topic Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card in Credit Cards

U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 19:26:36 GMT

I haven't seen much discussion on this specific credit card on this board. I ran across it today and it seems interesting..

5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined net purchases each quarter on two categories you choose.
2% cash back on your choice of one everyday category (like gas or groceries).
1% cash back on everything else

That's not bad, right? Any reason why more people don't have this card in their wallet?

https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/cash-plus-signature.html

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Themanwhocan — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 19:38:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I haven't seen much discussion on this specific credit card on this board. I ran across it today and it seems interesting..

5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined net purchases each quarter on two categories you choose.
2% cash back on your choice of one everyday category (like gas or groceries).
1% cash back on everything else

That's not bad, right? Any reason why more people don't have this card in their wallet?

https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/cash-plus-signature.html

It used to be somewhat difficult to get. That has changed recently.

Also, they removed a few of the more popular 5% categories. If the existing categories interest you, then its certainly worth obtaining that card.

5% at Bookstores is useful at Amazon.com if you don't already have a card for that. Fast Food is good for some people. Etc...

Personally, i have 2 Cash+ cards.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 19:42:44 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I haven't seen much discussion on this specific credit card on this board. I ran across it today and it seems interesting..

5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined net purchases each quarter on two categories you choose.
2% cash back on your choice of one everyday category (like gas or groceries).
1% cash back on everything else

That's not bad, right? Any reason why more people don't have this card in their wallet?

https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/cash-plus-signature.html
It used to be somewhat difficult to get. That has changed recently.

Also, they removed a few of the more popular 5% categories. If the existing categories interest you, then its certainly worth obtaining that card.

5% at Bookstores is useful at Amazon.com if you don't already have a card for that. Fast Food is good for some people. Etc...

Personally, i have 2 Cash+ cards.

Right, and there has been quite a bit of discussion on the forum!, e.g. a long thread in June: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/US-Bank-Cash-Changes-and-New-Cards-June-20th/m-p/4627914#M1340081

If you can use the 5% categories (which seem to have become fairly fixed now) it's good, otherwise not so much. I also have 2

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

NRB525 — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 19:54:15 GMT

I think it's a fine card to have. I also have two, including one converted from an older Perks+ or CashRewards 1% card.

US Bank also issues regular BT offers, lately at 4% fee for 14 months 0% APR.

The initial CL is usually raised after 9 - 10 months for most cardholders. My experience has been a 40% CLI after about 10 months on each of the three US Bank cards that I have.

The categories I'm using are the 5% Cell Phones, which also works on landline for me, Sporting Goods stores, the second card is Department Stores and Electronics Stores. Another useful one is Fast Food at 5% which covers Starbucks and the cafeteria at my office.

2% Gas on one card, Groceries on the other, general dining is a possibility. Combine the 2% Dining with 5% Fast Food, or 5% Sporting Goods with 5% Department Stores, or 5% Specialty Clothing, and it works as a blanket likely-reward card where you don't have to worry too much about the specific coding of a merchant if you are not sure going in.

US Bank also makes the MCC coding available on the download files, so if you want to be certain how a merchant codes (like Amazon) one can verify that with actual transactions.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 20:05:40 GMT

I wasn't aware of this card. It looks good in theory, but I don't think I would make much use of the categories that they offer. Except the dining, since I work 12 hour days I do't have alot of free time to cook.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 21:53:07 GMT

I don't think Amazon is listed as a BookStore category? It lists Amazon KINDLE, but not overall Amazon purchases?

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

kdm31091 — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 22:01:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think Amazon is listed as a BookStore category? It lists Amazon KINDLE, but not overall Amazon purchases?

Amazon typically codes as a bookstore for most purchases but it's not something companies will come out and advertise. It doesn't have to be a Kindle purchase.

That said, if you want for-sure 5% on Amazon, there's always the store card.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 01:23:52 GMT

@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think Amazon is listed as a BookStore category? It lists Amazon KINDLE, but not overall Amazon purchases?
Amazon typically codes as a bookstore for most purchases but it's not something companies will come out and advertise. It doesn't have to be a Kindle purchase.

