TMM1982

Capped at 6k. And the number of grocery stores selling VGC's is dwindling making this less and less useful by the day.

mia

I buy food and drink at grocery stores, not giftcards.

ThatAdamGuy

Whoa, Mia, that's crazytalk. Don't tell me you actually buy office supplies at office supply stores, too?!

Joking aside... the combo of $95 annual fee, forex fees, and 30-purchase requirement of the EDP is growing wearying. I welcome more competition from Chase like this

mia

We don't avoid the annual fee with Chase Freedom Unlimited, we still need to have one premium Chase card to make the points transferable. I expect that Freedom Unlimited will carry the usual 3% FTF. The only real advantage is avoiding the 30 transaction requirement.

It would be interesting if American Express were to remove the 2.7% FTF from Everyday Preferred.

TMM1982

Don't forget AMEX's policy of making you wait 30 days for points to go from pending to completed which is absurd.

mia

Yes, that's annoying and bad marketing. Much better to see your rewards balance climb each time you login as it does at Diners Club or the IDC version of Membership Rewards. On the other hand, at Chase there is the monthly ritual of consolidating points by transferring from one account to another, waiting anxiously to see if the Unexpected Error will appear. (Are there Expected Errors?)

ThatAdamGuy

Good points (no pun intended).

Personally, I've had an Ink+ card for ages (the 5x on ISP charges itself makes it fee-break-even for me :-) AND an EDP, so for me, the $95 EDP AF is an incremental additional charge.

Another benefit you hadn't mentioned: I still regularly encounter places that do not take Amex (or, in a few cases, that request I use a different card to save them transaction fee money). Wouldn't have that issue with a Visa or MC.

With that said, there is a key benefit of EDP that Chase doesn't come close to matching: purchase-related insurance. Dealing with Chase's third party insurance company is typically a PIA, whereas I find claims very streamlined and generally trusted by default w/ Amex. So for big purchases, I still often feel more comfortable using my Amex cards.

runb4fun

except if you already have CSP or Ink+ then you're getting "1.5 miles per $ spend" for "free". As I said before, I think EDP is still a nice card.

I just can't be arsed to deal with their 30 transaction stuff atm. I would also have to do some VGC shopping to reach that 6k limit, which I rather would not deal with atm.

mia

It's not free, it's contingent on paying the fee for one of those other cards. This is a me too product from Chase, and being late to the game they have to try harder. They have, and we benefit. Thank you, Capital One .

If you want a completely free American Express solution that is almost as good you could do this:

• Downgrade Everyday Preferred to Everyday (free)
• Apply for Blue for Business (free)
• Use Everyday only at Supermarkets (2 points per dollar)
• Use Blue for Business for all other American Express spending (1 point per dollar with a 30% annual bonus = 1.3 points per dollar.)

No annual fee, full ability to transfer all points to airline or hotel partners.
This only works if you keep both cards.

jordan_h

since i usually get lunch at the deli in a grocery store, hitting 30 transactions per month is pretty easy... and since i always spend over $6000 at grocery stores in a year (on actual groceries), the $95 AF on the everyday preferred is worth it for the additional points, even if i never used it on everything else. i'm still excited for the freedom unlimited, though, since i like the option of being able to rack up either UR or MR with unbonused domestic spend as the mood suits me.

sdsearch

Except if it's not hard work to get 20 with groceries alone, then Everyday at groceries becomes 2.4, and everything else on Everyday becomes 1.2. Which makes the trouble of getting and using the separate Blue for Business for an extra 0.1 points per dollar perhaps not worth it.

So I guess it depends on how many separate grocery visits you make in a month. I buy some things at Trader Joes (typically at least twice a week), some things at a mainstream grocery store (once or twice a week), and get take-out (if not other stuff) at Whole Foods or a local equivalent once or twice a week. You only need 5 a week to get to 20, and so it's not hard for me to get to 20 pretty "naturally" just with groceries.

So if I were using the card for anything else but groceries, but always for groceries, I would never fail to get to 20. And thus always 2.4% on groceries and 1.2% on everything else.

(In practice, there are months when I'm pushing minimum spend on a new card to the point where I'll shift even groceries to that new card, or quarters when I might get a 5% on another card for groceries, but for months where I don't shift groceries to a minimum spend on a new card or to a rotating categories card, the above tends to work for me.)

ThatAdamGuy

Well, let's just say, then, that for those of us who don't actually buy much in the way of groceries (I'm at, maybe, $10/week?*), the EDP has lost a lot of its luster after the demise of the delightful $500 Visa gift cards .

*Single guy, no kids, no pets, eat meals at work during the week, often eat out / with friends on the weekend.

TMM1982

That's me 2.

AnthonyCM

That was me. Sigh.

sdsearch

I'm a single guy, no kids, no pets, but I eat breakfast at home, I bring stuff to work to eat for lunch (because at my work there's no free food, and I can't earn miles buying something from a cash-only vending machine anyway). And some of my take out is from buffets / delis at grocery stores.

So now, obviously some people don't buy many groceries, but it takes more specific circumstances than just being single, not having kids, not having pets, and eating meals at work. (Like who doesn't eat lunch at work??? The question is not whether you eat meals at work, it's where you get those meals. Many workplaces provide refrigerators and many people bring in their lunch.)