PSA: Beware of US Bank Points!

[Anonymous]

My company has a US Bank Business card which translates to their points program.  Buyer beware!  While their triple points sound like a solid deal on the surface, points are valued between 0.67 cpp and ~0.8 cpp depending on if you want a check or a giftcard.  I called in and spoke with a CSR (we have 160,000 points available), they explained that, to their knowledge these are the two best redemption options.

For those of you considering a US Bank card outside of the Cash+ (which I hear is less and less worthwhile each day), I urge you to take a closer look into their misleading points system.  Where a UR point or a MR point earns you > 1cpp, the opposite is true for points accrued with US Bank.

[kdm31091]

Thanks for the info, and that's terrible.

I hate when lenders mislead people with points programs. It's the same as PNC's points card. They say "ooh look you get 4 points per dollar!"

Without digging deeper (which many people will not do) you will not realize that the points are 0.25 each so...you're getting a 1% card with sneakier advertising.

I hate it. I get that it will not attract as many people if they are upfront and say it is a 1% card, but then how about upgrading it to make it more interesting and competitive instead of duping people?

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My company has a US Bank Business card which translates to their points program.  Buyer beware!  While their triple points sound like a solid deal on the surface, points are valued between 0.67 cpp and ~0.8 cpp depending on if you want a check or a giftcard.  I called in and spoke with a CSR (we have 160,000 points available), they explained that, to their knowledge these are the two best redemption options.

For those of you considering a US Bank card outside of the Cash+ (which I hear is less and less worthwhile each day), I urge you to take a closer look into their misleading points system.  Where a UR point or a MR point earns you > 1cpp, the opposite is true for points accrued with US Bank.

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MRs will also give you a bad rate if you ask for cash or statement credit.  But if those are giftcards are the best, then I agree, beware.