A couple of quick thoughts:
1) Your scores right now are a little low for having good chances for approval with either of these cards. You are in the "Fair" range, these cards really want to see people above 700. If anything I think you should try to get into the "Good" range which is above 670 before you start applying for any additional cards, IMHO.
2) Being able to afford the Gold AF isn't the best indicator of if you should get the card or not. You have to look at what your overall spend is in differrent categories. They are also very different cards, with the BCE being a cash back only card and the Gold earning you MR's that can be used in different ways. Without knowing your spend profile, we can't really give a good recommendation on which card is going to give you more value.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the replies ! Here's my spending profile so I can get a better recommendation.
Average monthly spend and categories:
dining $400-600
groceries: $200-300
gas: $200 (Approx)
travel: $1-2K/yr in Hotels/Airbnb/Car. ($400 so far this year due to COVID)
I fly about twice a yr but tickets are free so not that keen on a airline specific card.
other: $100
Online shopping: $100/month (Approx)
With your dining and grocery spend, I think the Gold is a good fit.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the replies ! Here's my spending profile so I can get a better recommendation.
Average monthly spend and categories:
dining $400-600
groceries: $200-300
gas: $200 (Approx)
travel: $1-2K/yr in Hotels/Airbnb/Car. ($400 so far this year due to COVID)
I fly about twice a yr but tickets are free so not that keen on a airline specific card.
other: $100
Online shopping: $100/month (Approx)
I would love to hoard up on MR so I can possibly get my Mum air tickets instead since I don't have to pay when I fly personally. I was thinking about getting in my foot in the door with BCE so I can apply for GOLD after or if I can apply for GOLD instead then I wouldn't care much for BCE. I would def be willing to learn to get into getting the most out of transferring points to travel partners instead. I can always learn that on this forum or other forums online.
The folks who have really spent the time crunching the numbers will be able to really tell you. If you are picking soley between BCE and Gold, I would lean towards gold because of your dining spend. BCE only earns 1% on dining. Gold is only earning 1x on GAS.
Personally since you aren't traveling a ton and your personal travel is free you aren't going to take advantage of the 3x on travel with Gold and may have a hard time taking a advantage of the travel credits, the $250 AF, IMHO is harder to justify in that case.
If you were willing to wait for your scores to improve a bit and try to go for two cards say the BCE for 3% grocery paired with some other card no AF card that is giving you 3% on dining and at least 2% on gas (If you shop at Costco the Citi Costco card comes to mind, though the annual membership does change the numbers).
Others can likely chime in on my MR's it takes for an average domestic flight booked through the AMEX portal, I have never really looked, my gut tells me cash back is going to work out better for you and getting cards that can maximize your cash back.
These are very different cards for people with very differnt goals. Figure out what you want to get out of credit card rewards and then apply for cards that will get you there.
It sounds like you think getting a BCE would serve as a stepping stone to Gold. If what you really want is the Gold then do what you need to do to make that one happen. Getting cards you don't really want along the way will just slow you down by weighing down your average account age scores and such.
