Amex PRG was my goto MS card, now what?
 

So looks like the $25k grocery cap is now in effect. Amex PRG was my goto MS card with it's unlimited 2x grocery points. Combined with my Platinum Schwab card I could use it for travel or cash (at 2.5%). Wondering what card I should turn to now that it looks like the $25k cap is in place. Do I need to split it between a cash back card and a points/miles card or is there another card that works for both? I like to use some of my points for cash (to cover the gift card/MO/billpay fees) and some for airline miles.

Guess it's different depending on where you are on the MS spectrum. I'm just starting to ramp up after establishing good rapport locally. I'm excited about new Gold being 4x at groceries, because I can stack with Spent 1% back at Kroger, and essentially lose only 95 cents and MO fee per $500 GC. Roughly $92 loss for 100k MR seems like a great deal.

Yes, it's great for the first $25k, but not really worth MS'ing after the $25k. I ramped up long ago and will burn through the $25k rather quickly. I like UR but am hesitant to MS with Chase due to their itchy trigger finger...especially since they put a burn notice on me long ago and then let me back in after a year in Chase jail.

There are a lot of cards that offer 2% on grocery but not 3%. I think the 25K limit at 4 MR points per $ will be better for many of us who have a hard time finding grocery stores to buy cards at. Of course, getting the first 25K done by the end of the year will be challenging, as it's based on calendar years.

Blue Business Plus gives 2x up to $50K. That and 4x to $25K. If you need more than that get a player 2 to get those cards and share the getting, even if its you as an AU doing the getting.

I've been in the same position. I'll take infinite 2x over a limited 4x any day. I feel like a crazy person- everyone is talking about this great new change to the PRG and I'm like, excuse me, 25k is less than a week of grocery MS. This is a major downgrade.

Does Spent require your AmEx login credentials (or perhaps I'm thinking of some other service)? If so, have you taken any measures to limit the damage? I'm assuming that Spent will try to monetize user info at some point, and not just admire the pretty digits.

You guys get away with that kind of volume at grocery stores without shut down? That is a lot of shopping at grocery stores.

Spent does require login info. Dosh doesn't. To be honest, I'm just ignorant about the ramifications of companies having my data. I almost feel like they're all going to get it anyways, so at least I might as well know the ones that I gave permission to. I think most people in the hobby at vigilant about checking their accounts routinely, so if anything funny shows up, I would definitely know.

So what will you do if anything "funny" happens to your accounts? You gave permission to shady strangers to go in and act as you, thus your recourse is limited to nill. I don't know the business model of Spent, but presumably they expect to make more money off of you than the 1% payout bait. We have to be more clear about the source of that income.

Depends on your income level. Many of the heavy MSers have six figure incomes and been customers for long time, ramping up slowly over the years, so it's not going to trigger any flags.

At the end of the day, I don't think Amex really cares too much as long as you aren't doing it for the min spend requirement for signup bonuses. They are collecting their ~3% transaction fee either way.

AMEX Gold
 

Can you please give me more details? It will cost me $297.5 ($5.95 *50) . I appreciate if you could reply back.

Thanks in advance.

... They said it in their post. Spent app is giving 1% at Kroger so $5.06 back times 50 = $252.98. Total cost is $44.53 once you subtract out the cash back.

Will be closer to $300 depending on your unloading method. Even without the app, it is a bargain for 100k MR, which has a straight up statement credit value of $1k.

Edit: Seems like Spent doesn't have Safeway, but I found a similar app called Drop which has it. DM me if you need an invite.