewards, it is very hard to track that everything posted correctly, and judging from many forums, errors are quite frequent.   Also not quite living up to excellent customer service image: in Dec-Jan, it was discovered that Safeway (and some others) weren't posting correctly.  If you called, your account was credited, but if you didn't, it wasn't.  I would have thought it would be great PR to proactively fix, but I guess they didn't think so!

One question, you say Amex is easier to redeem than Sallie Mae.  Why?  They both need $25 and I find Amex redemption very clunky (need to reenter CVV for some reason!)

[Ghoshida]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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This is really my #1 complaint about Amex, apart from the delay in getting rewards, it is very hard to track that everything posted correctly, and judging from many forums, errors are quite frequent.   Also not quite living up to excellent customer service image: in Dec-Jan, it was discovered that Safeway (and some others) weren't posting correctly.  If you called, your account was credited, but if you didn't, it wasn't.  I would have thought it would be great PR to proactively fix, but I guess they didn't think so!

One question, you say Amex is easier to redeem than Sallie Mae.  Why?  They both need $25 and I find Amex redemption very clunky (need to reenter CVV for some reason!)

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Yes; Randall's is indeed one of the Safeway group supermarkets. I used AMEX again there last month. Let me see if they credit correctly in the next statement. 

With Sallie Mae, I decided to go the UPromise route, because they said it would be 6-8 weeks for statement credit and pretty much similar timeframe for UPromise credit. I created a SM checking, hoping to get the 10% annual bonus (again, will see if that actually happens at the end of the year). 

With AMEX, once the rewards were on the statement, redemption happened promptly (under a couple of days, maybe?).

Yeah, the $25 thing is actually worse with AMEX not showing reward earnings immediately. With SMMC, if I'm short by $5, all I need to do is grocery shop today for $100 and I'll see rewards tomorrow (+1 or 2 days if weekend).

[longtimelurker]

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@Ghoshida wrote:

Yes; Randall's is indeed one of the Safeway group supermarkets. I used AMEX again there last month. Let me see if they credit correctly in the next statement. 

With Sallie Mae, I decided to go the UPromise route, because they said it would be 6-8 weeks for statement credit and pretty much similar timeframe for UPromise credit. I created a SM checking, hoping to get the 10% annual bonus (again, will see if that actually happens at the end of the year). 

With AMEX, once the rewards were on the statement, redemption happened promptly (under a couple of days, maybe?).

Yeah, the $25 thing is actually worse with AMEX not showing reward earnings immediately. With SMMC, if I'm short by $5, all I need to do is grocery shop today for $100 and I'll see rewards tomorrow (+1 or 2 days if weekend).

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Oh, OK, don't use uPromise.  Straight redemption from the Barclays SM website is very easy