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AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

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SevenNEW
Established Contributor

AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

It was too good to last (for a long time)... This is what I found in the latest Billing Statement:

Blue Cash Preferred Reward Program
We are changing the amount of Reward Dollars earned on supermarket purchases. For the first $6,000 in U.S. stand-alone supermarket purchases during each calendar year, you will continue to earn 6%. For those purchases above $6,000 in that calendar year, you will earn only 1%. This means you will earn fewer Reward Dollars for supermarket purchases in excess of $6,000 in each calendar year. This change becomes effective when your account renews on or after January 15, 2013.

Still a good card, but the trend worries me.

SevenNEW, Garden Nerd - In the Garden until 2015!
4.2K 10K 24.6K
Message 1 of 19
18 REPLIES 18
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

LOL

still a million times better than Discover's $1500 limit on 5% cashback offers.

pahahah

 

Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 2 of 19
flowfaster
Established Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

What is lol about it is if you max out the discover categories you will end up with more than u will the BCP. Discover-$300 and BCP-$285. How is $285 a million times better? Plus discover usually tosses in a 5% grocery category as well.
Amex BCP/BC/Zync - Amex Business GR - Barclays NFL Visa Sig 49ers/Arrival - BoA BBR - Cap 1 Quicksilver - Citi Forward/Preferred - Chase Amazon/Freedom/Ink Plus - Discover IT - Fidelity Amex - GECRB Amazon/Walmart - PenFed PRV - Target - USAA Amex - US Bank CASH+/Club Carlson
Message 3 of 19
CreditEd
Regular Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13


@SevenNEW wrote:

It was too good to last (for a long time)... This is what I found in the latest Billing Statement:

Blue Cash Preferred Reward Program
We are changing the amount of Reward Dollars earned on supermarket purchases. For the first $6,000 in U.S. stand-alone supermarket purchases during each calendar year, you will continue to earn 6%. For those purchases above $6,000 in that calendar year, you will earn only 1%. This means you will earn fewer Reward Dollars for supermarket purchases in excess of $6,000 in each calendar year. This change becomes effective when your account renews on or after January 15, 2013.

Still a good card, but the trend worries me.


Great way to celebrate MLK day???


    NPSL              $25k            $25k              $23k              $22k               $16k              $12k              $10k            $6.5k
Message 4 of 19
webhopper
Moderator Emeritus

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

I think a lot of folks were abusing the system by buying gift cards at the grocery store.  6k is not a bad amount for groceries... My family is small, but we spend maybe $500 every two months.  6k limit would be more than adequate for us. Our grocery store doesn't take Amex though Smiley Sad  Also, a lot of groceries are purchased at Sams, who also does not take Amex. So the card we use is Discover for groceries.

 

I realize that grocery prices are different accross the country, so a lot of folks have different amounts of money spent for the same amount of food.

 

Also my family is odd because we don't buy much meat.  My husband and daughter hunt and fish, so our diet is largely supplemented by wild game, (pork, deer, squirrel, rabbit, fowl, trout, catfish, shrimp, crawfish)

 

The only type of meat we buy is beef, we eat beef that we have cooked probably once every two weeks. and chicken... We eat chicken probably 2 times per week.

FICO 9:
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.

Goal: Gardening!


Message 5 of 19
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

lol... guess it depends on what you spend on... 6% is still higher than 5%... but of course, you have to stick to the right categories.

Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 6 of 19
flowfaster
Established Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13


@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:

lol... guess it depends on what you spend on... 6% is still higher than 5%... but of course, you have to stick to the right categories.


LOL you still don't get it.  BCP has an AF of $75 making the 6% less than 5%.   It has nothing to do with categories and everthing to do with math. lol

Amex BCP/BC/Zync - Amex Business GR - Barclays NFL Visa Sig 49ers/Arrival - BoA BBR - Cap 1 Quicksilver - Citi Forward/Preferred - Chase Amazon/Freedom/Ink Plus - Discover IT - Fidelity Amex - GECRB Amazon/Walmart - PenFed PRV - Target - USAA Amex - US Bank CASH+/Club Carlson
Message 7 of 19
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

OHHHH!!!! hahah.. I get it.

this is why I have BCE; I hate AFs. LOL :-D

Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 8 of 19
Cdnewmanpac
Established Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13


@webhopper wrote:

I think a lot of folks were abusing the system by buying gift cards at the grocery store.  6k is not a bad amount for groceries... My family is small, but we spend maybe $500 every two months.  6k limit would be more than adequate for us. Our grocery store doesn't take Amex though Smiley Sad  Also, a lot of groceries are purchased at Sams, who also does not take Amex. So the card we use is Discover for groceries.

 

I realize that grocery prices are different accross the country, so a lot of folks have different amounts of money spent for the same amount of food.

 

Also my family is odd because we don't buy much meat.  My husband and daughter hunt and fish, so our diet is largely supplemented by wild game, (pork, deer, squirrel, rabbit, fowl, trout, catfish, shrimp, crawfish)

 

The only type of meat we buy is beef, we eat beef that we have cooked probably once every two weeks. and chicken... We eat chicken probably 2 times per week.


+1. People on some of the frequent flyer blogs had schemes for purchasing 10s of thousands of dollars in gift cards and vanilla products. Since Amex is both an issuer and a network, this pattern could be confirmed across multiple accounts. That was not the intent of the card, so Amex took action to limit this loophole. Anyone who has been following the news over the last year can expect rewards cards to all move in this direction and Amex even more so, given today's earnings report and wall street's reaction.

In wallet: Ink Plus 10k, AMEX TE 25k. In bag: CSP 16k, USAA WMC 15k, Hyatt 13k, United MPE 12k, AMEX HHonors 3k. In SD: Cap 1 QS 5k, Discover IT 7k. FICO 08 says my EQ is now 844, was 510 in 2010.
Message 9 of 19
Autumnslight
Frequent Contributor

Re: AMEX BCP Worsening Conditions Effective 1/15/13

That math assumes that there is a grocery 5% category available all year on Discover though, which is absolutely not the case. The best I've seen is two quarters out of the year, so the most you'd get back on Discover would be $150 on $3,000 of purchases. Assuming you met the $3k spend requirement with other purchases, and got a full 1% back on another $3k of groceries during the year, you're looking at an additional $30, for a total grocery cash back of $180 on $6,000 of spending with Discover.

 

With BCP, you get 6% on $6,000, which is $360, less the $75 annual fee, for a total of $285 back on $6,000 of groceries. BCP is clearly superior to Discover when it comes to grocery purchases, if you are going to max out the $6,000 annual limit. If you don't max it out, then it'll depend on your level of spending.

Scores:
07/29/12: EX FICO (Amex) 684 | EQ MyFICO 631 | TU Walmart 695
Current: EX FICO (MyFICO) 733 | EQ (MyFICO) 683 | TU (Walmart) 745

First Goal: 700+ across the board - Got it on EX & TU!!!
Message 10 of 19
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