topic Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly in Credit Cards

New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Meanmchine — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 15:03:39 GMT

Saw this article in NerdWallet

I dont know if this topic has been started, I only see discussion about their savings accounts

Savings account required, not geo fenced

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/hmbradley-credit-card-automatic-rewards-customization

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

AllZero — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 00:26:22 GMT

Thank you for sharing the information!

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 00:35:05 GMT

Interesting idea. I dislike the $60 annual fee but if you make heavy use of a certain category, provided that the MCC codes correctly, it can definitely become valuable for those who don't get 3% everywhere.

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

M_Smart007 — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 02:56:24 GMT

Covered with AOD

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

wasCB14 — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 03:03:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting idea. I dislike the $60 annual fee but if you make heavy use of a certain category, provided that the MCC codes correctly, it can definitely become valuable for those who don't get 3% everywhere.

We'd have to be talking fairly heavy use...$6k to offset $60 at 1% more than a 2% card. And plenty of other cards have high or no caps on 3% categories.

And then, of course, there's AOD, BBP, PR, etc.

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Stralem — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 03:24:56 GMT

It's an interesting concept, being rewarded for essentially not spending every red cent that's deposited in your accounts. The annual fee is a turn off, though.

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 04:03:24 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting idea. I dislike the $60 annual fee but if you make heavy use of a certain category, provided that the MCC codes correctly, it can definitely become valuable for those who don't get 3% everywhere.
We'd have to be talking fairly heavy use...$6k to offset $60 at 1% more than a 2% card. And plenty of other cards have high or no caps on 3% categories.

And then, of course, there's AOD, BBP, PR, etc.

It would have to be a category that isn't normally covered by other cards which obviously makes it a niche case but I'm sure people can make the math work.

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

CreditCuriosity — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:53:25 GMT

rebuilder sort of card due to AF?

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:10:37 GMT

The thread title includes "you pick" but reading the link that doesn't seem to be the case, it's automatically your highest and second highest categories each month. So if you just take care to use the card where you don't have another category card, and your total each month in the (potentially different each month) highest category exceeds $6K a year.... Just don't know how easy that is to do, unless you have a constant uncovered category that you spend in every month.

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

wasCB14 — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 21:05:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting idea. I dislike the $60 annual fee but if you make heavy use of a certain category, provided that the MCC codes correctly, it can definitely become valuable for those who don't get 3% everywhere.
We'd have to be talking fairly heavy use...$6k to offset $60 at 1% more than a 2% card. And plenty of other cards have high or no caps on 3% categories.

And then, of course, there's AOD, BBP, PR, etc.
It would have to be a category that isn't normally covered by other cards which obviously makes it a niche case but I'm sure people can make the math work.

Maybe something like rent, mortgage, or tax payments...but I doubt those are eligible.

HMBradley Credit Card?

batsy71 — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 08:10:24 GMT

Interesting Combined Savings and Credit Card combined program. Some highlights:

Cash Back on Purchases: Subject to the restrictions in section 6, at the end of each Billing Period (except the first Billing Period) you will earn cash rewards on purchases using your Card Account as follows:

Top Category – 3% You can earn 3% cash rewards on purchases made in your top merchant category. We allocate your Card Account purchases to merchant categories every Billing Period and select the merchant category in which you spent most that Billing Period ("Top Category"). At the end of the Billing Period, we calculate your cash rewards by multiplying the amount of Credit Card purchases in your Top Category by 3%.
Second Category – 2% You can earn 2% cash rewards on purchases made in your second merchant category. We allocate your Card Account purchases to merchant categories every Billing Period and select the merchant category in which you spent the second most amount that Billing Period ("Second Category"). At the end of the Billing Period, we calculate your cash rewards by multiplying the amount of Credit Card purchases in your Second Category by 2%.

The current HMBradley Credit Card Merchant Categories are as follows:
Eligibility Requirements
The HMBradley Credit Card is only available to HMBradley customers with an active deposit account. In order to be eligible, you must also maintain an average daily balance of at least $250, receive at least one direct deposit per month into your HMBradley deposit account, and meet our underwriting criteria. We are required by law to make sure you have the ability to repay the loan.
We estimate your gross income (income before taxes and other payroll deductions) using the direct deposits to your HMBradley deposit account. If you meet the other requirements and do not receive any offers or receive an offer with a lower credit limit than you expected, it may be because you are not directly depositing the full amount of your paycheck into your HMBradley account. This can result in our estimate of your gross income being lower than your actual income.

Annual Subscription Fee
HMBradley Credit Card has an annual subscription fee of $60.00, which is waived for the first year.

One Click Credit is the proprietary way we deliver credit offers to our customers. As a customer, you can opt in to One Click Credit in order to receive credit offers (for which you are approved) that you can claim with just one click.
If you choose to opt in to One Click Credit, you are consenting to allow us to make a soft credit inquiry once a month for the next 12 months (you will have to opt in again after this 12-month period). Soft inquiries do not adversely impact your credit score. We use these credit inquiries to see if you qualify for any HMBradley-branded credit products. If you qualify, we’ll present you an offer that can be accepted with one click!

