topic Re: Amex BCP fee change in Credit Cards

Amex BCP fee change

Bman70 — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 02:23:17 GMT

Anyone else see this on their statement? My annual fee was just billed this week so it won't affect me until next year. Any other Amex cards affected?

p.s. the "labels" requirement at the bottom of messages now is quite lame.. but let's not get off topic.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

creditguy — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 02:55:03 GMT

Yeah it's been floating around the past few weeks in a few threads that Amex was doing this. Guess they gotta make up some lost revenue somewhere.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Bman70 — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 03:02:18 GMT

@creditguy wrote:
Yeah it's been floating around the past few weeks in a few threads that Amex was doing this. Guess they gotta make up some lost revenue somewhere.

OK Themanwhocan, time to edit the charts

Re: Amex BCP fee change

14Fiesta — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 08:54:30 GMT

I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 10:16:58 GMT

@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?

From my understanding, it won't affect 'existing' people if your AF is before said date.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

UncleB — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 11:01:03 GMT

@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?

There was some speculation that the increase wouldn't impact existing cardholders, at least for a while, since historically Amex has 'grandfathered' the AF for existing customers for other card types (i.e. PRG).

It was never guaranteed, though, and it appears either they have decided to no longer grandfather anybody or perhaps they decided to not grandfather BCP cardholders (and will continue to selectively grandfather other card types).

In either case, BCP folks (including myself) are out of luck.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 11:21:44 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?
There was some speculation that the increase wouldn't impact existing cardholders, at least for a while, since historically Amex has 'grandfathered' the AF for existing customers for other card types (i.e. PRG).

It was never guaranteed, though, and it appears either they have decided to no longer grandfather anybody or perhaps they decided to not grandfather BCP cardholders (and will continue to selectively grandfather other card types).

In either case, BCP folks (including myself) are out of luck.

Are you going to take the new fee or downgrade when the time comes?

Re: Amex BCP fee change

UncleB — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 11:53:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?
There was some speculation that the increase wouldn't impact existing cardholders, at least for a while, since historically Amex has 'grandfathered' the AF for existing customers for other card types (i.e. PRG).

It was never guaranteed, though, and it appears either they have decided to no longer grandfather anybody or perhaps they decided to not grandfather BCP cardholders (and will continue to selectively grandfather other card types).

In either case, BCP folks (including myself) are out of luck.
Are you going to take the new fee or downgrade when the time comes?

I'll be taking the new fee... for my spending the math still makes sense even with a $95 fee.

I am genuinely hoping, though, that the Amex offers will get a little better to help offset the fee (a guy can dream, right?) Last year there were a few really good ones, but the rest were of no use or were really obscure. I know some people say that they are able to offset most of the fees with all their various cards strictly using the Amex offers, but that's not been my experience.

I will say that if the AF is increased again in the future, I will most certainly downgrade... hopefully that won't happen for a while, if ever.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

jawbrkr — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 15:34:15 GMT

That's just nuts. They are increasing the fee but what are people getting for this increase? Are they making any changes to the rewards for the better? I am guessing not.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Ghoshida — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 14:37:40 GMT

Trying to suck more money from customers while not correcting a broken reward calculator for more than 5 months.

Now that's what I call excellent customer service.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 16:59:25 GMT

@Ghoshida wrote:
Trying to suck more money from customers while not correcting a broken reward calculator for more than 5 months.

Now that's what I call excellent customer service.

But, but... an Amex CSR told me yesterday that they always provide excellent service to their valuable customers! Maybe their own definition of excellent

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Bman70 — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 18:36:31 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?
There was some speculation that the increase wouldn't impact existing cardholders, at least for a while, since historically Amex has 'grandfathered' the AF for existing customers for other card types (i.e. PRG).

It was never guaranteed, though, and it appears either they have decided to no longer grandfather anybody or perhaps they decided to not grandfather BCP cardholders (and will continue to selectively grandfather other card types).

In either case, BCP folks (including myself) are out of luck.
Are you going to take the new fee or downgrade when the time comes?
I'll be taking the new fee... for my spending the math still makes sense even with a $95 fee.

I am genuinely hoping, though, that the Amex offers will get a little better to help offset the fee (a guy can dream, right?) Last year there were a few really good ones, but the rest were of no use or were really obscure. I know some people say that they are able to offset most of the fees with all their various cards strictly using the Amex offers, but that's not been my experience.

I will say that if the AF is increased again in the future, I will most certainly downgrade... hopefully that won't happen for a while, if ever.

I'm keeping it as well. This year I already earned over $20 in addition to the 6% cashback cap.. by using the cel phone / internet offers of 10% back each. The Home Depot offer helped too. As long as I can make back the extra $20, the card remains effectively the same for me.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 19:50:49 GMT

@Bman70 wrote:

I'm keeping it as well. This year I already earned over $20 in addition to the 6% cashback cap.. by using the cel phone / internet offers of 10% back each. The Home Depot offer helped too. As long as I can make back the extra $20, the card remains effectively the same for me.

