topic Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP in Credit Cards

BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

eastsea — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 05:26:09 GMT

I have an offer to upgrade my BCE to BCP, $150 bonus after $1000 spend in 3 months, first year AF waived.

I do not intend to app for more cards any time soon so a little bonus without a HP or new account ding is great. With holiday season coming up, the spend will be met easily. But I have seen $250 bonus offers mentioned by others , some even with first AF waived too.

What's your thoughts about this offer? Is there a good chance a better one will come along?

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

wasCB14 — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 06:03:59 GMT

@eastsea wrote:
I have an offer to upgrade my BCE to BCP, $150 bonus after $1000 spend in 3 months, first year AF waived.

I do not intend to app for more cards any time soon so a little bonus without a HP or new account ding is great. With holiday season coming up, the spend will be met easily. But I have seen $250 bonus offers mentioned by others , some even with first AF waived too.

What's your thoughts about this offer? Is there a good chance a better one will come along?

I recently completed an upgrade/downgrade year. I upgraded at the end of June 2019 and downgraded in September 2020. I paid about $99 in total annual fees ($2 partial + $95 full + $95 full - $93 rebate on downgrade).

$150 with a waived AF is common, as is $250 without a waived AF. Mine was the latter.

I don't think I've heard of $250 with a waived AF. I'd take the $150 with the waived AF. You can always ride the cycle again sometime in the future.

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 13:53:29 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:

I don't think I've heard of $250 with a waived AF. I'd take the $150 with the waived AF. You can always ride the cycle again sometime in the future.

A recent thread had $300 with AF waived but I think that was new app rather than PC.

I agree with taking it. While mathematically the $250/no-waive is $5 better, a) this is no risk, if for some reason you don't meet the sign up, you haven't incurred a loss, and b) this is the offer you have!

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

MrDisco99 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 03:42:16 GMT

It's free money (and increased earning for a year) with no consequences. Take the offer.

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

SecretAzure — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 16:12:20 GMT

Any idea what triggers this offer? I had it for a month and change last year and let it slip. Can't remember which version of the offer it was though. Right now I don't see any offers on the app though. I would definitely take the no AF version at this current time.

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

SecretAzure — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 16:31:41 GMT

Scratch my previous question. They confirmed that I don't have an offer due to low spend. As it turns out, I only spent ~$630 on this card this year out of my $18K balance.

I got a CLD over a year ago due to low use from $25K and I was able to get back much of the limit. They said I hadn't even used $2% of my previous limit so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Apperantly, I have barely hit 3% this year (just in the last couple of weeks) which means I probably am still not showing as a profitable cardholder to them. I did get Marvel and Best Buy credit cards in the last couple of years and much of what would have been Amex spend did go to them instead. I used to use Amex to finance with Plan It but since most of what I'm financing is from Best Buy anyway, they have only been used on the few medium-ish purchases that fall outside of Best Buy...to date, there were only 2 such purchases this year.

It has been helping me regain control of my finances to not put my grocery purchases on the Amex. Once I'm down to all zero, I will try to put at least my grocery spend on the card...while keeping track of it as best I can.

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

eastsea — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:15:14 GMT

Thanks guys, appreciate the advice.

I clicked on the "explore offer" without applying and the offer disappeared for a day or 2. But now it came back.

@SecretAzure wrote:
Any idea what triggers this offer? I had it for a month and change last year and let it slip. Can't remember which version of the offer it was though. Right now I don't see any offers on the app though. I would definitely take the no AF version at this current time.

Now both Amex and Chase have been drumming up sign-up offers to gain market shares and I think this offer is likely just a part of their larger plans.

My own spending is also very low and if I do decide to upgrade, I will not keep the card after one year because there is no way I will spend enough to justify the annual fee. I hope that downgrading after one year won't get me in trouble with Amex.

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

eastsea — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:29:28 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@eastsea wrote:
I have an offer to upgrade my BCE to BCP, $150 bonus after $1000 spend in 3 months, first year AF waived.

I do not intend to app for more cards any time soon so a little bonus without a HP or new account ding is great. With holiday season coming up, the spend will be met easily. But I have seen $250 bonus offers mentioned by others , some even with first AF waived too.

What's your thoughts about this offer? Is there a good chance a better one will come along?

I recently completed an upgrade/downgrade year. I upgraded at the end of June 2019 and downgraded in September 2020. I paid about $99 in total annual fees ($2 partial + $95 full + $95 full - $93 rebate on downgrade).

$150 with a waived AF is common, as is $250 without a waived AF. Mine was the latter.

I don't think I've heard of $250 with a waived AF. I'd take the $150 with the waived AF. You can always ride the cycle again sometime in the future.

I got the card late Oct 2019. Come to think of it, I believe upgrading to a higher annual fee card is not allowed within the first year? So my guess is if I upgrade, the clock will only start ticking after the first anniversary date.

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

wasCB14 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:40:49 GMT

@eastsea wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
@eastsea wrote:
I have an offer to upgrade my BCE to BCP, $150 bonus after $1000 spend in 3 months, first year AF waived.

I do not intend to app for more cards any time soon so a little bonus without a HP or new account ding is great. With holiday season coming up, the spend will be met easily. But I have seen $250 bonus offers mentioned by others , some even with first AF waived too.

