topic Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ? in Credit Cards

Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Oct 2018 19:37:44 GMT

Want to get opinions on downgrading my BCP to BCE and apping for the GOLD. Would it be worth it to switch my grocery spend to the gold now that it has 4x points and get away from the BCP ? I can take advantage of the 4x @ restaurants(double my CSP) & $120 dining credits on the gold and then use the BCE for gas purchases. Does this make sense to do ? Other cards are CSP, CFU, CF & It.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

wasCB14 — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 00:15:51 GMT

It's hard to give you a useful answer without some idea of how you value MRs and URs, as well as your dining/grocery spend.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 00:28:07 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
It's hard to give you a useful answer without some idea of how you value MRs and URs, as well as your dining/grocery spend.

Never had MRs & never cashed in any of my URs. I looked up airline partners of each before and I would say I like MR ones more( I like Delta usually). Grocery spend is about $2800-3200. Dining usually pay cash so hard to say what I would end up charging.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 00:55:02 GMT

If you want to focus on travel, it makes perfect sense to downgrade your BCP and app for the Amex Gold. The net annual fee is $30 after the dining and airline fee credit. Make sure to get the 50k MR points sign up bonus instead of the 25k public offer.

You will rack up points pretty quickly with the 4x Supermarkets and Restaurants categories.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 07:37:41 GMT

I'm going to say it all depends what's your pleasure? I have a feeling of course you already know the answer to this... Are you wrestling to justify your AF with the BCP if it's worth it?

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

NRB525 — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 14:38:14 GMT

OP your situation looks very marginal for being able to make a better deal, with the Gold, long term. Heck, even the BCP vs BCE choice is a toss up.

If you spend $3,000 per year on groceries, and ( very important ) the store would code as Groceries in AMEX, then you could get 12,000 MR per year. Alternatively, you could use the Every Day, no AF card, and get 2.4 points if you hit the 20 swipes a month, giving you 7,200 Grocery MR per year. You already pay the AF for the CSP, so that two points dining is starting only from the one AF. If you pay cash for dining out and don't use the CSP already, then that CSP AF is a question why you are paying it?

The sign up bonus is nice, but with the Gold now you pay the $250 up front and have to figure how to make that work the first year.

It may be worth it to figure out what cards work best, but you should look closely at what you actually earn, perhaps try a card for a year, then make a more informed choice.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 22:16:31 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
OP your situation looks very marginal for being able to make a better deal, with the Gold, long term. Heck, even the BCP vs BCE choice is a toss up.

If you spend $3,000 per year on groceries, and ( very important ) the store would code as Groceries in AMEX, then you could get 12,000 MR per year. Alternatively, you could use the Every Day, no AF card, and get 2.4 points if you hit the 20 swipes a month, giving you 7,200 Grocery MR per year. You already pay the AF for the CSP, so that two points dining is starting only from the one AF. If you pay cash for dining out and don't use the CSP already, then that CSP AF is a question why you are paying it?

The sign up bonus is nice, but with the Gold now you pay the $250 up front and have to figure how to make that work the first year.

It may be worth it to figure out what cards work best, but you should look closely at what you actually earn, perhaps try a card for a year, then make a more informed choice.

Yes, the BCP vs BCE is a toss up usually end up with $10 more because of the BCP. I will not hit the need number of swipes for the EveryDay. I did the CSP for the sign up bonus at the time and do currently use it when on vacation & traveling but probably not worth the fee but I have every other Chase card that makes sense for me so just stick with it.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

UpperNwGuy — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 01:31:29 GMT

You appear to have too many cards with overlapping earning categories, and -- more importantly -- your spending levels are low, and these cards have fees that eat into the earnings. My advice would be as follows:

-- Pick UR or MR as your points system and cancel all cards that earn in the system you didn't choose. Seems like you prefer MRs, so you should cancel your Chase Sapphire.

-- If you pick MR, then cancel your BCP. Each dollar you spend on dining and groceries can only be spent once. If you want to earn MRs, then don't waste those small grocery dollars earning cash back.

-- Go get a good gas card with no annual fee. Something better than BCE.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

jdbkiang — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 04:16:22 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
You appear to have too many cards with overlapping earning categories, and -- more importantly -- your spending levels are low, and these cards have fees that eat into the earnings. My advice would be as follows:
-- Pick UR or MR as your points system and cancel all cards that earn in the system you didn't choose. Seems like you prefer MRs, so you should cancel your Chase Sapphire.
-- If you pick MR, then cancel your BCP. Each dollar you spend on dining and groceries can only be spent once. If you want to earn MRs, then don't waste those small grocery dollars earning cash back.
-- Go get a good gas card with no annual fee. Something better than BCE.

+1

Agree. I think it's important for you to decide whether you want to stick with MR or UR. Look into your travel habits and see which system fits your habits best.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

jb1280 — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 12:26:53 GMT

If I were you, I’d honestly look at where all of my spend took place and run some scenarios with card products that have the best return.

Looking at what you have, if you travel abroad at all or rent cars at all, I’d keep the Sapphire Preferred, as you have no foreign transaction fee and primary rental car coverage, plus when you book travel through Chase, you’ll get an additional 25% of value.

I’d also downgrade the BCP to BCE for grocery spend and Amex offers and get rid of that annual fee.

Membership Rewards points are great if you’re able to effectively use them and you have high spend. They are not as easy to ‘cash out’ as Ultimate Rewards points on a 1cpp basis.

Let’s put it this way, you’d have to put a minimum of $6,250 in restaurant/grocery spend in a year just to have the possibility of finding a SkyMiles reward ticket at 25,000 SkyMiles, which I find increasingly hard to find. In addition, you’d need to maximize the airline credit and dining credit to get that annual fee down to $30.

I personally carry three Amex cards and an emergency Visa for international travel and when Amex isn’t accepted. If I can’t get an additional $250 of net value out of a card, I don’t consider adding it. I’m also not interested in earning a lot of different reward currencies, managing complex spending strategies, and paying more than $200 in actual annual fees.

Re: Get the AMEX Gold & Downgrade the BCP ?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:42:40 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
You appear to have too many cards with overlapping earning categories, and -- more importantly -- your spending levels are low, and these cards have fees that eat into the earnings. My advice would be as follows:
-- Pick UR or MR as your points system and cancel all cards that earn in the system you didn't choose. Seems like you prefer MRs, so you should cancel your Chase Sapphire.
-- If you pick MR, then cancel your BCP. Each dollar you spend on dining and groceries can only be spent once. If you want to earn MRs, then don't waste those small grocery dollars earning cash back.
-- Go get a good gas card with no annual fee. Something better than BCE.

I prefer not to cancel any of the cards, I don't want to make credit score go down. I do think I am going to change BCP to BCE & not apply for the Gold. I think best to do is spend groceries & gas on BCE and dining on CSP and then everything thing else on the CFU except for when 5% on CF. This way no cancelling and no apping. All of the cards have fairly high limits so I don't want to mess with that either( CSP-$20k, CF-$12k, CFU-$24k, BCP-$45k & It -$36k).