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Was just reading about this over at PenFed. Very puzzling. If PenFed drops the gas to 3 pts on my regular Platinum rewards, I may be switching my go-to gas/grocery card to something else. If they reduce the regular to 3-2-1 as the new Signature appears to be heading toward, I'll just get the BoA 3-2-1 which gives straight cash with a 10% bonus when deposited into a BoA checking. I'll grab the Freedom too to ensure I have my 1500 quarterly limit covered while getting extra gas bonuses 6 months per year.
Looking again at the site, it looks like Penfed has set up a new Rewards site for the Platinum Rewards Signature card. So I wonder if they are considering something like Citi's Thank You points, where the redemption offers are different depending which card you have. That way, they could keep Platinum Rewards as 5:3:1, but the real value could be similar to the Sigs 3:2:1. Somewhat devious, but it's not clear to me why a new rewards site would be needed otherwise!
Looks like the terms have changed:
*Accounts earning 3 points on gas purchases at the pump, 2 points on supermarket purchases and 1 point on all other purchases will be evaluated on a monthly basis to determine if the member has a qualifying product. Accounts with qualifying products will be upgraded so that the member will earn 5 points on gaspurchases at the pump, 3 points on supermarket purchase and 1 point on all other purchases.
**A qualifying PenFed product is defined as one of the following: active checking account with direct deposit ($250 minimum); any PenFed closed-end loan, Money Market Certificate or IRA Certificate, or Equity Line of Credit with a balance as of the date of review. Credit cards and lines of credit are not included.
@takeshi74 wrote:Looks like the terms have changed:
*Accounts earning 3 points on gas purchases at the pump, 2 points on supermarket purchases and 1 point on all other purchases will be evaluated on a monthly basis to determine if the member has a qualifying product. Accounts with qualifying products will be upgraded so that the member will earn 5 points on gaspurchases at the pump, 3 points on supermarket purchase and 1 point on all other purchases.
**A qualifying PenFed product is defined as one of the following: active checking account with direct deposit ($250 minimum); any PenFed closed-end loan, Money Market Certificate or IRA Certificate, or Equity Line of Credit with a balance as of the date of review. Credit cards and lines of credit are not included.
Yes, and now no mention of 10/31, even though it says Limited Time Offer. So I wonder if this is longer term (which means there is a way to keep 5%).
Well that's better then losing 5% all together. A checking account requires a minimum daily balance of $500 or a minimum $500 monthly direct deposit to be free. I'll stick with my cash rewards that just gives 5% automatically and no points to hassle with. Pair that with a BCP and I'm set.
@Default4 wrote:Well that's better then losing 5% all together. A checking account requires a minimum daily balance of $500 or a minimum $500 monthly direct deposit to be free. I'll stick with my cash rewards that just gives 5% automatically and no points to hassle with. Pair that with a BCP and I'm set.
That's assuming that the Cash Rewards structure doesn't change as well!
I don't think they are going to change it and I bet that the people with the old platinum rewards will stay with the same rewards program. They will lose a lot of customers if they do.
Maybe, but again I just don't see how they can attract people to the new card if they keep an older card that is better in many ways. You can't get Plat Rewards any more, so I guess they could do the same with Cash Rewards, existing users keep the old rate, new apps get the Plat Rewards Sig with the new structure.
But they did nerf Cash Rewards anyway, right (the 0.25% rate) for old and new. Now that wasn't so bad as very few had that card for any reason other than the 5% gas, but to me it is still a hard marketing sell, a no-strings 5% vs 3% unless you do this.....
See that's the thing. If they just quit taking applications for both the new customers generally will have no clue. Putting a relatively small amount of money into a checking account really isn't that big of a deal. Most of the people that have the credit to qualify for Penfed are going to have the funds to throw them a bone. It almost seems like they don't know what they are going to do yet as the reps have no clue and they keep making small changes. I guess only time will tell.