What's your thoughts about this offer? Is there a good chance a better one will come along?

I recently completed an upgrade/downgrade year. I upgraded at the end of June 2019 and downgraded in September 2020. I paid about $99 in total annual fees ($2 partial + $95 full + $95 full - $93 rebate on downgrade).

$150 with a waived AF is common, as is $250 without a waived AF. Mine was the latter.

I don't think I've heard of $250 with a waived AF. I'd take the $150 with the waived AF. You can always ride the cycle again sometime in the future.
I got the card late Oct 2019. Come to think of it, I believe upgrading to a higher annual fee card is not allowed within the first year? So my guess is if I upgrade, the clock will only start ticking after the first anniversary date.

I'm not sure what you mean by the clock ticking after the first anniversary, but...

My BCE-BCP-BCE account is from 2014. I had gotten upgrade offers before but ignored them since I didn't understand that I could easily switch back to BCE in the future (instead of being forced to close the account if I no longer found the AF worthwhile and Amex wasn't in the mood to allow me to downgrade).

My EDP-ED-EDP account is from 2015.

I could, in principle, PC my BCE back to a BCP today. Even though it's only been a BCE for a few weeks, it's a 2014 account. The "no AF hikes in the first year" rule does not apply since the account is a full 6 years old.

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

Remedios — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:45:49 GMT

@eastsea wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
@eastsea wrote:
I have an offer to upgrade my BCE to BCP, $150 bonus after $1000 spend in 3 months, first year AF waived.

I do not intend to app for more cards any time soon so a little bonus without a HP or new account ding is great. With holiday season coming up, the spend will be met easily. But I have seen $250 bonus offers mentioned by others , some even with first AF waived too.

What's your thoughts about this offer? Is there a good chance a better one will come along?

I recently completed an upgrade/downgrade year. I upgraded at the end of June 2019 and downgraded in September 2020. I paid about $99 in total annual fees ($2 partial + $95 full + $95 full - $93 rebate on downgrade).

$150 with a waived AF is common, as is $250 without a waived AF. Mine was the latter.

I don't think I've heard of $250 with a waived AF. I'd take the $150 with the waived AF. You can always ride the cycle again sometime in the future.
I got the card late Oct 2019. Come to think of it, I believe upgrading to a higher annual fee card is not allowed within the first year? So my guess is if I upgrade, the clock will only start ticking after the first anniversary date.

There won't be any clock ticking, you have an offer with waived AF. 0=0

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

eastsea — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:55:14 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@eastsea wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
@eastsea wrote:
I have an offer to upgrade my BCE to BCP, $150 bonus after $1000 spend in 3 months, first year AF waived.

I do not intend to app for more cards any time soon so a little bonus without a HP or new account ding is great. With holiday season coming up, the spend will be met easily. But I have seen $250 bonus offers mentioned by others , some even with first AF waived too.

What's your thoughts about this offer? Is there a good chance a better one will come along?

I recently completed an upgrade/downgrade year. I upgraded at the end of June 2019 and downgraded in September 2020. I paid about $99 in total annual fees ($2 partial + $95 full + $95 full - $93 rebate on downgrade).

$150 with a waived AF is common, as is $250 without a waived AF. Mine was the latter.

I don't think I've heard of $250 with a waived AF. I'd take the $150 with the waived AF. You can always ride the cycle again sometime in the future.
I got the card late Oct 2019. Come to think of it, I believe upgrading to a higher annual fee card is not allowed within the first year? So my guess is if I upgrade, the clock will only start ticking after the first anniversary date.
I'm not sure what you mean by the clock ticking after the first anniversary, but...

My BCE-BCP-BCE account is from 2014. I had gotten upgrade offers before but ignored them since I didn't understand that I could easily switch back to BCE in the future (instead of being forced to close the account if I no longer found the AF worthwhile and Amex wasn't in the mood to allow me to downgrade).

My EDP-ED-EDP account is from 2015.

I could, in principle, PC my BCE back to a BCP today. Even though it's only been a BCE for a few weeks, it's a 2014 account. The "no AF hikes in the first year" rule does not apply since the account is a full 6 years old.

I meant the official conversion date from BCE to BCP. I would like to know the exact date the card becomes a BCP that way I will know when to downgrade a year down the road so that I will have kept the card for at least one year and will not risk a claw back. After that I don't mind paying for a month or so worth of annual fee but not for a whole year.

I opened the card 10/24/2019 so I think the official conversion date will have to be 10/25/2019 the earliest. Is that right?

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

Remedios — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 20:01:51 GMT

No, that's wrong.

Your AF is waived, so your anniversary will start with conversion date

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

eastsea — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 20:02:06 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
No, that's wrong.
Your AF is waived, so your anniversary will start with conversion date

Aha, now I see. Didn't think of it that way. Thanks!

Re: BCE Upgrade Offer to BCP

wasCB14 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 20:25:07 GMT

When I upgraded BCE and ED, I got a partial AF a month or two after the upgrade.

I'm not sure how the waived-for-12-months offers work, exactly. I imagine you'd get a partial AF billed in about 13 months. So I think a partial AF posting might be a clear indication you'd had it for a full year.