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Greetings! I'm new here, and I've had lots of questions in my mind recently, but so many of my questions have been answered by quick searches of these forums, so I don't have much left to ask at this point
Here's my background for the AmEx questions:
I have held a BCP for 10+ years, and it's served me well. Barring some rare special offers, I've only used it for groceries. I don't have any other AmEx cards, and I never have (except the old Fidelity Investment Rewards AmEx through FIA Card Services, if AmEx ever counted that).
In recent years, I've been maxxing out the 6% and dropping to 1%, even after I max out the 5% in CF/Discover quarterly categories. I'm on track to overshoot the groceries by quite a bit more this year, so I'm considering an AmEx Gold soon (warming up to MR points instead of cashback, getting back into the travel game). If I get the AmEx Gold, I would consider downgrading the BCP to a Blue/Everyday/BC/BCE/whatever they give me with no AF and preferably no HP, and putting that in a sock drawer.
I'll try to provide some logical organization to my questions with an outline of (Qs) below:
My main questions are about the annual fees: I just paid the $95 AF for BCP two months ago in August. Assuming I can move all of my grocery spending to the Gold and get no grocery benefit from BCP, (Q1a) when would I need to downgrade the BCP to avoid the next AF? (Q1b) To confirm, if I downgrade before next August, then there is no more AF? I get that the best time to have downgraded was probably 2+ months ago, but that's a sunk cost now, still outweighed by the upside of the Gold with my swelling spend on food.
Maybe less relevant, but if I downgrade prematurely (as soon as I get the Gold), aside from the sunk cost of the last AF, (Q2) am I leaving other money on the table (e.g., in the form of special offers that may be available for having the BCP but not with BCE or the like)?
Also, if I downgrade, (Q3a) could my credit limit change? or (Q3b) would I get a hard pull? If so, then, downgrading the BCP at the same time as getting the Gold, (Q3b+) would that HP piggyback on the same HP from the AmEx Gold app? I'm thinking I may go for AmEx Platinum next year, so maybe it makes sense to do the downgrading at the end of my app spree, assuming that it's before August. I won't care much about what happens to the CL on any AmEx revolver at that point--it's all going into the SD.
I get that AmEx charge cards are not what they used to be, and I may reconsider the benefits of all my AmEx cards in the future, but I don't see BCP being a great deal for me in the future. If it ever could make sense for me to use BCP again, I understand that upgrading back is still always an option.
TIA in case I can't reply right away!
Hello and welcome!
Q1 - you can downgrade anytime before next August to avoid next year's annual fee.
Q2 - I'd say leave it open until the next fee hits so you can continue to take advantage of 3% on streaming, gas, and transit, even if you move your grocery spend to the Gold. You've already paid the fee for this year.
Q3 - Amex will not change your limit or do a hard pull on your credit for a product downgrade.
Excellent, thanks! I suppose that's as good as I can hope for in this situation.
I seem to have found some old threads suggesting HP and/or CL decrease upon BCP downgrades, but those are some very old threads. I would find such happenings to be a little unexpected these days. Thanks again for your insights here.
It is advisable to wait until the next AF posts on the BCP for the simple reason that it makes it look like you keep AMEX cards longer even with AF. That is a good look to have when AMEX considers whether to let you have the next SUB on a card.
Even if you've held the card for years already? I can understand if you've only had if for one year and then canceling it after the AF posts, but I don't know why it would matter an a card that you've had for 4, 6, 8 or more years if you canceled at any time.
Good question. I'm not totally sure of the mechanics there (referring back to NRB525 above) either, myself. But that may be moot for me--at the rate I'm going, I may end up with the Gold next month, and maybe also the Platinum in early- to mid-2022 (probably via Charles Schwab and/or CardMatch if available), SUB in hand before downgrading the BCP, before its next AF is due.
I probably won't be interested in anything further from AmEx for a good while after that. All this is assuming that Platinum rewards don't get slashed/devalued any more by then, in which case I may hold off indefinitely on Platinum (that's all for another thread, most likely). Definitely I could benefit a lot from the Gold, in any event.