Irascible,
I have no idea how much money Amex actually gets as profit from the fees they charge merchants, but I've been told before that Amex charges in the neighborhood of 3%, so I assumed that was 1% to 1.5% profit for them since MC/Visa only charge 1.5% - BIG assumption on my part, I know ....and yeah, now that I actually sit down and do the math, even my shopaholic tendencies (thanks to the stinkin' HOT DEALS Forum ), wouldn't net them $1K per year in fees, however, I'm not sure that matters:
Since the BVG claims are not honored/paid by Amex (it's some sort of insurance company), I wonder if it's not a lot cheaper than potentially $1K per BVG eligible account for Amex to continue offering it - you know, like how you pay $X at work for your health insurance, but get all sorts of things covered that *could* cost $10X, if you need/use them. I think it's what those accountant type dudes call dilution of risk, or risk sharing, or something like that,... but essentially, since only a fraction of the people paying for the insurance use a lot of it, the insurance company can afford to cover lots and lots of people for a fraction of the cost of the maximum benefit they offer.
I'll bet BVG works like this, and so I *hope* that Amex will continue to offer it on at least some of their cards. Guess we'll just have to wait and see....
BTW "'professional users' of the BVG benefit" .... LMAO!! Too true....my friends are getting tired of hearing me say things like - hey, I just got this super cool [insert favorite Hot Deal item here] for a buck and a half....SHIPPED!!! hehehe, then they tell me I spend too much time and effort on this stuff.....whatever, I've got a bunch of cool stuff CHEAP....and everyone needs a hobby