topic Re: American Express BCE? in Credit Cards

American Express BCE?

distantarray — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 08:34:24 GMT

I honestly don't understand why anyone in the world would get a BCE over a BCP?

Even with the nerfs to both cards to $6,000 in groceries if you do the math.. $75 annual fee on the BCP is taken care of if you spend $25 a week JUST in groceries.

Now if you spend $50 a week in groceries you'll have the same amount of savings from BCE.

It's also safe to say if your buying gas and shopping at department stores the higher tiers on the BCP should save you even more money. I understand that people sockdrawer cards, but BCP being best card in the market for groceries, this should be one of the last sockdrawered card, and if you were going to sock drawer it, you could always product change it to another card or change it to a BCE.

Re: American Express BCE?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:34:17 GMT

2 words. Annual fee. While what you state is true even on paper but most people see the words annual fee and run!

Re: American Express BCE?

distantarray — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:48:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
2 words. Annual fee. While what you state is true even on paper but most people see the words annual fee and run!

still I want to bang my head against the wall when people don't do the math =\

Like my friend's gf was buying protein and I read the label. $29 EAS Protein 240 calories 20grams of protein per serving. 20 servings per bag. Sounds fine, but another one was $35 Muscle Tech protein 70 servings per bag 20 grams of protein 120 calories. (which tastes a lot better imo)

So she wanted a lower calorie protein with more servings, I hate how people don't read sometimes, maybe I'm a bit weird but if you look at supermarkets I count everything =p sometimes buying smaller saves money over buying bulk (don't understand it but works sometimes)

But yea personally I hate annual fees, but 2 cards I don't worry about annual fees is BCP and Chase Sapphire. BCP cause I get all the benefits and Chase Sapphire for added purchase protection even better than Amex imo, and a 0% foreign transaction fee, and a gateway for my ultimate reward points from Freedom for 25% bonus. etc

Re: American Express BCE?

jsickz32 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:55:17 GMT

i got the BCE because i at most spend $10 at the supermarket everymonth and that is if the they dont have water on sale lol. i do spend a lot of money on gas but i never think about what card im using until i finished filling up lol

Re: American Express BCE?

distantarray — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:11:38 GMT

@jsickz32 wrote:
i got the BCE because i at most spend $10 at the supermarket everymonth and that is if the they dont have water on sale lol. i do spend a lot of money on gas but i never think about what card im using until i finished filling up lol

lol you should even with a BCE if you spend $65 a week you'd get a free fill up every year

Re: American Express BCE?

jsickz32 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:14:24 GMT

@distantarray wrote:
@jsickz32 wrote:
i got the BCE because i at most spend $10 at the supermarket everymonth and that is if the they dont have water on sale lol. i do spend a lot of money on gas but i never think about what card im using until i finished filling up lol
lol you should even with a BCE if you spend $65 a week you'd get a free fill up every year

i havent used my BCE in two months now. i spend $65 on gas every 4 days lol

Re: American Express BCE?

distantarray — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:16:39 GMT

@jsickz32 wrote:
@distantarray wrote:
@jsickz32 wrote:
i got the BCE because i at most spend $10 at the supermarket everymonth and that is if the they dont have water on sale lol. i do spend a lot of money on gas but i never think about what card im using until i finished filling up lol
lol you should even with a BCE if you spend $65 a week you'd get a free fill up every year
i havent used my BCE in two months now. i spend $65 on gas every 4 days lol

lmao i jus noticed you had 20 cards you actually carry everything? lol

Re: American Express BCE?

jsickz32 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:20:05 GMT

no i been using DCU platinum and NFCU flagship this month.

Re: American Express BCE?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:59:40 GMT

@jsickz32 wrote:
@distantarray wrote:
@jsickz32 wrote:
i got the BCE because i at most spend $10 at the supermarket everymonth and that is if the they dont have water on sale lol. i do spend a lot of money on gas but i never think about what card im using until i finished filling up lol
lol you should even with a BCE if you spend $65 a week you'd get a free fill up every year
i havent used my BCE in two months now. i spend $65 on gas every 4 days lol

$10 per month on supermarkets, $450 per month on gas, mmm. Sounds like you are a hydrocarbon eating life form rather than human! Or maybe you eat out.

Seriously, with that type of gas spend, have you looked at one of the Penfed cards, 5% off gas all the time?

Re: American Express BCE?

jsickz32 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:08:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@jsickz32 wrote:
@distantarray wrote:
@jsickz32 wrote:
i got the BCE because i at most spend $10 at the supermarket everymonth and that is if the they dont have water on sale lol. i do spend a lot of money on gas but i never think about what card im using until i finished filling up lol
lol you should even with a BCE if you spend $65 a week you'd get a free fill up every year
i havent used my BCE in two months now. i spend $65 on gas every 4 days lol
$10 per month on supermarkets, $450 per month on gas, mmm. Sounds like you are a hydrocarbon eating life form rather than human! Or maybe you eat out.

Seriously, with that type of gas spend, have you looked at one of the Penfed cards, 5% off gas all the time?

lol yes i eat out everyday. and yes i have looked at penfeds card and i applied for one of their cards when i joined penfed but was denied so im waiting for some INQs to fall off my cr to apply again.

Re: American Express BCE?

trumpet-205 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:43:37 GMT

@distantarray wrote:
I honestly don't understand why anyone in the world would get a BCE over a BCP?

Even with the nerfs to both cards to $6,000 in groceries if you do the math.. $75 annual fee on the BCP is taken care of if you spend $25 a week JUST in groceries.

Now if you spend $50 a week in groceries you'll have the same amount of savings from BCE.