That said, if you want for-sure 5% on Amazon, there's always the store card.

The bookstore MCC stuff is pretty much only for physical things that Amazon ships themselves from what I have seen on my Sallie Mae. If it is sold and shipped by a partner company, it's generally not sent through via Amazon and thus not a bookstore purchase. Also, I noticed that Amazon Digital (IE if I buy MP3 songs) are not the same MCC either.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Themanwhocan — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 01:50:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think Amazon is listed as a BookStore category? It lists Amazon KINDLE, but not overall Amazon purchases?
Amazon typically codes as a bookstore for most purchases but it's not something companies will come out and advertise. It doesn't have to be a Kindle purchase.

That said, if you want for-sure 5% on Amazon, there's always the store card.
The bookstore MCC stuff is pretty much only for physical things that Amazon ships themselves from what I have seen on my Sallie Mae. If it is sold and shipped by a partner company, it's generally not sent through via Amazon and thus not a bookstore purchase. Also, I noticed that Amazon Digital (IE if I buy MP3 songs) are not the same MCC either.

The digital stuff (Kindle, Music downloads) are not coded bookstore. Music is record store, and i'm not sure what kindle codes as.

Everything else is Bookstore. If you bought it on Amazon, you paid Amazon. the fact that Amazon passed the money on to someone else doesn't change the fact that your credit card was charged for something by Amazon which is a bookstore.

Although you can just recharge your Amazon.com gift card, which is a bookstore purchase, and then pay for anything including digital downloads with the gift card. You do lose any credit card protections like price protection or extended warranty if you do that.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

weehoo — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 02:53:47 GMT

OP this card has been covered extensively and for many years. Its just that all its nerfing has left it with kind of a "meh" selection of categories than it used to have. I havent thought of using it for Amazon, but i have been straying away from Amazon and towards "Jet" if i can help it, since it is usually a couple bucks cheaper always.

It used to be that you could only apply for this card in person at a branch, which was odd since they had no idea what the card was when i came in.

Then they had a great 5% restaurante category which got nerfed a few years back. Now i have had it on cell phone 5% on auto pay, and fast food, which i really forget to use it for.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 04:12:51 GMT

Based on the posts maybe I should pass..

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 06:33:18 GMT

It's a good card, even with all the complaints that it used to be so much better. So what? If you can make use of the current categories, it's a good card. If not, pass on it. I just got it and believe me, 5% off all Tex-Mex and B&N purchases is nothing to sneeze at for me

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 11:34:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's a good card, even with all the complaints that it used to be so much better. So what? If you can make use of the current categories, it's a good card. If not, pass on it. I just got it and believe me, 5% off all Tex-Mex and B&N purchases is nothing to sneeze at for me

Yes! I've made a similar point several times, the fact that a card has been nerfed shouldn't matter in deciding whether to get it: you cannot get the unnerfed version, so compare what is on offer NOW to other choices and determine which suites you best. Almost every "good" card out there for any time has been nerfed, including this, the BCP/BCE and now Citi Prestige. Obviously for existing card holders it is very annoying, but the same process should apply for deciding whether to keep.

This card has a $2K a quarter max on the 5% categories, higher than Discover IT or Freedom, the categories don't rotate, making it much easier to decide whether the card is right for you (rather than having to guess what Freedom/Discover will offer in future quarters) so, if the categories cover your spending, can still be a great choice.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 17:05:14 GMT

Y'all are right. Some decent 5% categories and 2% categories to choose from. The fact that it's 5+2+1 is what really made it shine brighter than the Discover & Freedom card..

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

SunriseEarth — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 20:13:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It's a good card, even with all the complaints that it used to be so much better. So what? If you can make use of the current categories, it's a good card. If not, pass on it. I just got it and believe me, 5% off all Tex-Mex and B&N purchases is nothing to sneeze at for me
Yes! I've made a similar point several times, the fact that a card has been nerfed shouldn't matter in deciding whether to get it: you cannot get the unnerfed version, so compare what is on offer NOW to other choices and determine which suites you best. Almost every "good" card out there for any time has been nerfed, including this, the BCP/BCE and now Citi Prestige. Obviously for existing card holders it is very annoying, but the same process should apply for deciding whether to keep.

