Don't understand why anyone would be fixated on APR with a rewards card like this. Unless your plan is to have one and only one card, a low APR makes much more sense on a completely separate card.
@happypill wrote:Don't understand why anyone would be fixated on APR with a rewards card like this. Unless your plan is to have one and only one card, a low APR makes much more sense on a completely separate card.
Sorry not to go OT, I just wanted to explain the question above, about APR and rewards cards. The reason that I personally care about rewards card APRs on my end is because I will sometimes apply the same logic for no-AF rewards cards that some forum members also apply to AF rewards cards (i.e., the concept of breaking even or putting enough spend and getting enough rewards back on the AF card to justify the AF). In this case, it would be getting enough back in rewards to neutralize or break even on the interest incurred (I know easier said than done lol, but I am on track on being able to do it for at least one or more of my AF-free rewards cards by the end of the year). Also, if for whatever reason I do need or choose to revolve a balance and interest will exceed the rewards received, at least I will be able to do so without breaking the bank, since I know know I have a reasonably low-enough APR to do so. Either way, you end up having the best of both worlds, of rewards and low interest rates combined.
I know that some posters may say that if you are concerned about the APR on rewards cards, you are playing the game the wrong way, but I respectfully and politely disagree -- since that rewards card paradigm, in mho, applies much more to the current generation of rewards cards, which usually come with much-higher APRs to begin with. I am more interested in rewards cards that offer fixed or variable, single-digit interest rates, with a lower rewards threshold of say 1 - 1.5%...the preceding rewards card generation offered a lot more cards like this, and if you look diligently enough, you can still find a rare few like that today. One current example of this kind of rewards card that you can still get today is -- assuming that one can also qualify for the lowest-available APR for it -- the Premier America Privileges Rewards MC that I have been posting about a few times now on the forum, which offers as-low-as 7.50% F APR + 1.5x rewards points per dollar spent.
ETA: edits/adds
I went ahead and picked this one up. 2% cash back is 2% cash back fellows. This is my 3rd 2% CC, actually 4th... I dropped Fidelity like a bad habit. This will go into rotation with Citi DC and Blispay.
I don't see many complaining much about the travel rewards cards with similiar APRs.
@galahad15 wrote:
@happypill wrote:Don't understand why anyone would be fixated on APR with a rewards card like this. Unless your plan is to have one and only one card, a low APR makes much more sense on a completely separate card.
Sorry not to go OT, I just wanted to explain the question above, about APR and rewards cards. The reason that I personally care about rewards card APRs on my end is because I will sometimes apply the same logic for no-AF rewards cards that some forum members also apply to AF rewards cards (i.e., the concept of breaking even or putting enough spend and getting enough rewards back on the AF card to justify the AF). In this case, it would be getting enough back in rewards to neutralize or break even on the interest incurred (I know easier said than done lol, but I am on track on being able to do it for at least one or more of my AF-free rewards cards by the end of the year). Also, if for whatever reason I do need or choose to revolve a balance and interest will exceed the rewards received, at least I will be able to do so without breaking the bank, since I know know I have a reasonably low-enough APR to do so. Either way, you end up having the best of both worlds, of rewards and low interest rates combined.
I know that some posters may say that if you are concerned about the APR on rewards cards, you are playing the game the wrong way, but I respectfully and politely disagree -- since that rewards card paradigm, in mho, applies much more to the current generation of rewards cards, which usually come with much-higher APRs to begin with. I am more interested in rewards cards that offer fixed or variable, single-digit interest rates, with a lower rewards threshold of say 1 - 1.5%...the preceding rewards card generation offered a lot more cards like this, and if you look diligently enough, you can still find a rare few like that today. One current example of this kind of rewards card that you can still get today is -- assuming that one can also qualify for the lowest-available APR for it -- the Premier America Privileges Rewards MC that I have been posting about a few times now on the forum, which offers as-low-as 7.50% F APR + 1.5x rewards points per dollar spent.
ETA: edits/adds
I don't see that as "best of both worlds" as you suggest. It's obviously a compramise on both sides. You can easily get rewards of 2x or better and there are many CU cards with APR lower than 7.5% (7.5% really is pretty good, but I don't know anything about that CU, who do they approve, do they offer reasonable limits, geography? And in the end, why would I ever use a 1.5% card when I get a minimum of 2% and up to 5%+ on everything?). So again, unless you're going to carry only one card, it would make so much more sense to get the best feature on a variety of cards rather than trying to cram a bunch of so-so features into every single card.