But there's no particular reason to think that the offers will be enhanced so that you will able to make $20 more than you did before, so this IS a net $20 loss. But for some, that still leaves the card as a reasonable choice.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Imperfectfuture — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 20:06:11 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?
There was some speculation that the increase wouldn't impact existing cardholders, at least for a while, since historically Amex has 'grandfathered' the AF for existing customers for other card types (i.e. PRG).

It was never guaranteed, though, and it appears either they have decided to no longer grandfather anybody or perhaps they decided to not grandfather BCP cardholders (and will continue to selectively grandfather other card types).

In either case, BCP folks (including myself) are out of luck.

What ya gonna do?

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Imperfectfuture — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 20:08:34 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?
There was some speculation that the increase wouldn't impact existing cardholders, at least for a while, since historically Amex has 'grandfathered' the AF for existing customers for other card types (i.e. PRG).

It was never guaranteed, though, and it appears either they have decided to no longer grandfather anybody or perhaps they decided to not grandfather BCP cardholders (and will continue to selectively grandfather other card types).

In either case, BCP folks (including myself) are out of luck.
Are you going to take the new fee or downgrade when the time comes?
I'll be taking the new fee... for my spending the math still makes sense even with a $95 fee.

I am genuinely hoping, though, that the Amex offers will get a little better to help offset the fee (a guy can dream, right?) Last year there were a few really good ones, but the rest were of no use or were really obscure. I know some people say that they are able to offset most of the fees with all their various cards strictly using the Amex offers, but that's not been my experience.

I will say that if the AF is increased again in the future, I will most certainly downgrade... hopefully that won't happen for a while, if ever.

I am not impressed with the offers. I never got the good ones (well, maybe staples). Starting to not care it's close to lowest apr. may eventually close, move limit to simplycash. Getting some good perks at new job.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Bman70 — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 20:37:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Bman70 wrote:

I'm keeping it as well. This year I already earned over $20 in addition to the 6% cashback cap.. by using the cel phone / internet offers of 10% back each. The Home Depot offer helped too. As long as I can make back the extra $20, the card remains effectively the same for me.
But there's no particular reason to think that the offers will be enhanced so that you will able to make $20 more than you did before, so this IS a net $20 loss. But for some, that still leaves the card as a reasonable choice.

Yeah if you take into account I would have earned that $20 anyway, and kept it, before the fee increase.

I don't think the offers will be enhanced, or at least not counting on it. But as long as I can make the 6% limit, and enough through offers to cover fee 'overheads,' the card is still good for my uses.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

UncleB — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 05:02:59 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@14Fiesta wrote:
I thought this wasn't supposed to be affecting existing cardholder's though?
There was some speculation that the increase wouldn't impact existing cardholders, at least for a while, since historically Amex has 'grandfathered' the AF for existing customers for other card types (i.e. PRG).

It was never guaranteed, though, and it appears either they have decided to no longer grandfather anybody or perhaps they decided to not grandfather BCP cardholders (and will continue to selectively grandfather other card types).

In either case, BCP folks (including myself) are out of luck.
What ya gonna do?

I'm gonna hang on to it... even with the increased fee, 6% on groceries (less $95) is still better than I would make out with a 2% or 3% card.

I know the Amex offers would have been there (or not been there) even if the fee hadn't increased so 'counting' that as a way to offset the fee is technically a misnomer, but it still adds value to the bottom line and the card is still a hard worker for me.

Not to derail this thread, but I'm actually surprised another issuer hasn't tried to come up with an offering that is similar to the BCP with regard to grocery stores. Honestly, if another card were to offer even 4% on groceries with no AF, I would probably jump ship in a heartbeat.

Amex offers are OK (when I get ones I can use) but it gets old having to 'work' to offset the AF.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

RonM21 — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 09:29:49 GMT

I guess it just depends on how much value the card has vs your spend and what you can get out of it. I was planning on apping this card in a few weeks and will have to figure this out up against what ever offer is there for me.

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 13:11:25 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
Not to derail this thread, but I'm actually surprised another issuer hasn't tried to come up with an offering that is similar to the BCP with regard to grocery stores. Honestly, if another card were to offer even 4% on groceries with no AF, I would probably jump ship in a heartbeat.

Right, but I presume that would be unprofitable, especially with a lower swipe fee than Amex! We did have Sallie Mae offering 5% (with 1/2 the cap of the BCP) which has gone for new users, and one of the geographically restricted TX CUs offers the equivalent of 3.3%

Re: Amex BCP fee change

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 13:17:11 GMT

Quick hijack- if you're spending between $10-12K/year on groceries is this still better than other cards even with the increased fee? Have the SM but of course that has a cap and who knows if it will last in its current form.