topic Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List in Credit Cards

CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

jwa77 — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 23:36:42 GMT

Not sure if this is the place to sound off on gripes or suggestions for CSP/CSR but here goes:

1) The "floor" earn rate of these cards should be higher. Why not take the base rate of the CFU and apply it to all "other" purchases? I'd love to have just ONE card that earns 2/3x on dining and travel and "1.5" on everything else. That would be great. Besides, both these cards have annual fees; why do "other" purchases get penalized so heavily?

2) Why not have the points on these cards increase on dining and travel? 4/3 would be amazing and it would put it in direct compeition with the new Citi Prestige and Citi Premier and even Amex Gold that have higher point awards?

3) Stick one of the CSR perks on the CSP -- namely--Global Entry credit -- and/or put something else on the CSR..(not sure what)

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

wasCB14 — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 23:52:55 GMT

It would be nice for CSR to give 1.5x on off-category purchases since CFU has a FTF. Not a major concern for me, though, as a lot of international spend is on travel or dining.

Chase and Amex can buy miles pretty cheaply from airlines, but the 1.5 cpp "book through Chase" redemption option might make 4x URs uneconomical. Amex doesn't give as good a value on cash and "pay with points" redemptions, even with a Schwab Platinum.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 01:14:39 GMT

4x on CSR would be 6% earning rate on travel. Im all for it, although i don't see chase doing it.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

wasCB14 — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 01:45:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
4x on CSR would be 6% earning rate on travel. Im all for it, although i don't see chase doing it.

One thing I could see them doing is offering 4x on some category (probably not all travel and dining) but nerfing the 1.5 cpp "book through Chase" travel redemption rate to CSP's 1.25 or even 1 cpp.

I'm pretty happy with CSR as it is. It complements Amex Platinum nicely.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Shadowfactor — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 02:59:31 GMT

I think something that is often forgotten around forums, is that we are a small subset of the general public.

Most people are very happy with chase and it’s strong domestic redemption value. So many times I hear from others that they love southwest because the points are a fixed value or that portal bookings at “50%” more value. They really think the value of their points just jumped 50%, which is true in a way but they don’t realize that 50% isn’t the whole picture and you can get a lot more by transferring to partners.

It seems like most people don’t have an interest going to international trips but just want the points to be good for Christmas to see grandma even if the value is so crappy it’s not even funny.

Chase has a huge market share on these types of customers who probably pay some interest as well.

Theirs really no reason for chase to change the sapphire line right now, and it may not be possible. They lost a ton of money on the initial welcome bonuses and who knows what the whole financial picture is for chase credit cards as a whole. Plus with the bloggers pushing chase like it’s the cats meow, they have the marketing so why change anything ?

For your average consumer, chase is likely the best overall card and they know it so why change it ?

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 11:34:36 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
4x on CSR would be 6% earning rate on travel. Im all for it, although i don't see chase doing it.
One thing I could see them doing is offering 4x on some category (probably not all travel and dining) but nerfing the 1.5 cpp "book through Chase" travel redemption rate to CSP's 1.25 or even 1 cpp.

I'm pretty happy with CSR as it is. It complements Amex Platinum nicely.

It could happen, if airline devaluation marches on, chase would be smart to devalue UR as well. I will keep my calculator at hand, when its time to switch to other products (prestige), i would not hesitate.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

mongstradamus — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 11:43:30 GMT

If anything I would like them to have at least one card that had bonus on groceries. They have like seven cards and none give bonus to groceries. That's is where amex excels I think either EDP or gold are really good for groceries.

A second thing which would be nice is have travel category include gas.i think the Citi premier does that.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 12:52:28 GMT

You can get better value transferring, but the value isn't THAT bad using the portal on the csr.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 12:56:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
You can get better value transferring, but the value isn't THAT bad using the portal on the csr.

That is not guaranteed, unless you fly international business, you are not guaranteed a better rate that chase portal.

And if point transfer is the only thing one care, prestige is better than csr (5pts vs 3 pts).

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

iced — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:24:18 GMT

@jwa77 wrote:
Not sure if this is the place to sound off on gripes or suggestions for CSP/CSR but here goes:

1) The "floor" earn rate of these cards should be higher. Why not take the base rate of the CFU and apply it to all "other" purchases? I'd love to have just ONE card that earns 2/3x on dining and travel and "1.5" on everything else. That would be great. Besides, both these cards have annual fees; why do "other" purchases get penalized so heavily?
2) Why not have the points on these cards increase on dining and travel? 4/3 would be amazing and it would put it in direct compeition with the new Citi Prestige and Citi Premier and even Amex Gold that have higher point awards?
3) Stick one of the CSR perks on the CSP -- namely--Global Entry credit -- and/or put something else on the CSR..(not sure what)

1. I'd hardly call 1 UR per dollar a penalty. While ideally I'd also like to see more UR earning on a single card, I can't fault them for not doing it. To attain the same point earning as a CSR, I'd need two American Express cards, both with an AF. The CFU has no AF.

