I currently have the ED and am thinking about converting to the EDP. My question is does anyone know the point at which the EDP becomes a better value than ED? Assuming I will make the 30 transactions a month. I do not really have gas spend. I do have decent grocery spend.
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@Anonymous wrote:
@red259 wrote:I currently have the ED and am thinking about converting to the EDP. My question is does anyone know the point at which the EDP becomes a better value than ED? Assuming I will make the 30 transactions a month. I do not really have gas spend. I do have decent grocery spend.
It will depend on how you value MRs, what your alternatives are, and just how decent your spending is on groceries and off-category stuff. No answer works for everyone.
I built a spreadsheet to determine whether I should downgrade my EDP to ED (assuming Amex will allow it). I spend a lot on groceries ($5k-$6k), but I have good alternative cards. I'll be downgrading unless I get a retention offer.
I find it's too easy to earn big bonuses for me to bother thinking about the number of transactions I have on the card...and when the card loses all those Costco transactions (warehouse, wine, gas) I'd be likely to fall below 30.
I value amex MRs around 1.9 cents per point. Looking at my normal spend over the last couple of months I always go over 30 transactions. I don't have alternatives for grocery spend with the exception of Q2 with the freedom card. So if I assume $400 in grocery spend for 9 months (excluding the one quarter for the freedom) and $100 non-cat spend each month on top of that, and I hit 30 transactions each month it looks like I would make a profit at the end of the year after the AF, which would be greater than that on the ED. I anticipate my grocery spend being higher, but wanted to do a conservative estimate.
@Anonymous wrote:I am sure you already know this but don't convert your ED to EDP. apply for the EDP so that you can get the bonus offer which I think is currently 30k MR points. If you can make the spend to justify the AF it is a good card. For me the BCP has me covered for cash back and I will be applying for the ED down the road to compliment my PRG.
I know what you are talking about, but I only see a 15k offer. For 15k I am not willing to take the HP, open another amex product, potentially get into an income verification situation and/or end up with low limits. The 30k offer though would make this decision much harder.