Good evening fellow denizens of the MyFICO Forums community. As I always do for the tough credit life decisions I've come to you for suggestions, comments, and ideas. I will lay down the scenario at hand and will ask for the wisdom of the community before making a final decision.
I am going to be making a purchase of around $1400 in the next couple of weeks on an early holiday gift to myself ($900 on-hand, the rest financed).
I saw the offer for the new Amex Gold card and it finally looks like it could work for me. I know I'd be able to hit the 2K spend in the first 3 months just paying my bills with it over the next couple of months so those 50K points would be mine for the taking. I don't have much extra cash these days so every dollar saved is something I have to consider. Looking at my grocery and dining spend this year, I'm averaging about $390 per month in dining and groceries. With the Gold card that would be somewhere around $185 annually in MR points from these categories. This plus the $120 in dining (my only options here are Cheesecake Factory and Grubhub I believe) would total over the $250 AF. I don't fly too often so that 3% is pretty irrelevent to me...but this card in metal rose gold would look like in my wallet. I would just have to eat that $200 (or $250) AF on top of my big purchase which would be difficult but not impossible with the Plan It perk (that I've used with my Amex BCE).
Now I also read a lot about people not wanting to mix different pools but I'm already deep into the Chase realm having both Freedom cards. Would the Chase SP or SR be a better option because I'm already in this points group? I spend about $800 or so yearly on travel (usually from hotel stays).
Alternatively, I could use a card I already have, Best Buy card and use the 18-month interest free financing and maintain my currently 3 years of AAOA. With this option I wouldn't be paying any interest or AF but I would sadly not get the metal rose gold card either. I do want the gold card, even if it's just for vain reasons the perks do seem like they could be useful to me, even if the travel perks only help me every few years the other perks seem to hold up well for my situation.
Thanks for taking your time to read this and I thank you in advance for your consideration and time.
Must garden until 2/1/2022 to hit my goal AAOA. 
The first thing I noticed about your post was that you said you don't fly often. The cards you listed are point earning card which are designed to be used to travel. The cash redemption value of points is horrible. Amex at .6 CPP and chase at 1 CPP. Do you have travel in mind to use the points ? Is that something you would even want to do ?
How are you coming up with the $185 in MR points annually ? What calculation did you use to get that number ?
The $250 Annual fee is offset by the Airline credit of $100 and the $120 dining credit. You said you dont fly. Would you consider buying airline giftcards for a future travel ? The Dining credit is $10 a month each month. It's credited every month not all at once.
If you don't plan to be able to use the credits the card offers, it becomes much harder to stomach that $250 AF.
In my opinion if you cant atleast use $100 of the credits then this card isn't for you, the breakeven point on the rewards at a net $150 AF is around 6000 a year I believe ? (doing quick math in my head)
The Amex gold card is a charge card. The bill must be paid in full every month. They do have the option for Pay over Time with interest. This is NOT the same thing as Amex Plan It. You do not automatically get POT. It must be offered to you and takes a couple statements usually before it shows up as an option. They recently changed this so it may be available sooner. Not sure as I dont use it on my Charge cards even though its offered.
Chase seems to be a better fit for you. The point earning potential with the CSP/CSR isnt as good as the Amex Gold card, but the CSR travel credit is very broad and would include hotel stays. Plus you can raise the value of the points earned using the freedom cards by having a premium chase card.
Amex travel portal has horribles on hotels. Its less then 1 CPP. Airfare is only 1 CPP. Amex points really shine when transferred to Airline loyality programs. Some members have sucess using Marriot Points for hotels but I hardly stay in hotels so I dont know much about that.
Chase gives you 1.25/1.5 on travel portal hotel purchases.
You shouldn't use a rewards card if you can't pay the balance off when its due. It defeats the entire rewards game. You are better off using a 0% or low APR card.
@Shadowfactor wrote:The first thing I noticed about your post was that you said you don't fly often. The cards you listed are point earning card which are designed to be used to travel. The cash redemption value of points is horrible. Amex at .6 CPP and chase at 1 CPP. Do you have travel in mind to use the points ? Is that something you would even want to do ?
How are you coming up with the $185 in MR points annually ? What calculation did you use to get that number ?
The $250 Annual fee is offset by the Airline credit of $100 and the $120 dining credit. You said you dont fly. Would you consider buying airline giftcards for a future travel ? The Dining credit is $10 a month each month. It's credited every month not all at once.
If you don't plan to be able to use the credits the card offers, it becomes much harder to stomach that $250 AF.
In my opinion if you cant atleast use $100 of the credits then this card isn't for you, the breakeven point on the rewards at a net $150 AF is around 6000 a year I believe ? (doing quick math in my head)
The Amex gold card is a charge card. The bill must be paid in full every month. They do have the option for Pay over Time with interest. This is NOT the same thing as Amex Plan It. You do not automatically get POT. It must be offered to you and takes a couple statements usually before it shows up as an option. They recently changed this so it may be available sooner. Not sure as I dont use it on my Charge cards even though its offered.
Chase seems to be a better fit for you. The point earning potential with the CSP/CSR isnt as good as the Amex Gold card, but the CSR travel credit is very broad and would include hotel stays. Plus you can raise the value of the points earned using the freedom cards by having a premium chase card.
Amex travel portal has horribles on hotels. Its less then 1 CPP. Airfare is only 1 CPP. Amex points really shine when transferred to Airline loyality programs. Some members have sucess using Marriot Points for hotels but I hardly stay in hotels so I dont know much about that.
Chase gives you 1.25/1.5 on travel portal hotel purchases.
You shouldn't use a rewards card if you can't pay the balance off when its due. It defeats the entire rewards game. You are better off using a 0% or low APR card.
First, thank you for taking the time to educate me. I used some horrible math along with innacurate data to come to the conclusion that I could earn 4% CB in the Dining/Grocery categories. I wouldn't mind holding onto points but what you're saying makes sense, it won't make sense to pay the AF if I'm not flying even once a year (where I would be able to make use of that credit). The CSR does seem like a better fit. I would have a lot more if I didn't have to burn a lot of them when I was in a financial bind some time ago. At least they're easy to rack up with Freedom. I don't think it would be a good idea to apply for the CSR when I know I won't be able to hit that $4K spend yet. I think I'll just finance with my store card. Thank you for saving me from making a horrible decision. That rose gold card was just not meant for me.
