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Nothing earth shattering, I am sure many of you have gotten this.
I usually would never consider a card with an AF, however grocery spending and seeing that a bagel
place I frequent often is coded as "grocery" might make getting this card worth it.
Amex mentions:
Earn $150 back after you spend $1,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months. You will receive the $150 back in the form of a statement credit.
1. Now, when I got the BCE, I was offered a bonus. I know I read you can't get another bonus from the same card, but since they are offering an upgrade, would I still be entitled to this $150 bonus?
2. I am in the middle of Amex 2/90 rule, wont be past this rule until 5/7/20. Since this is an upgrade, that shouldn't matter correct?
3. If an a year or 2's time I decide that I wanted to downgrade back to BCE, would there be any issue in doing so?
4. Also making the assumption at worst if I made this change, it would only be a SP.
LMK what you think
@Wavester64 wrote:Nothing earth shattering, I am sure many of you have gotten this.
I usually would never consider a card with an AF, however grocery spending and seeing that a bagel
place I frequent often is coded as "grocery" might make getting this card worth it.
Amex mentions:
Earn $150 back after you spend $1,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months. You will receive the $150 back in the form of a statement credit.
1. Now, when I got the BCE, I was offered a bonus. I know I read you can't get another bonus from the same card, but since they are offering an upgrade, would I still be entitled to this $150 bonus?
2. I am in the middle of Amex 2/90 rule, wont be past this rule until 5/7/20. Since this is an upgrade, that shouldn't matter correct?
3. If an a year or 2's time I decide that I wanted to downgrade back to BCE, would there be any issue in doing so?
4. Also making the assumption at worst if I made this change, it would only be a SP.
LMK what you think
Points 1, 2, and 4 are almost certainly all in your favor.
Point 3: I would expect that you will be able to downgrade. Downgrading may or may not impact your ability to get a bonus on other cards in the future.
Wait for them to sweeten the offer, I got $250 to upgrade last spring. And if you upgrade they charge the AF pretty quickly, prorated on when you got your BCE
@DaveInAZ wrote:Wait for them to sweeten the offer, I got $250 to upgrade last spring. And if you upgrade they charge the AF pretty quickly, prorated on when you got your BCE
Hard to know if that will happen though.
Two years ago I was offered and took a $150 offer with annual fee waived for the first year. While this is $5 less than $250 with fee, its pretty good. After a year I switched back (as with my uncapped 4.5/5% cards paying a fee for a capped 6% doesn't make mathematical sense) And recently they gave me the same offer as OP.
@DaveInAZ wrote:Wait for them to sweeten the offer, I got $250 to upgrade last spring. And if you upgrade they charge the AF pretty quickly, prorated on when you got your BCE
Wondering if they would sweaten the deal at all, or is this the best I am going to get.
I got the BCE Jan 2019
@Wavester64 wrote:
@DaveInAZ wrote:Wait for them to sweeten the offer, I got $250 to upgrade last spring. And if you upgrade they charge the AF pretty quickly, prorated on when you got your BCE
Wondering if they would sweaten the deal at all, or is this the best I am going to get.
I got the BCE Jan 2019
Well of course one never knows, but I’m pretty sure I got a $150 offer and when I passed I got the $250 offer a few months later. Did your offer mention waiving the AF? That’s worth another $95.
I agree with Dave, I;d wait. While no one ever knows if they'll get the better offer, you'll nevr know if you take the first. lol
I kept getting the same offer and held off as i wasn't into AF cards per say. But when thy offered $250 I figured why not, can always downgrade if the points aren't paying off. But teh way i saw it that statement credit just bought me 2.5 months worth of AF.
@DaveInAZ wrote:
@Wavester64 wrote:
@DaveInAZ wrote:Wait for them to sweeten the offer, I got $250 to upgrade last spring. And if you upgrade they charge the AF pretty quickly, prorated on when you got your BCE
Wondering if they would sweaten the deal at all, or is this the best I am going to get.
I got the BCE Jan 2019
Well of course one never knows, but I’m pretty sure I got a $150 offer and when I passed I got the $250 offer a few months later. Did your offer mention waiving the AF? That’s worth another $95.
It mentioned pro-rating the AF, not waiving unfortunately.
I have gotten other offers before from AMEX to upgrade to the BCP - only difference this time is I am actually paying attention to it, so who knows, I might have gotten a better offer in the past.
@Anonymous wrote:I agree with Dave, I;d wait. While no one ever knows if they'll get the better offer, you'll nevr know if you take the first. lol
I kept getting the same offer and held off as i wasn't into AF cards per say. But when thy offered $250 I figured why not, can always downgrade if the points aren't paying off. But teh way i saw it that statement credit just bought me 2.5 months worth of AF.
I take you mean 2 1/2 Years of AF? 'Cause that's how I looked at it. And it depends on your situation if the upgrade is worth it. I'm single, so groceries isn't a huge spend for me, and the BCP 6% on groceries is limited to super markets like Kroger, Safeway, etc. and excludes wholesale clubs (Costco), Walmart & Target. In my small city there's only Safeway and Walmart and Walmart is so much cheaper I buy most groceries there, Safeway/BCP only gets my run to re-stock my wine cave & buy stuff then on club price special. (Walmart buyer execs must be teetotalers, their booze selection is terrible)
And @Wavester64 the prorated AF is from the date you opened your BCE. If you got it January and upgraded yet in March they'll likely charge you 10/12ths of the AF, around $79, over half of the bonus you have to spend $1k to get. That's why I didn't upgrade until they offered me $250. And I'll likely downgrade after a year, for my grocery spend the extra 3% doesn't justify the AF. You also get 3& on gas, but I already have that with BoA Cash Rewards.
If you spend at least $3,200 in groceries, then the AF is offset and you get additional cashback plus the bonus. The way I look at it, if you are to upgrade now, the bonus more than covers the AF and you'll earn double the cashback on groceries. If after a year or two, your spend doesn't justify the AF, you can always PC back.