topic Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio. in Credit Cards

Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

AlpedHuez — Mon, 18 May 2020 14:26:57 GMT

What is the lengthiest/strangest evolution of a particular card in your portfolio? Could be through bank acquisition, discontinued product, voluntary product change, etc.

Mine is:

Charles Schwab Invest First Visa (old 2% CB, RIP - miss you) --> BoA Cash Rewards (Schwab portfolio acquired by FIA Card Services, conversion due to discontinuation of Schwab Visa) --> BoA Travel Rewards (voluntary PC, no idea why I did this b/c reward structure was not useful to me) --> BoA BBR (voluntary PC, current status)

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Mon, 18 May 2020 15:05:49 GMT

I think @UncleB has the best story about his cap1 card.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

M_Smart007 — Mon, 18 May 2020 15:42:38 GMT

@Anonymous, Probably has a good story or two

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

PullingMeSoftly — Mon, 18 May 2020 16:03:19 GMT

1998 started with a Providian Financial Visa

2005 Providian bought by Washington Mutual, my Visa became a WaMu card

2008 When the market collapsed, WaMu went under and was absorbed by JP Morgan, so my WaMu became a Chase card (don't remember what product).

After sockdrawing this card with zero usage for about 8 years, at some point Chase turned the card into a Slate.

2019 Product changed the Slate --> Freedom, which I now use regularly in my deck. This thing's been around the block.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

UpperNwGuy — Mon, 18 May 2020 18:07:14 GMT

My oldest active credit card started out as a generic NFCU Visa in 1987. In 2001 or 2002, NFCU product changed it to an nRewards Visa without consulting me. In 2015, I asked NFCU to product change it to a GoRewards Visa. Now I'm about to ask NFCU to product change it to a More Rewards Amex.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

NRB525 — Mon, 18 May 2020 19:59:54 GMT

I also have a Providian --> WaMu --> Chase card. Had a $3,500 limit when they converted it to a Freedom. Carrying a balance on it at conversion. With other AA at Chase, they CLD'd it twice, to $1,500 but didn't close or rate jack it except an alignment to advertised rates. They did balance chasing, rate jacking and outright closure of two or three other cards acquired by Chase.

I finally realized I was getting the 10 UR per swipe, extra 10% UR and other incentives so used the card heavily for any category spend or small dollar items, PIF. I ended up getting the 10 UR per swipe for something like two years after it was generally announced as nerfed away. Built up a lot of points on that $1,500 CL Freedom card.

They gave me an auto CLI to $3,000 in Sept 2018, then another auto CLI to $4,900 in June 2019. I kind of miss the symbolism of the $1,500 CL

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

Remedios — Mon, 18 May 2020 20:14:48 GMT

I'm in Providian/WaMu/Chase club also.

Providian and WaMu were fun. I had strings of lates because I couldn't remember to buy stamps or mail checks , but they weren't too bothered.

I might have spent a fortune on late fees (oh to be that young and dumb again).

It was closed around 2009 for no use, or at least that's what the letter said. I didnt care, because I wasnt using it.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

K-in-Boston — Mon, 18 May 2020 20:21:49 GMT

I also had a Providian to WaMu to Chase card; Chase immediately closed the card for inactivity. Should be falling off of my reports any day now.

As for evolution, my Target card probably takes the cake. TD Bank is the 4th lender to have the account since I opened it in 2002. Started as a $1200 store card, changed lenders, changed lenders again around 2005 and got converted to a Visa and they strangely gave me a CLD to $800, where it sat for years and changed lenders yet again. TD changed it from Visa to MasterCard and finally started giving me auto CLIs every June and December starting in 2016 until it got to $10,300 and I didn't get one in December 2019. Maybe next month?

The other weird one is Fingerhut. Someone talked me into using them for a $100 purchase in the mid 90s. Paid it and closed the account. They changed lenders in January 2003 and decided to start reporting my account on Experian (and only Experian) as open with a date of January 2003 when they did the switch. The original account fell off all 3 CRAs many years ago, but I still have that one transferred account showing closed by lender in September 2013 on Experian. Guess it will finally fall off for good in 3 years. And might be a datapoint for Fingerhut that they won't close an account until the account has gone more than 10 years with no activity, or about 20 years with no use. 😂

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

91173 — Mon, 18 May 2020 20:34:53 GMT

I have a Synchrony BP Visa that started off in the late 80s or early 90s as an Amoco gas station card. At some point they converted it to a Visa, then BP bought out Amoco. It's been thru several banks over the years -- First Union or First USA, I don't recall which, Chase starting back 15+ years ago, eventually Synchrony.

For several years it was one of the best rewards cards going and most websites listed it as one of the top ones. Now it's not worth much, but I keep it around for age.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

DaveInAZ — Mon, 18 May 2020 21:11:05 GMT

I had a Providian Visa, remember the name but I must have closed it before WaMu acquired them as I don't remember ever having anything with WaMu. As I remember Providian had a really high interest rate, probably why I closed it.

I lived in Honolulu 1992-1999 working in hotel management. I got a Bank of Hawaii Visa card in 1993. At some point, probably 1997-98 ,they converted it to a Bank of Hawaii issued Amex, it was really handy to use at Costco. My employer transferred me to Las Vegas in 1999 and I closed my BoH bank accounts and switched to Wells Fargo (bad move!) so BoH sold my Amex account to Bank America. At some point BoA converted it to Cash Rewards Visa, it still lives in my wallet.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

AverageJoesCredit — Mon, 18 May 2020 21:51:00 GMT

Pre 2015 no credit

2015 inkling of credit

2016-19 Big Bang in Credit

2020 after Covid- worthless credit

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

Anonymous — Mon, 18 May 2020 23:14:24 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Pre 2015 no credit
2015 inkling of credit
2016-19 Big Bang in Credit
2020 after Covid- worthless credit

Joseph! Go to your room, young man! You are grounded!

