AMEX Blue Cash Preferred Possible Refresh

[Windchill92]

Still waiting for online shopping to be added to the BCP.

[Varsity_Lu]

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

At $150 they'll lose me. I'll be back to bce.

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Funny, because raising the AF would actually benefit us.  Right now we have 2 BCP and max them out every year.  I am playing the downgrade-upgrade game with my AmEx card to avoid the AF for now, but I don't really think that is a long term sustainable strategy.  If the grocery cap was raised to $12k, we would only need one BCP and I'd leave my card as a BCE.  The $150 AF would add value since ($720-$150) / $12,000 = 4.75%.  Right now the BCP returns ($360-$95) / $6,000 = 4.4%.

[Kforce]

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@Varsity_Lu wrote:

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

At $150 they'll lose me. I'll be back to bce.

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Funny, because raising the AF would actually benefit us.  Right now we have 2 BCP and max them out every year.  I am playing the downgrade-upgrade game with my AmEx card to avoid the AF for now, but I don't really think that is a long term sustainable strategy.  If the grocery cap was raised to $12k, we would only need one BCP and I'd leave my card as a BCE.  The $150 AF would add value since ($720-$150) / $12,000 = 4.75%.  Right now the BCP returns ($360-$95) / $6,000 = 4.4%.

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I believe this "rumor" is unlikely to become reality.

As posted above many have lower spend and others would love a higher cap.

The issue is that any issuer is willing to lose XX dollars a month or year and by increasing the cap, the AF needed is not straight line.

To have a similar financial bottom line, the AF would need to be more like 250 than 150.  The reason almost all 5% cards have between $500 - $600 a month cap's.  Amex wants to make even more $ and only pays out < 5%, unlikely to upgrade the card with this AF and take a larger loss.

The Rewards percent's with "Rumor" numbers for the curious:

	M_Spend	$95_$6,000	$150_$12,000
		{ * > Cap }
	100	-1.92 %	-6.50 %
	200	2.03 %	-0.25 %
	300	3.36 %	1.83 %
	400	4.02 %	2.88 %
	500	4.42 %	3.50 %
	600	3.85 % *	3.92 %
	700	3.44 % *	4.21 %
	800	3.14 % *	4.44 %
	900	2.90 % *	4.61 %
	1000	2.71 % *	4.75 %

[Zoostation1]

A higher AF would complicate my decision to keep it and not drop to BCE.  I don't fully max out the grocery cap as a single person, but I make that up significant streaming spend on it (~$150/mo).  I've got the $50 corporate advantage credit helping as well (not sure if that would get a bump since Green gets a $75 credit for $150 AF).  I'd potentially still keep it but not fully sure.  If I downgraded to BCE I'd likely move my streaming spend to Savor, but it's been a little more inconsistent with coding streaming properly. Gas would still stay on BCE for me (can't do a CCC and don't want more cards), while grocery would be a toss up.  I'd probably base grocery on whether I had travel planned or not.  If I had a trip coming up I'd put it on Savor and if not I'd put it on BCE.  Since I have Lyft and UberOne, I'd move my rides which are usually on BCP now to VX, and then move my general online spend to BCE (though it's not all that high).  I think on the whole it would lead to more spend on Savor and VX and less with Amex.

[UncleB]

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@Windchill92 wrote:
Still waiting for online shopping to be added to the BCP.

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Yeah, I get a chuckle every time I get an offer to "upgrade." 

I use my BCE almost exclusively for online purchases, so a PC to the BCP would actually be a downgrade in my case.

[Varsity_Lu]

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@UncleB wrote:I use my BCE almost exclusively for online purchases.

Same.  Card never leaves my drawer, but I use it on Amazon and with Walmart Pay all the time.

[NoHardLimits]

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@Varsity_Lu wrote:

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@UncleB wrote:I use my BCE almost exclusively for online purchases.

Same.  Card never leaves my drawer, but I use it on Amazon and with Walmart Pay all the time.

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Slightly off-topic but for those of you interested in elevated online shopping rewards, Bank of America's Customized Cash Rewards is running a promo for 6% cash back on one category for the first year.  I'm actually considering applying for it.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/cash-back-credit-card/