2. Citi and American Express have higher point earnings, though not with the exact same categories. There's also an assumption that's basically saying UR/MR/TY are all equal, but they're not. To one person, 1 MR may be worth 2-3 UR, but to another person, 1 UR may be worth 2-3 UR. Trying to make them all equal only reinforces the very, very false notion some have that they should just try to maximize point accrual for point accrual's sake, rather than choosing the program that best fits their individual spending habits and travel patterns.

3. The CSR is already paying people to use it, so adding even more freebies doesn't make much sense. For a frequent traveler/diner, which is exactly who this card targets, they're attaining tens of thousands (or more) UR every year for between $50 and $150 ($50 for GE renewal years). $150 for 50,000 or even 20,000 miles each year is a steal.

Would I complain if they added even more benefits to the cards? No, but I cannot, on any rational level, complain or gripe about the level of benefits they provide. Until both Citi and American Express basically had to significantly up their game to compete, the CSR was the talk of the credit town after it came out - the gold standard. It's still a very good card, unless you subscribe to some min-max philosophy that there's the best and everything else is crap.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

simplynoir — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:59:12 GMT

My wish list would start with revamping their fraud alert/team because they are inconsistent

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 17:42:13 GMT

I’m always all for expansion of benefits, but I’m also aware that expansion in one area is likely to lead to contraction in another or higher annual fees. Id love it if they’d give us bonus for supermarkets but not if it leads to a more restrictive travel definition or credits that have to be earned over the course of 12 months.

One thing that I’d love for them to do which shouldn’t really cost anything is give me a notification every time my card is used. Amex does it and I think it’s really helpful.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

simplynoir — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 17:46:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
One thing that I’d love for them to do which shouldn’t really cost anything is give me a notification every time my card is used. Amex does it and I think it’s really helpful.

But Chase does offer this...

Edit to add: they even offer different flavors of notifcations from emails, texts and push notifications from the app and it's all real time to boot. I don't know how much more they can do there.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Remedios — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 17:51:19 GMT

Not only that they have alerts, you could have them send a text, email and push notification for any transaction over $0.00 or you can set them up whichever way you want.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

simplynoir — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 17:47:44 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Not only that they have alerts, you could have them send a text, email and push notification for any transaction over $0.00 or you CD an set them up whichever way you want.

Beat me to it

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Remedios — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 17:52:00 GMT

@simplynoir wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
Not only that they have alerts, you could have them send a text, email and push notification for any transaction over $0.00 or you CD an set them up whichever way you want.

Beat me to it

Apparently my phone beat me up while at it

CD lolwut

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

wasCB14 — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 18:25:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
You can get better value transferring, but the value isn't THAT bad using the portal on the csr.
That is not guaranteed, unless you fly international business, you are not guaranteed a better rate that chase portal.

And if point transfer is the only thing one care, prestige is better than csr (5pts vs 3 pts).

But Citi has long suffered from the perception that their airline partners aren't as good as Chase's.

TYs certainly can be good, but they tend to appeal to more advanced points enthusiasts...people who might fly to exotic destinations or who don't mind a complicated partner booking process.

I made the switch back from Prestige a year ago. The best value I could ever get from TYs was close-in AA flights at 1.6 cpp.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 18:58:36 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
You can get better value transferring, but the value isn't THAT bad using the portal on the csr.
That is not guaranteed, unless you fly international business, you are not guaranteed a better rate that chase portal.

And if point transfer is the only thing one care, prestige is better than csr (5pts vs 3 pts).
But Citi has long suffered from the perception that their airline partners aren't as good as Chase's.

TYs certainly can be good, but they tend to appeal to more advanced points enthusiasts...people who might fly to exotic destinations or who don't mind a complicated partner booking process.

I made the switch back from Prestige a year ago. The best value I could ever get from TYs was close-in AA flights at 1.6 cpp.

I really hope AA considers joining as a transfer partner with Citi, it would be very helpful for both companies.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

wasCB14 — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 19:38:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
But Citi has long suffered from the perception that their airline partners aren't as good as Chase's.

TYs certainly can be good, but they tend to appeal to more advanced points enthusiasts...people who might fly to exotic destinations or who don't mind a complicated partner booking process.

I made the switch back from Prestige a year ago. The best value I could ever get from TYs was close-in AA flights at 1.6 cpp.
I really hope AA considers joining as a transfer partner with Citi, it would be very helpful for both companies.

Citi couldn't get that even when the Aviator was closed to new apps and the Prestige had Admirals access. Citi and AA have moved further away since then.

But if this "dynamic pricing" devaluation is as bad as others have said, then maybe that makes it more likely. Of course, a lot of the appeal of AA miles will be gone.

Re: CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

jb1280 — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 20:58:19 GMT

As Slightly below and slightly above mid/tier cards, CSR/CSP are just fine in the sense that they have broad multipliers, decent floors on point redemptions, and things like primary rental insurance.

To enhance the CSR, Chase needs better partners. Partners that will throw in credits to continue to drive down the effective annual fee. Partners that will expand lounge access (say United). Relationships that create unique value like Amex’s IAP.

The killer feature for Chase is really the redemption at 1.5 or 1.25x through the portal on travel. Everything else is fairly middling