This card has a $2K a quarter max on the 5% categories, higher than Discover IT or Freedom, the categories don't rotate, making it much easier to decide whether the card is right for you (rather than having to guess what Freedom/Discover will offer in future quarters) so, if the categories cover your spending, can still be a great choice.

I enjoy my Cash+. For Q3, I chose 5% Fast Food, 5% Dept. stores and 2% Restaurants. I swipe this card very frequently for fast food; overall, I've had a great experience with this card. I was initially approved with a $5K CL and received an auto-CLI that took me to $7500.

Next quarter, I plan on taking advantage of Discover's department store inclusion, so I'll have to make another choice for the 5% category.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 20:17:24 GMT

Thanks for the response SunriseEarth.

I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger on it after thinking about it some more.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Themanwhocan — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 21:13:53 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think Amazon is listed as a BookStore category? It lists Amazon KINDLE, but not overall Amazon purchases?
Amazon typically codes as a bookstore for most purchases but it's not something companies will come out and advertise. It doesn't have to be a Kindle purchase.

That said, if you want for-sure 5% on Amazon, there's always the store card.
The bookstore MCC stuff is pretty much only for physical things that Amazon ships themselves from what I have seen on my Sallie Mae. If it is sold and shipped by a partner company, it's generally not sent through via Amazon and thus not a bookstore purchase. Also, I noticed that Amazon Digital (IE if I buy MP3 songs) are not the same MCC either.
The digital stuff (Kindle, Music downloads) are not coded bookstore. Music is record store, and i'm not sure what kindle codes as.

Everything else is Bookstore. If you bought it on Amazon, you paid Amazon. the fact that Amazon passed the money on to someone else doesn't change the fact that your credit card was charged for something by Amazon which is a bookstore.

Although you can just recharge your Amazon.com gift card, which is a bookstore purchase, and then pay for anything including digital downloads with the gift card. You do lose any credit card protections like price protection or extended warranty if you do that.

Hmm, the categories seem a bit different.

For example, the clothing Stores category lists only 13 stores, and states that only those stores are included.

Bookstores category specifically includes Kindle now, but has no mention of regular Amazon. of course, it never mentioned amazon before... but since they now specifically mention kindle, the fact that they dont mention anything else amazonish seems strange.

There are 12 5% categories. Weren't there 15 before?

Did the cell phone category always mention qwest and centurylink? maybe i should try my centurylink dsl bill again...

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

14Fiesta — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 22:00:49 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think Amazon is listed as a BookStore category? It lists Amazon KINDLE, but not overall Amazon purchases?
Amazon typically codes as a bookstore for most purchases but it's not something companies will come out and advertise. It doesn't have to be a Kindle purchase.

That said, if you want for-sure 5% on Amazon, there's always the store card.
The bookstore MCC stuff is pretty much only for physical things that Amazon ships themselves from what I have seen on my Sallie Mae. If it is sold and shipped by a partner company, it's generally not sent through via Amazon and thus not a bookstore purchase. Also, I noticed that Amazon Digital (IE if I buy MP3 songs) are not the same MCC either.
The digital stuff (Kindle, Music downloads) are not coded bookstore. Music is record store, and i'm not sure what kindle codes as.

Everything else is Bookstore. If you bought it on Amazon, you paid Amazon. the fact that Amazon passed the money on to someone else doesn't change the fact that your credit card was charged for something by Amazon which is a bookstore.

Although you can just recharge your Amazon.com gift card, which is a bookstore purchase, and then pay for anything including digital downloads with the gift card. You do lose any credit card protections like price protection or extended warranty if you do that.
Hmm, the categories seem a bit different.

For example, the clothing Stores category lists only 13 stores, and states that only those stores are included.

Bookstores category specifically includes Kindle now, but has no mention of regular Amazon. of course, it never mentioned amazon before... but since they now specifically mention kindle, the fact that they dont mention anything else amazonish seems strange.

There are 12 5% categories. Weren't there 15 before?