Would you rather get a great lobster appetizer for your first course, a great steak for your main course, a great cheesecake for dessert and a great bottle of wine, or would you rather get a somewhat lacking steak/lobster/cheesecake/wine smoothie served to you all at once? There's just no need to combine stuff that doesn't need to be combined. Get the best rewards card(s) you can. Get the best low APR card you can. Don't force the stuff that doesn't matter.
@CreditCuriousity wrote:
@Gmood1 wrote:I went ahead and picked this one up. 2% cash back is 2% cash back fellows. This is my 3rd 2% CC, actually 4th... I dropped Fidelity like a bad habit. This will go into rotation with Citi DC and Blispay.
I don't see many complaining much about the travel rewards cards with similiar APRs.
Instant approval?
Apparently so, I didn't check till this morning. I thought it would be like the last app with them 4 or 5 days. I didn't think they gave instant approvals.
@Gmood1 wrote:
@CreditCuriousity wrote:
@Gmood1 wrote:I went ahead and picked this one up. 2% cash back is 2% cash back fellows. This is my 3rd 2% CC, actually 4th... I dropped Fidelity like a bad habit. This will go into rotation with Citi DC and Blispay.
I don't see many complaining much about the travel rewards cards with similiar APRs.
Instant approval?
Apparently so, I didn't check till this morning. I thought it would be like the last app with them 4 or 5 days. I didn't think they gave instant approvals.
They do...I got an instant approval on one of the time-limited cards they offered last year, in 2015 
@happypill wrote:
I don't see that as "best of both worlds" as you suggest. It's obviously a compramise on both sides. You can easily get rewards of 2x or better and there are many CU cards with APR lower than 7.5% (7.5% really is pretty good, but I don't know anything about that CU, who do they approve, do they offer reasonable limits, geography? And in the end, why would I ever use a 1.5% card when I get a minimum of 2% and up to 5%+ on everything?). So again, unless you're going to carry only one card, it would make so much more sense to get the best feature on a variety of cards rather than trying to cram a bunch of so-so features into every single card.
Would you rather get a great lobster appetizer for your first course, a great steak for your main course, a great cheesecake for dessert and a great bottle of wine, or would you rather get a somewhat lacking steak/lobster/cheesecake/wine smoothie served to you all at once? There's just no need to combine stuff that doesn't need to be combined. Get the best rewards card(s) you can. Get the best low APR card you can. Don't force the stuff that doesn't matter.
Yes, you're 100% right that there are cards out there that have lower APRs than 7.50%, but the difference between those cards and this one -- and what makes this one unique -- is that it is 7.50% F (fixed interest rate). So unless the CU who issues the card specifically gives a person a rate jack on it due to late payment, or certain other reasons, etc., the rate stays the same, as the prime rate rises for variable-rate cards. Word is that the Fed is going to start raising interest rates as early as this December (75% chance or thereabouts, according to various media reports). And so when other variable-APR cards go up with successive Fed rate hikes, the APR on this one, in theory, stays exactly the same.
As to the CU geography, I believe it is in California, IIRC, and as mentioned in other posts, anyone is eligible to join. Not really sure about requirements for large CLs/SLs, sorry. Sorry if this is a repeat of an earlier post (I can't remember if I already talked about it, in this thread or not), but the Premier America CU card also carries additional nice benefits, like trip cancellation insurance, lost luggage insurance, and other great benefits. Which is obviously very useful, if say you've hypothetically bought a non-refundable plane ticket and your flight is cancelled, etc.
On higher-percentage rewards cards, yes again you're right that 2% cards and cards with rotating 5% categories certainly have their place, and I have multiple instances of these cards as well, but the difference IME, vs. the low-APR cards, is that they are PIF monthly 99.9% of the time due to their high APRs, with exceptions of if they have say a 0% BT promo or something like that. I guess that I have a slightly different philosophy perhaps than many forum posters here in that I do not mind carrying modest or moderate balances on single-digit, low-APR cards. While some posters prefer paying AFs and paying 0 interest / PIF, my preference is carrying a balance and paying no AF. The fact that the 7.50% fixed card also has a rewards program is really just icing on the cake. Plus I don't necessarily view low-interest cards and rewards cards as mutually exclusive.
ETA: the 7.50% F card is also fee-free tor BTs, and no FTFs either.
ETA: edits