I have a AMD Phenom II X2 550 processor and a Geforce GT 240. Now looking at the the specs for this game, these two seem to be below the recommended settings. Would I be able to run the game smoothly with those two or should I get it for consoles?

Im running that same processor, but with an ATI 4870 and it runs fine. I dont know anything about that graphics card though so i couldnt tell you if it will run well or not.

You should be fine, but be prepared to turn down some settings.

You'll be ok I think. You won't be able to run it with HBAO on, I doubt. Nor high quality shadows or anti-aliasing for that matter. The game will also automatically assume you want to use DX10 (if you're using Vista or Win 7), but you'll probably get better performance in DX9 mode (hardly any difference anway). You can change this by going to your user folder in Windows, then Documents, then BFBC2 - open up settings.ini in notepad and change the third from last entry at the bottom "DxVersion=auto" to " DxVersion=9" (try changing it to 10 as well, just to see if it does infact affect game performance for you).

Your Phenom II X2 550 is far from bad; It's a Quad core cpu that has 2 cores disabled at the factory... but they can be re-enabled with specific motherboards. Percent of success, of re-enabling the cpus, is not 100% . There are people who buy these Phenom II X2 550, try to unlock and fail. Sometimes they unlock but the enabled cores are busted, thus after some stress tests... there may appear errors. Anyway, the safest bet for you is console.   You pay $60 at Amazon for a console version of BC2 and they give you $20 off your next video game purchase.

How much RAM you have 2GB or more? If yes, then you need new video card. If you go for a low end ATI, 5750 (I have a 5750) that is like ~140-150$ ... plus you must buy the game which is $50... so like 200$ to enjoy the game on PC... or you spend $60 for a console version and you get $20 back for next time.
 
*I am a PC user, I don't have xbox360 or PS3... I dedicate upgrade funds to PC only.