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How annoying!!
@MrDisco99 wrote:
I’m having a very frustrating experience with my BCE and thought I should share with you all as a cautionary tale.
(snip)
Apparently one of my purchases was an Amex offer where I got cash back. The cash back is subtracted from the purchase amount when they calculate rewards.
So now I have to make a $3 purchase (or $1 at a grocery store) to get my reward balance up and pay the minimum this month and again in January and February because that’s how long I have to wait before I get to make that redemption. Thankfully I’m still at 0% interest.
This card will be permanently sock drawered after that if not cancelled outright. I’m so done with that reward program.
???? Um yeah, no rewards program is going to give you rewards for more than you actually spent on the card, no rewards program is going to give you rewards on a discount you received in the form of cash back.
I've only gotten one cash back on my BCE because most of the offers have zero interest to me except the $5 cash back on a $20 monthly sub to Sling. I assume they deducted that from the purchase in calculating rewards, that's only fair & reasonable. But I don't keep separate records in figuring out what my rewards should be, in Amex I trust. If you feel the need to cancel or SD a card with generous 0% intro APR and very decent rewards program that's certainly your choice. But I will add that I don't think using rewards to make the minimum payment on any card is a good idea. Amex has it roots as a charge card that must be PIF monthly, I take care not to abuse my 15 month 0% intro by making much more then the minimum payment in "cash" from my bank account to keep them happy.
@MrDisco99 wrote:
I’m not using rewards to make a minimum payment. They won’t let me do that anyway.
I’m making the minimum payment for the next three months because that’s how long i need to wait to redeem my reward balance and I can only redeem as statement credit. No other issuer makes me wait that long.
As for “in Amex we trust” I had to wait from September until today to find out what my rewards balance actually is. Even with the MR points program I can see pending points after the first statement.
3% on groceries is great but it’s not worth this much hassle. Especially when I can get 3% on groceries with my Synovus card and they let me redeem as actual cash back into my deposit account and I don’t have to wait 2 (or 3 or 5) months to get it. I certainly don’t regret getting the BCE as the 10% instant statement credit on restaurants when I first got it was awesome and it was my foot back in the door with Amex who despite this are still my favorite issuer. But I am done with this card.
I'm not following you. Why would you have to wait any amount of time to redeem points on a BCE? I redeem mine as soon as it hits $25, if you're having to wait 2 or 3 or 5 months it's because you're not charging on it & earning reward points. And what's wrong with the statement credit? It's that much less that I owe and have to pay. The only time I've ever taken rewards as a deposit to an account was Boa Cash Rewards as they give a bonus (10%?) when redeemed to a BoA deposit account, but I closed my BoA checking a few months back so now it will be a statement credit.
Amex is actually one of my least favorite issuers because of problems I had with their no pre-set spending limit charge cards. A personal card, and then with a corporate Platinum card on which I was an AU. I was on a business trip charging hotels & airfares and went to buy a computer for an accounting office. Amex insisted on speaking with me in store on the phone, demanding to know why I was "suddenly spending so much". I told her that I was on a business trip and "don't leave home without it", remember? But I told her to forget the attempted purchase, I'd put it on my personal Visa card and get reimbursed. But I'm happy enough with my BCE and it's rewards program.
@DaveInAZ wrote:
@MrDisco99 wrote:
I’m not using rewards to make a minimum payment. They won’t let me do that anyway.
I’m making the minimum payment for the next three months because that’s how long i need to wait to redeem my reward balance and I can only redeem as statement credit. No other issuer makes me wait that long.
As for “in Amex we trust” I had to wait from September until today to find out what my rewards balance actually is. Even with the MR points program I can see pending points after the first statement.
3% on groceries is great but it’s not worth this much hassle. Especially when I can get 3% on groceries with my Synovus card and they let me redeem as actual cash back into my deposit account and I don’t have to wait 2 (or 3 or 5) months to get it. I certainly don’t regret getting the BCE as the 10% instant statement credit on restaurants when I first got it was awesome and it was my foot back in the door with Amex who despite this are still my favorite issuer. But I am done with this card.I'm not following you. Why would you have to wait any amount of time to redeem points on a BCE? I redeem mine as soon as it hits $25, if you're having to wait 2 or 3 or 5 months it's because you're not charging on it & earning reward points. And what's wrong with the statement credit? It's that much less that I owe and have to pay. The only time I've ever taken rewards as a deposit to an account was Boa Cash Rewards as they give a bonus (10%?) when redeemed to a BoA deposit account, but I closed my BoA checking a few months back so now it will be a statement credit.