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

Anonymous — Mon, 18 May 2020 23:17:54 GMT

I'm not sure which is weirder so I will give two:

1) Capital One student MasterCard -> Gold MasterCard -> Platinum No Hassle Rewards (automatic) -> Venture One World MasterCard (automatic).

2) AT&T Universal MasterCard ->AT&T Universal Platinum MasterCard ->Double Cash MasterCard ->Thankyou Preferred MasterCard -> Thankyou Premier World Elite MasterCard (offered for free for a year) ->back to Thankyou Premier World MasterCard ->Costco Anywhere Visa Signature.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

M_Smart007 — Tue, 19 May 2020 01:57:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Pre 2015 no credit
2015 inkling of credit
2016-19 Big Bang in Credit
2020 after Covid- worthless credit
Joseph! Go to your room, young man! You are grounded!

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

M_Smart007 — Tue, 19 May 2020 02:00:17 GMT

"I also had a Providian to WaMu to Chase card"

I was pre WaMu, called "Home Savings"

Does that date me back to @Anonymous's age?

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

UncleB — Tue, 19 May 2020 02:04:06 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
I think @UncleB has the best story about his cap1 card.

LOL... it was a wild ride!

I opened an Orchard Bank MasterCard in June 2007. The card had a credit limit of $300 and a $79 annual fee. The rewards were decent (2%) but that wasn't really even on my radar at the time. My first CLI was a whopping $20 (yes, that's right - twenty dollars) and after a few years I was able to get them to increase it to $520.

Anyway, in 2013 the account was transferred to Capital One, and that's when things started getting interesting. They made it a Quicksilver One, but kept the same annual fee which always annoyed me since I was paying a higher fee than brand-new applicants. I was also annoyed that my rewards rate was nerfed from 2% to 1.5%, but back then I couldn't be too choosy. On the plus side, CLIs were much easier to get with Capital One so I actually got to see the card grow a bit.

In 2016 I finally got the card upgraded to a Quicksilver with no annual fee. I continued to get CLIs, and once the CL was over $5k I did a PC to a Venture One to see if the network would be upgraded (Platinum MC to WMC) as some others have reported but it didn't happen for me. Around six months later I did a PC to a Savor.

Just a few weeks after that PC (I think three?) the Savor was refreshed, and since I already had a Savor I got the new benefits but for no annual fee. Not a bad place to land at all...

TL;DR: I started off with an Orchard Bank Mastercard with a $300 credit line, and it's now a Capital One Savor Mastercard with no annual fee and a $5900 credit line.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

UncleB — Tue, 19 May 2020 02:07:53 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
I'm in Providian/WaMu/Chase club also.

Providian and WaMu were fun. I had strings of lates because I couldn't remember to buy stamps or mail checks , but they weren't too bothered.
I might have spent a fortune on late fees (oh to be that young and dumb again).

It was closed around 2009 for no use, or at least that's what the letter said. I didnt care, because I wasnt using it.

I had one of those as well... Providian to WaMu to Chase - in my case the migration to Chase happened just as my financial life was in the middle of a meltdown. (The account was eventually charged-off.)

I'm actually very surprised that they don't seem to be holding that against me as they have with so many others.

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

M_Smart007 — Tue, 19 May 2020 04:35:27 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
I think @UncleB has the best story about his cap1 card.
LOL... it was a wild ride!

I opened an Orchard Bank MasterCard in June 2007. The card had a credit limit of $300 and a $79 annual fee. The rewards were decent (2%) but that wasn't really even on my radar at the time. My first CLI was a whopping $20 (yes, that's right - twenty dollars) and after a few years I was able to get them to increase it to $520.

Anyway, in 2013 the account was transferred to Capital One, and that's when things started getting interesting. They made it a Quicksilver One, but kept the same annual fee which always annoyed me since I was paying a higher fee than brand-new applicants. I was also annoyed that my rewards rate was nerfed from 2% to 1.5%, but back then I couldn't be too choosy. On the plus side, CLIs were much easier to get with Capital One so I actually got to see the card grow a bit.

In 2016 I finally got the card upgraded to a Quicksilver with no annual fee. I continued to get CLIs, and once the CL was over $5k I did a PC to a Venture One to see if the network would be upgraded (Platinum MC to WMC) as some others have reported but it didn't happen for me. Around six months later I did a PC to a Savor.

Just a few weeks after that PC (I think three?) the Savor was refreshed, and since I already had a Savor I got the new benefits but for no annual fee. Not a bad place to land at all...

TL;DR: I started off with an Orchard Bank Mastercard with a $300 credit line, and it's now a Capital One Savor Mastercard with no annual fee and a $5900 credit line.

Great Story @UncleB

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

SweetCreditObsession — Tue, 19 May 2020 05:15:49 GMT

Loved your story @NRB525

Re: Lengthiest/Strangest evolution of a credit card in your portfolio.

SweetCreditObsession — Tue, 19 May 2020 05:19:56 GMT

@K-in-Boston , Fingerhut has learned their lesson...or at least a little. They sent me several emails asking me to use my account because it's been inactive for two years. If I don't, they'll close it at the 2.5 yrars mark.