Applying for an AMEX card while a Chase card application is pending....

[Anonymous]

I apped for the CSP and Amazon Visa on the same day. 2 days later apped for the penfed Pathfinder, for which I was approved instantly. A few days later I got the approval for the CSP and was denied the Amazon Visa, even after calling recon. They said I had too many requests for credit but it was apparent that they were unaware of the penfed app. My takeaway is it seems after you app and they do the pull, unless something unusual causes otherwise, they shouldn't pull again before they finish processing your app.

[Anonymous]

Alright, thanks everyone. Though, I noticed that Chase pulled Experian. There is also the inquiry from the Chase Freedom that is still there, though it's expected to disappear later this year. Plus, I did request a CLI for my School's First FCU credit card in 2016, and that's showing up there as well. Will AMEX care significantly about 3 inquiries? 2 of them are nearly 2 years old.

[Anonymous]

OP—In my experience, Amex was less inquiry averse than is Chase and some others. Your inquiries are very low compared to mine when I was approved. As always though, YMMV.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous@Anonymous wrote:
OP—In my experience, Amex was less inquiry averse than is Chase and some others. Your inquiries are very low compared to mine when I was approved. As always though, YMMV.

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Oh okay, thanks for the tip. Now all I need to do is make up my mind on whether to apply for BCE or BCP. 

[Anonymous]

I'd go for the BCP - no AF in year 1 and you can downgrade to the BCE in year 2. That's what I did, and I just took an offer to upgrade the BCE back to a BCP for 1 year with the AF waived again. There upgrade bonus is meh though, spend $2k for $150.

You could get both the BCE and BCP, get both sign up bonuses, then in year 2 downgrade the BCP to a BCE (not sure if you'd have to close the other BCE first or if you can have 2 BCEs this way)...hm actually I wonder if it's possible to just keep upgrading and downgrading both of them so that you more or less always have a BCP and a BCE and aren't paying any annual fees.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous@Anonymous wrote:
I'd go for the BCP - no AF in year 1 and you can downgrade to the BCE in year 2. That's what I did, and I just took an offer to upgrade the BCE back to a BCP for 1 year with the AF waived again. There upgrade bonus is meh though, spend $2k for $150.

You could get both the BCE and BCP, get both sign up bonuses, then in year 2 downgrade the BCP to a BCE (not sure if you'd have to close the other BCE first or if you can have 2 BCEs this way)...hm actually I wonder if it's possible to just keep upgrading and downgrading both of them so that you more or less always have a BCP and a BCE and aren't paying any annual fees.

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The first year annual fee is waived? As in, they won't charge the annual fee until let's say, March 2019? I don't see anything saying this on AMEX's website, other than they charge $95 per year. Was it a particular offer that was present at the time you applied? Because I know that CSP clearly says that the first year is waived, then the annual fee is applied after the first year. I don't see the same or similar wording for BCP

edit: for some reason, this reply of mine didn't show up in my browser, so I sent another similar one a bit later, sorry for sending two similar messages.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous@Anonymous wrote:
I'd go for the BCP - no AF in year 1 and you can downgrade to the BCE in year 2. That's what I did, and I just took an offer to upgrade the BCE back to a BCP for 1 year with the AF waived again. There upgrade bonus is meh though, spend $2k for $150.

You could get both the BCE and BCP, get both sign up bonuses, then in year 2 downgrade the BCP to a BCE (not sure if you'd have to close the other BCE first or if you can have 2 BCEs this way)...hm actually I wonder if it's possible to just keep upgrading and downgrading both of them so that you more or less always have a BCP and a BCE and aren't paying any annual fees.

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Was that some sort of special offer, the no annual fee in year 1? I don't see any mention of that at American Express' website. I know that Chase explicitly says it with their CSP applications that the annual fee is waived the first year. 

[UncleB]

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@Anonymouswrote:

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@Anonymous@Anonymous wrote:
I'd go for the BCP - no AF in year 1 and you can downgrade to the BCE in year 2. That's what I did, and I just took an offer to upgrade the BCE back to a BCP for 1 year with the AF waived again. There upgrade bonus is meh though, spend $2k for $150.

You could get both the BCE and BCP, get both sign up bonuses, then in year 2 downgrade the BCP to a BCE (not sure if you'd have to close the other BCE first or if you can have 2 BCEs this way)...hm actually I wonder if it's possible to just keep upgrading and downgrading both of them so that you more or less always have a BCP and a BCE and aren't paying any annual fees.

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Was that some sort of special offer, the no annual fee in year 1? I don't see any mention of that at American Express' website. I know that Chase explicitly says it with their CSP applications that the annual fee is waived the first year. 

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Unless there's something I've not seen yet (which is always possible) the annual fee for the BCP is not waived the first year, although some people like to think of the sign-up bonus as covering the first AF.

[Anonymous]

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@UncleBwrote:

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@Anonymouswrote:

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@Anonymous@Anonymous wrote:
I'd go for the BCP - no AF in year 1 and you can downgrade to the BCE in year 2. That's what I did, and I just took an offer to upgrade the BCE back to a BCP for 1 year with the AF waived again. There upgrade bonus is meh though, spend $2k for $150.

You could get both the BCE and BCP, get both sign up bonuses, then in year 2 downgrade the BCP to a BCE (not sure if you'd have to close the other BCE first or if you can have 2 BCEs this way)...hm actually I wonder if it's possible to just keep upgrading and downgrading both of them so that you more or less always have a BCP and a BCE and aren't paying any annual fees.

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Was that some sort of special offer, the no annual fee in year 1? I don't see any mention of that at American Express' website. I know that Chase explicitly says it with their CSP applications that the annual fee is waived the first year. 

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Unless there's something I've not seen yet (which is always possible) the annual fee for the BCP is not waived the first year, although some people like to think of the sign-up bonus as covering the first AF.

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Well, I suppose that does make sense. I can see myself spending $1000 within 3 months to get the $200, which I suppose could be used to waive two years of annual fees. Of course, not just going on a spending spree, rather simply using the AMEX for everything I normally spend money on, especially groceries and gas. 

Does the BCP require a better score or credit history than the BCE? Or are they about the same? Because I've received many mail-in offers for BCE and the ED, but never from BCP. 

[Anonymous]

Hm, apparently the BCP did offer a waived first year annual fee in about August 2017, but I couldn't easily find anything else. Odd, I thought I had no fee a couple years before that...but maybe not...well, the upgrade offer from the BCE to the BCP that I just got a couple weeks ago waived the annual fee, fwiw.