Amex is actually one of my least favorite issuers because of problems I had with their no pre-set spending limit charge cards. A personal card, and then with a corporate Platinum card on which I was an AU. I was on a business trip charging hotels & airfares and went to buy a computer for an accounting office. Amex insisted on speaking with me in store on the phone, demanding to know why I was "suddenly spending so much". I told her that I was on a business trip and "don't leave home without it", remember? But I told her to forget the attempted purchase, I'd put it on my personal Visa card and get reimbursed. But I'm happy enough with my BCE and it's rewards program.
Well, the Amex BCE program certainly has issues: 1) delayed rewards It takes an extra month for rewards to be credited. 2) $25 increments
In most other programs, since MrDisco99 has already exceeded the threshold ($25) he would be able to withdraw the whole $49.97. While he could take $25 now, he then leaves $24.97 For some at least, these hassles outweigh the benefits of the BCE, which is only 1% extra over an easy 2% card.
@longtimelurker wrote:Well, the Amex BCE program certainly has issues: 1) delayed rewards It takes an extra month for rewards to be credited. 2) $25 increments
In most other programs, since MrDisco99 has already exceeded the threshold ($25) he would be able to withdraw the whole $49.97. While he could take $25 now, he then leaves $24.97 For some at least, these hassles outweigh the benefits of the BCE, which is only 1% extra over an easy 2% card.
Exactly. I could redeem $25 right now. It's the other $24.97 that I'm mad about.
And statement credit is a problem when I've already made the spend and have to wait two months before I can use the rewards. If deposit was an option I would just go ahead and pay the card off and redeem as deposit when it became available. As it is, I have to limit my payments in order to be able to redeem rewards 2 months later.
And yes, I know I could just pay it off now and when rewards became available just put a $25 charge on the card and erase it. But that extra spend isn't earning me any rewards if I do that. I'm better off spending that money on a different card. I want my rewards to count toward current spend (or 5 months ago spend) rather than future spend. All my other cash back cards let me do that without much fuss.
Yes Amex takes forever to get cash back. And I hate their lack of docs. But the program requires no quarterly sign up. This is free money.
We have also used some of their bonus deals and gotten those very quickly. Carrying over rewards is no big deal. Even with -0- % we don't tend let balances pile up as at some point free interest is no longer free. Amex still looks for FULL payment every month even though the terms just require a " minimum" payment. With all that said Amex BCP is still our favorite card. It gets more use than any other card we have.
The BCE/BCP system does almost everything possible to ensure you can't redeem your full rewards. In effect, it lowers the cash back percentage. If you can't claim all of it, did you really get 6% or 3% back? Unless you calculate your purchases exactly, you are always going to have leftover rewards that you cannot redeem. Yes, if you are keeping the card indefinitely, it doesn't really matter, but if you want to redeem for a specific item or amount it is frustrating waiting months and months and not being able to collect the full amount.
They need to get rid of the 2 month lag and the forced $25 increment thing. A $25 minimum to redeem is fine and not uncommon, but increments of $25 is just overkill.
@kdm31091 wrote:The BCE/BCP system does almost everything possible to ensure you can't redeem your full rewards. In effect, it lowers the cash back percentage. If you can't claim all of it, did you really get 6% or 3% back? Unless you calculate your purchases exactly, you are always going to have leftover rewards that you cannot redeem. Yes, if you are keeping the card indefinitely, it doesn't really matter, but if you want to redeem for a specific item or amount it is frustrating waiting months and months and not being able to collect the full amount.
They need to get rid of the 2 month lag and the forced $25 increment thing. A $25 minimum to redeem is fine and not uncommon, but increments of $25 is just overkill.
Well yes, Amex could certainly make the BCE/BCP rewards more consumer friendly. but it's not worth sockdrawering or cancelling the card over. I just work around it, cashing out for a statement credit as soon as it hits $25, leaving a few pennies behind - they're still be there next time I hit $25. Even my PayPal 2% Rewards card on which rewards can be redeem anytime for any amount had $11.63 in rewards when the statement cut this week and I just redeemed for $11, leaving the 63 pennies behind. I just prefer to deal with even amounts and the pennies will still be there next time I redeem.