Did the cell phone category always mention qwest and centurylink? maybe i should try my centurylink dsl bill again...

I see what you are looking at, and it's confusing because the fine print below creates an argument in the wording:

"The entities listed above are merely examples of the type of companies and merchants that fall within each particular category"

And I will tell you too for Cash +, US Bank goes off the MCC codes, so as long as the clothing store you are shopping at is using the right MCC code, it will count towards the bonus cash back.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 22:37:09 GMT

@14Fiesta wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I don't think Amazon is listed as a BookStore category? It lists Amazon KINDLE, but not overall Amazon purchases?
Amazon typically codes as a bookstore for most purchases but it's not something companies will come out and advertise. It doesn't have to be a Kindle purchase.

That said, if you want for-sure 5% on Amazon, there's always the store card.
The bookstore MCC stuff is pretty much only for physical things that Amazon ships themselves from what I have seen on my Sallie Mae. If it is sold and shipped by a partner company, it's generally not sent through via Amazon and thus not a bookstore purchase. Also, I noticed that Amazon Digital (IE if I buy MP3 songs) are not the same MCC either.
The digital stuff (Kindle, Music downloads) are not coded bookstore. Music is record store, and i'm not sure what kindle codes as.

Everything else is Bookstore. If you bought it on Amazon, you paid Amazon. the fact that Amazon passed the money on to someone else doesn't change the fact that your credit card was charged for something by Amazon which is a bookstore.

Although you can just recharge your Amazon.com gift card, which is a bookstore purchase, and then pay for anything including digital downloads with the gift card. You do lose any credit card protections like price protection or extended warranty if you do that.
Hmm, the categories seem a bit different.

For example, the clothing Stores category lists only 13 stores, and states that only those stores are included.

Bookstores category specifically includes Kindle now, but has no mention of regular Amazon. of course, it never mentioned amazon before... but since they now specifically mention kindle, the fact that they dont mention anything else amazonish seems strange.

There are 12 5% categories. Weren't there 15 before?

Did the cell phone category always mention qwest and centurylink? maybe i should try my centurylink dsl bill again...
I see what you are looking at, and it's confusing because the fine print below creates an argument in the wording:

"The entities listed above are merely examples of the type of companies and merchants that fall within each particular category"

And I will tell you too for Cash +, US Bank goes off the MCC codes, so as long as the clothing store you are shopping at is using the right MCC code, it will count towards the bonus cash back.

It looks like that footnote apprears for all categories, whereas only Clothing is "select". with the aditional wording "Category does not include shoe stores or department stores (like Macy's and JCPenny®). This category includes only the merchants listed below"

It does sound like BCP/BCE "select department stores" and BC "select drug stores" but as you say, if they only use MCC with no additional processing, then all clothing stores should work.

Re: U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Credit Card

SunriseEarth — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 00:07:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@14Fiesta wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:
Hmm, the categories seem a bit different.

For example, the clothing Stores category lists only 13 stores, and states that only those stores are included.

Bookstores category specifically includes Kindle now, but has no mention of regular Amazon. of course, it never mentioned amazon before... but since they now specifically mention kindle, the fact that they dont mention anything else amazonish seems strange.

There are 12 5% categories. Weren't there 15 before?

Did the cell phone category always mention qwest and centurylink? maybe i should try my centurylink dsl bill again...
I see what you are looking at, and it's confusing because the fine print below creates an argument in the wording:

"The entities listed above are merely examples of the type of companies and merchants that fall within each particular category"

And I will tell you too for Cash +, US Bank goes off the MCC codes, so as long as the clothing store you are shopping at is using the right MCC code, it will count towards the bonus cash back.
It looks like that footnote apprears for all categories, whereas only Clothing is "select". with the aditional wording "Category does not include shoe stores or department stores (like Macy's and JCPenny®). This category includes only the merchants listed below"

It does sound like BCP/BCE "select department stores" and BC "select drug stores" but as you say, if they only use MCC with no additional processing, then all clothing stores should work.

IME, not all clothing stores worked for that, so I tend to believe that only those select few will work, which makes it not a great category.