If you are single, you can spend a lot less than $50 per week on groceries. For me, a family of three, I can stay around $30 per week on groceries without making compromises on what my family eat. While $25 per week will take care of annual fee, it does not mean it will earn more than BCE.

Re: American Express BCE?

distantarray — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:52:35 GMT

i have no idea how you can feed a family of 3 on $30 worth of groceries per week.... that's $10 a person a week.... breakfast lunch and dinner that's 21 meals a week that's only $1.42 per meal I have NO idea how that's possible. That's about right in Vietnam where $94 = 2,000,000 dong...... but I don't know about in America

Re: American Express BCE?

distantarray — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:54:08 GMT

@jsickz32 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@jsickz32 wrote:
@distantarray wrote:
@jsickz32 wrote:
i got the BCE because i at most spend $10 at the supermarket everymonth and that is if the they dont have water on sale lol. i do spend a lot of money on gas but i never think about what card im using until i finished filling up lol
lol you should even with a BCE if you spend $65 a week you'd get a free fill up every year
i havent used my BCE in two months now. i spend $65 on gas every 4 days lol
$10 per month on supermarkets, $450 per month on gas, mmm. Sounds like you are a hydrocarbon eating life form rather than human! Or maybe you eat out.

Seriously, with that type of gas spend, have you looked at one of the Penfed cards, 5% off gas all the time?
lol yes i eat out everyday. and yes i have looked at penfeds card and i applied for one of their cards when i joined penfed but was denied so im waiting for some INQs to fall off my cr to apply again.

i take it your citi forward takes a lot of abuse

Re: American Express BCE?

trumpet-205 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:03:26 GMT

@distantarray wrote:
i have no idea how you can feed a family of 3 on $30 worth of groceries per week.... that's $10 a person a week.... breakfast lunch and dinner that's 21 meals a week that's only $1.42 per meal I have NO idea how that's possible. That's about right in Vietnam where $94 = 2,000,000 dong...... but I don't know about in America

I didn't make any compromise in what we eat. We don't eat a lot and we stay away from stuffs like cheese, 7-Up, etc that while taste great, are unhealthy and expensive. Clip for coupon, buying store brand instead, and couple money savings methods.

And your comparsion to Vietnam is inaccurate. Vietnam is like China that while wages are low, their cost of living is also low (many times a fraction of US). For example, in China you can have Fiber network of 1Gbps for about $25 USD. In US the highest we have is 50 Mbps (0.05 Gbps) for about $150 USD.

Re: American Express BCE?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:08:10 GMT

I have the bce right now as I am a college student and don't purchase enough in groceries and gas to cover the annual fee. I will eventually upgrade to the preferred, if that is possible?

Re: American Express BCE?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:08:49 GMT

@trumpet-205 wrote:
And your comparsion to Vietnam is inaccurate. Vietnam is like China that while wages are low, their cost of living is also low (many times a fraction of US). For example, in China you can have Fiber network of 1Gbps for about $25 USD. In US the highest we have is 50 Mbps (0.05 Gbps) for about $150 USD.

Off topic, but things are faster than that now. Fios offeres 300 Mbps down/65 up for about $220. There are five tiers and 50 is the second lowest now. Price still sucks of course!

Re: American Express BCE?

Cageym — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:16:46 GMT

Why did I app for BCE? Because I work overseas. I have no gas or food bills except about 30 days a year. My housing and food are taken care of by the company I work for. I really don't spend enough to cover the AF.

Re: American Express BCE?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:24:12 GMT

@Cageym wrote:
Why did I app for BCE? Because I work overseas. I have no gas or food bills except about 30 days a year. My housing and food are taken care of by the company I work for. I really don't spend enough to cover the AF.

So why bother even with BCE? A no FTF card would be better I would think! So just as an example, Capital One Cash Rewards gives you more than BCE in the "other" category, no FTF, and, if score is high enough, no AF.

Re: American Express BCE?

Cageym — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:28:37 GMT

I already have 2 Amex cards so the backdating is a bonus. And I'm on a US Navy Base so I have no FTF here anyway. All on island purchases show as coming from Virginia Beach.

Re: American Express BCE?

distantarray — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:47:33 GMT

@trumpet-205 wrote:
@distantarray wrote:
i have no idea how you can feed a family of 3 on $30 worth of groceries per week.... that's $10 a person a week.... breakfast lunch and dinner that's 21 meals a week that's only $1.42 per meal I have NO idea how that's possible. That's about right in Vietnam where $94 = 2,000,000 dong...... but I don't know about in America
I didn't make any compromise in what we eat. We don't eat a lot and we stay away from stuffs like cheese, 7-Up, etc that while taste great, are unhealthy and expensive. Clip for coupon, buying store brand instead, and couple money savings methods.

And your comparsion to Vietnam is inaccurate. Vietnam is like China that while wages are low, their cost of living is also low (many times a fraction of US). For example, in China you can have Fiber network of 1Gbps for about $25 USD. In US the highest we have is 50 Mbps (0.05 Gbps) for about $150 USD.

your talking to a guy that spends his entire summers in Vietnam, and Vietnam is NOT like China, China is a lot more expensive, yes wages are low but but the numbers are accurate. it costs anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 dong to eat cheap in vietnam which is what you need to eat. The wages in Vietnam is about $120-200 a month US on average. It's possible to feed a family on $20 a month if you go really cheap, but that's not even ideal there. Money goes about 10-12 times further in Vietnam. For instance a massage is $5 an hour give or take a couple dollars as long as you avoid tourist traps. The country is JUST starting to get 4g for cellphones this summer, and is not even outin all areas. I'm not Vietnamese myself but I do spend the last few summers there since my line of work is very seasonal and I get a lot of free time in the summer if I choose to. I just got back in September. They can not get 1gbps for $25 there an most places are still on ADSL.