topic Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred in Credit Cards

Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

10022016 — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 16:41:24 GMT

However, I plan to downgrade back it BCE before the annual fee. Are there consequences for doing this? I've been using the BCE for a few years now and never paid them a penny in interest. Do they automatically charge the $95 annual fee when I upgrade from BCE?

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

jbsilva21 — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 04:37:12 GMT

Yes, the annual fee will hit the next statement. Just wondering if there is a current sub? When I got my BCP it was $200 for $1000 spend within 3 months. If you use it for groceries and gas, you will get back more than the af. Not sure if you can get the sub since you have a Blue Cash Card now. For me I got the $200 and this year so far I have gotten around $600 in cash back. There is a youtuber named AskSebby and he has some good info on the valuation of rewards. Here is a link on the BCE vs BCP.

<Mod edit: sorry, that link isn't allowed. --UB>

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

SomewhereIn505 — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 04:37:46 GMT

@jbsilva21 wrote:
Yes, the annual fee will hit the next statement. Just wondering if there is a current sub? When I got my BCP it was $200 for $1000 spend within 3 months. If you use it for groceries and gas, you will get back more than the af. Not sure if you can get the sub since you have a Blue Cash Card now. For me I got the $200 and this year so far I have gotten around $600 in cash back. There is a youtuber named AskSebby and he has some good info on the valuation of rewards. Here is a link on the BCE vs BCP.

Good video! He explains and shows the calculation well too.

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

Blackswizz750 — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 21:12:45 GMT

That video is awesome of askSibbey. I am thinking about upgrading but I would have to use it a lot more for groceries and gas to make that work. The navy Amex covers both but not 6% cash back.

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

UpperNwGuy — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 23:33:15 GMT

Only upgrade from BCE to BCP if you spend more than $3300 per year on groceries. Below that amount, the BCE is better.

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 23:49:16 GMT

If you can max out the 6k then great it is worth it. I won't upgrade to BCP because of the AF and mostly because of other cards that give quarterly 5% on groceries(Discover, Freedom). So there is a good part of the year that a BCP would see no grocery spending. Although I apparently can use my Plan It feature to finance groceries for 18 months so......

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

UncleB — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 04:41:30 GMT

@Blackswizz750 wrote:
That video is awesome of askSibbey.

Just beware that some of the advice provided by his site(s) has been known to be quite incorrect, especially with regards to Amex.

I usually recommend for people to stick with Doctor of Credit or simply ask members of our site if you have a question about something.

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 05:02:00 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@Blackswizz750 wrote:
That video is awesome of askSibbey.
Just beware that some of the advice provided by his site(s) has been known to be quite incorrect, especially with regards to Amex.

I usually recommend for people to stick with Doctor of Credit or simply ask members of our site if you have a question about something.

Yes, while I didn't see anything wrong with this one, it is perhaps too over-simplified. Critical to mention:

1) Amex tends to be more restrictive than V/MC as to what counts as groceries, so make sure that your stores will get the 3/6%

2) MyFico "professionals" probably wouldn't use either card for gas, you can do better than 2-3%

3) As overmedicated says, rotating cards may overlap with BCP some quarters, so you are getting 6% vs 5% rather than 6% vs 3% for that quarter, which makes the annual fee harder to offset (and with Freedom URs, 5UR may be greater than 6% anyway)

4) The video stated the assumption that spend stays the same. For those not spending a lot on groceries, one advantage of the BCP is that it allows you to buy retail gift cards at the supermarket, for an effective 6% on those stores (And this includes e.g. Amazon gift cards). So it's quite likely that with the BCP your "grocery" bill can swell, while "other" categories decrease.

And an IMO comment: given the delay in Amex cashback rewards and the $25 min redemption, the BCE is of pretty marginal utility compared to a generic 2% card (and everyone should get one of them!)

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

UpperNwGuy — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 21:15:44 GMT

And when you are comparing cards, remember that the Amex BCP is really a 4.4% card, not a 6% card. Here's the math:

$6000 x.06 = $360 total possible cash back for groceries

$360 - $95 = $265 after annual fee is taken into account

$265 / $6000 = .044 net cash back rate

What this means is that a 5% rotating category card is always better than the BCP for groceries during the grocery quarter.

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

Meanmchine — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 00:36:01 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
And when you are comparing cards, remember that the Amex BCP is really a 4.4% card, not a 6% card. Here's the math:

$6000 x.06 = $360 total possible cash back for groceries
$360 - $95 = $265 after annual fee is taken into account
$265 / $6000 = .044 net cash back rate

What this means is that a 5% rotating category card is always better than the BCP for groceries during the grocery quarter.

You forgot a couple intrinsic values for the BCP

Amex CLIs are more often more generous then Discover

Amex will also allow you to have 5 active accounts. Discover 2?

Life isnt always as simple as 5% > 6%

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 01:29:19 GMT

@Meanmchine wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
And when you are comparing cards, remember that the Amex BCP is really a 4.4% card, not a 6% card. Here's the math:

$6000 x.06 = $360 total possible cash back for groceries
$360 - $95 = $265 after annual fee is taken into account
$265 / $6000 = .044 net cash back rate

What this means is that a 5% rotating category card is always better than the BCP for groceries during the grocery quarter.

You forgot a couple intrinsic values for the BCP

Amex CLIs are more often more generous then Discover
Amex will also allow you to have 5 active accounts. Discover 2?

Life isnt always as simple as 5% > 6%

You would have to quantify the real value of CLIs (~0 IMO). Also, you can only have one BCP, so not sure why issuer count is important. On the other hand, you can, by PC, have multiple Freedoms, so multiple 5% cards and just one BCP.

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

wasCB14 — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 02:23:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Meanmchine wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
And when you are comparing cards, remember that the Amex BCP is really a 4.4% card, not a 6% card. Here's the math:

$6000 x.06 = $360 total possible cash back for groceries
$360 - $95 = $265 after annual fee is taken into account
$265 / $6000 = .044 net cash back rate

What this means is that a 5% rotating category card is always better than the BCP for groceries during the grocery quarter.

You forgot a couple intrinsic values for the BCP

Amex CLIs are more often more generous then Discover
Amex will also allow you to have 5 active accounts. Discover 2?

Life isnt always as simple as 5% > 6%
You would have to quantify the real value of CLIs (~0 IMO). Also, you can only have one BCP, so not sure why issuer count is important. On the other hand, you can, by PC, have multiple Freedoms, so multiple 5% cards and just one BCP.

And BCP is a particularly useless card to have a giant CL on. So much spend would only earn 1% cash.

Re: Wanting to Upgrade AMEX BCE to Preferred

UpperNwGuy — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 03:21:55 GMT

I stand on the math from my earlier post. All that other stuff is pure fluff.