Amex BCP or Gold?

[steelers1]

I'm trying to decide between the BCP or the Gold. A family of 5 so I can max out the BCP with the $6k in grocery spend. I have a bunch of 3% dining cards. My DW has the Uber card and we used it for 4% until they eliminated the cash back. Would the 50,000 MR'S sub be worth the $250 annual fee. What are MR'S actually worth? I've read between $.005 and $.02. I have never been a MR collector, I'm more of a cash back guy. But if I could get more bang for my buck going the MR route I'd be willing to do that. What do you think?

 

Thank you!

[cv91915]

I use MRs as cash for $0.01 each, which most people consider squandering.  
 

I'm a slave to airline status, though, so I mostly buy revenue tickets, and I earn enough Marriott and Hilton points from actual travel and SUBs/upgrade bonuses to cover all of our lodging needs.  So points transfers don't have much value for me.  

 

If you travel at all you can get at least $500.00 in value when redeeming the 50,000-MR SUB as cash on the Amex travel portal.

 

Keep in mind that if you don't have another MR card and you don't keep the Gold after the first year, your remaining points will be orphaned.

 

If you don't plan to travel, or have your travel needs met in other ways, get the BCP.  

 

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by cv91915

[steelers1]

1 hour ago, cv91915 said:

I use MRs as cash for $0.01 each, which most people consider squandering.  
 

I'm a slave to airline status, though, so I mostly buy revenue tickets, and I earn enough Marriott and Hilton points from actual travel and SUBs/upgrade bonuses to cover all of our lodging needs.  So points transfers don't have much value for me.  

 

If you travel at all you can get at least $500.00 in value when redeeming the 50,000-MR SUB as cash on the Amex travel portal.

 

Keep in mind that if you don't have another MR card and you don't keep the Gold after the first year, your remaining points will be orphaned.

 

If you don't plan to travel, or have your travel needs met in other ways, get the BCP.  

 

 

Thank you CV! Much appreciated.

[RehabbingANDBlabbing]

I am finding myself in this same situation, comparing these two cards. Groceries and dining are my two biggest spending categories, and I also will hit the cap on the BCP.

 

However, I think combining the BCP with Chase Freedom, Discover It, or US Bank Cash Plus can make a lot of sense. Let's say you hit the $6k cap on the BCP, then you can use a card with a 5% grocery category and max it out as well. That would get you to $7,500 or more if you have more than one of these additional cards that all do not have an annual fee. Remember, the return from the BCP is 4.4% after paying the $95 annual fee and maxing out the $6k in spend, so getting 5% from a no annual fee card is actually a better return. It just means you'd need to track the grocery spend on each card and time it correctly depending on when you hit the BCP max and when the other card(s) are offering their 5%.

 

I am frankly surprised that AmEx is the only one really focusing on groceries. Maybe they are taking a loss on this category to gain cardmembers?

 

In terms of the Gold, I think the annual fee is just too high for me to justify it. I can't make good use of the dining credit or airline credit, so I am getting potentially less value for a high annual fee than the BCP. But I don't think anyone can deny that having one card earning 4X on dining and groceries is great.

 

For now, I think I am going to get the BCP for groceries, Discover for 5% on groceries during one quarter, then put dining on my Marvel Mastercard (3%) and also use Discover during the dining quarter.

[cv91915]

1 hour ago, RehabbingANDBlabbing said:

I am finding myself in this same situation, comparing these two cards. Groceries and dining are my two biggest spending categories, and I also will hit the cap on the BCP.

 

However, I think combining the BCP with Chase Freedom, Discover It, or US Bank Cash Plus can make a lot of sense. Let's say you hit the $6k cap on the BCP, then you can use a card with a 5% grocery category and max it out as well. That would get you to $7,500 or more if you have more than one of these additional cards that all do not have an annual fee. Remember, the return from the BCP is 4.4% after paying the $95 annual fee and maxing out the $6k in spend, so getting 5% from a no annual fee card is actually a better return. It just means you'd need to track the grocery spend on each card and time it correctly depending on when you hit the BCP max and when the other card(s) are offering their 5%.

 

I am frankly surprised that AmEx is the only one really focusing on groceries. Maybe they are taking a loss on this category to gain cardmembers?

 

In terms of the Gold, I think the annual fee is just too high for me to justify it. I can't make good use of the dining credit or airline credit, so I am getting potentially less value for a high annual fee than the BCP. But I don't think anyone can deny that having one card earning 4X on dining and groceries is great.

 

For now, I think I am going to get the BCP for groceries, Discover for 5% on groceries during one quarter, then put dining on my Marvel Mastercard (3%) and also use Discover during the dining quarter.

If you don't mind shuffling cards (I do not), get all three of the rotating 5% cards (Freedom, Discovery, Cash+).

 

They're all pretty useless for general spending, but the Cash+ opens up utilities and TV/internet/streaming (thanks for the arm twisting, @hdporter) and the cap is $2,000/quarter instead of $1,500 like the other two. 

 

The 2% categories on the Cash+ are pretty useless, and of course, it almost never makes sense to use any of these cards for non-category spending.

 

Here are the Cash+ categories for 2Q2020, in case the utilities and TV/Internet categories don't wilt your permanent.  Note that it takes a lot of Filet-O-Fish sandwiches to hit $2,000 in fast food spending, but I'm sure that's obvious.