AMEX Blue Cash Everyday vs. AMEX Blue Cash Preferred- Credit Req?

[Anonymous]

Hey all- looking to apply for one of the two cards above.  I know one is zero AF and one isn't.  My main question is if they both have the same credit "requirements" or would one or the other be easier to get.  

Creditcards.com shows min score to be 670, which we are above, I know that is noguarantee at all.  Appreciate any and all insight.  Util is 10%.

Thank you!

[TaperRandy]

I know for certain that Experian and Equifax are the two main pulls for Amex Everyday. I applied when both scores for me were in the mid 700 range and was approved immediately for a $15,000 CL. 

[MrDisco99]

I've only ever seen Amex pull EX.

Underwriting is pretty much the same for both cards.  Get the one that makes the most sense for you.  Basically, if you spend less than $264 per month on groceries, you won't earn enough to offset the annual fee, so go with the Everyday card.  If you spend more than that, then you come out ahead with the Preferred.

[Anonymous]

Really appreciate both of you replying. Very helpful. Good to know experian is the score they pull. Will have to pull the Fico score prior to applying

There are no pre qualifications on the website, I hope that isn’t an indication.

I imagine Amex BCE is much harder than other reward ca da with 0%.

[Anonymous]

If you have the Chase freedom and/or discover it, you can pretty much count on getting grocery covered once per year there. Sometimes, like right now, they get it the same quarter so i wouldn't count on twice unless you have the nusenda platinum cash rewards card which gets grocery in q1 every year.

Anyway, even if you only get it 1 time per year on a rotating card, you can consider the bce and BCP difference for 10 months rather than 12. It would be 9 since the discover it and freedom cover a quarter, but since they are 5% to bcp's 6% we can call it 10 for averaging. This would make the amount you need to spend per month $317 instead of $264 to justify the BCP - otherwise the BCE is a great backup to the 5% rotating cards.

But on that note consider the PayPal cash back MasterCard + PayPal business debit setup (you can get a PayPal business debit with a personal account) - this gives you 3% back on all credit charges and 2% back on all debit charges.

[Anonymous]

I'm not 100% sure that I have the direction right, but there are restrictions in adding an annual fee to a no fee card in the first year (I think). So if you get BCE and want BCP you can't PC for a year. I'm sure if I'm backwards, someone will correct me. 

[DaveInAZ]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:

I've only ever seen Amex pull EX.

Underwriting is pretty much the same for both cards.  Get the one that makes the most sense for you.  Basically, if you spend less than $264 per month on groceries, you won't earn enough to offset the annual fee, so go with the Everyday card.  If you spend more than that, then you come out ahead with the Preferred.

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It also matters where you buy groceries as the BCP 6% rewards is pretty much only the large chain grocery stores and excludes discount stores like Walmart & Target and wholesale clubs like Costco & Sams Club. I'm single and I checked my Quicken I've only spent just over $1k on groceries so far this year, right at $200/ month - but almost half of that was at Walmart. I've had the BCE since last year and have a current offer to upgrade to BCP, think I'll pass.

[Anonymous]

@daveinaz that’s really good info. Those are some big stores to leave out if basing signing up for the AF one. We have Kroger out here. Similar to Ralph’s and I’m reading that even that isn’t considered grocery

[Anonymous]

Dave, if the upgrade offer waives the annual fee for the first year, you might as well take it. You can downgrade back to bce after the first year.

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Dave, if the upgrade offer waives the annual fee for the first year, you might as well take it. You can downgrade back to bce after the first year.

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The upgrade offer has a $250 SUB for $1k 3 month spend, but the annual fee is applied in 45 days, I've had the BCE for a year so they don't need to waive the fee. Yeah, the SUB takes care of the AF for 2+ years, but I've gotten the impression reading here that Amex is not very keen on downgrades and they've been very nice to me.

And Debtguy, I'm pretty sure Amex will code Kroger as grocery. Somewhere on the Amex site they have a partial list of stores that code as grocery.