We use an underwriting model to determine your credit limit. The model considers your ability to pay, so your credit limit may be impacted by the gross income HMBradley has estimated based on your monthly direct deposits to your deposit account.

Re: HMBradley Credit Card?

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 08:57:02 GMT

Yeah there was some brief talk about it here. The conclusion was that it's hard to find a category not covered on another card at 3% that one has $6K of spend in to offset the annual fee vs a 2% card.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/New-HMBradley-MasterCard-You-pick-3-and-2-catagories-monthly/td-p/6098795

Re: HMBradley Credit Card?

designated_knitter — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 18:17:56 GMT

So basically in order to get the card with a decent limit, you need to

Park your entire paycheck in the bank
your limit is based on NET income since even if you direct deposit your entire paycheck, it could easily be 50 percent of your gross by the time deductions are made for medical, taxes, 401k contributions, HSA contributions, etc
You have to be Socking away at least 20 percent of THAT net income to ensure you are getting a decent savings rate.
you need to have a 700 vantage 4 score
and for the privilege of giving them all your money, you have to pay 60 bucks AF and interest .

It's like a secured card for people with extremely high income and credit scores... precisely the people who DON'T need secured cards. And if you do need a secured card, well, you're out of luck because you won't meet the fico score requirement.

Tell me why, again, anyone would go this route?

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Rockysocks — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 18:37:41 GMT

What is the point of getting this card when Synchrony has the Venmo credit card with the same rewards set-up, no annual fee, and less hoops to jump through?

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

designated_knitter — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 18:40:54 GMT

@Rockysocks wrote:
What is the point of getting this card when Synchrony has the Venmo credit card with the same rewards set-up, no annual fee, and less hoops to jump through?

Though, being synchrony you're likely to get the card shut down when you least expect it because, you know, they're Synchrony!

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Bradac56 — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 19:06:37 GMT

To be fair Synchrony doesn't just close random accounts there is always a reason for it and typically it's not a horrible reason (lack of payment/over-extended/etc). The issue with there underwriting is they are to aggressive on there allow rate and has to claw it back from time to time.

Me and the wife has a decent amount of long lived Sync accounts and have never had anything closed or reduced (Amazon SC/Amazon CC/Paypal SC/CareCredit CC/Firestone SC). We also do not do anything crazy/semi-crazy with our finances and are high earners so we might not fit the normal mold.

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

MoneyBurns — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 07:03:23 GMT

This card to me, is absolutely worth the $60 annual fee.

If health insurance payments count for 3% then wonderful - that's the only spend I'll put on it.

That extra .5 percent APY is what makes this card worth it.

I have an account with HMBradley and am gettng 3% right now. When they offer me the card (which I believe may be soon as I have my DoorDash earnings there, around $800 a week), if I have 12k that .5% pays for the annual fee. I can park all my cash reserves there and get that .5% extra and if one could max the anount of 100k that's extra $500 added (-60 annual fee and taxes).

So if used this way, this card is better than Venmo to my personal spends and savings (Venmo does not count 3% for health insurance).

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

batsy71 — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 04:16:58 GMT

I agree with this take. Some of these categories are interesting:

• Education

• Pets

• Financial

• Healthcare & Childcare

• Professional Services

• Health & Fitness

• Home

• Personal Care

• Business Services

• Other (what does this even mean? maybe everything else?)

Some of these categories like Childcare/Education can cost thousands of $/month. There is of course cards like AOD, but as US Alliance and TFCU has recently demo'ed vanilla 3% cards are not permanent. Given this really weird qualifying mechanism of this HMBraley bank, it might just allow the card to stick around for longer due to higher selectivity.

Might be a decent one to watch out for asa backup especially if AOD is pulled out someday.

Re: New HMBradley MasterCard .... You pick 3% and 2% catagories monthly

Matt9543 — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 07:47:48 GMT

@MoneyBurns wrote:
This card to me, is absolutely worth the $60 annual fee.

If health insurance payments count for 3% then wonderful - that's the only spend I'll put on it.

That extra .5 percent APY is what makes this card worth it.

I have an account with HMBradley and am gettng 3% right now. When they offer me the card (which I believe may be soon as I have my DoorDash earnings there, around $800 a week), if I have 12k that .5% pays for the annual fee. I can park all my cash reserves there and get that .5% extra and if one could max the anount of 100k that's extra $500 added (-60 annual fee and taxes).

So if used this way, this card is better than Venmo to my personal spends and savings (Venmo does not count 3% for health insurance).

Honestly, this. If you have the max savings, you get an additional .5% APY. Plus, in regard to the Venmo card, it is limited to the first $10,000 and I've seen myself thinking purchases count for one category and end up being thrown into Other which gets a max 1%.

HMBradley 3% Category Datapoint

MoneyBurns — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 13:49:07 GMT

Real quick post -

3% counted for health insurance. It's a real obscure category and if you're like me and don't really like the policies of the Unicorn or have been denied even with high scores. Bless the CSRs though <3 ) then perhaps this card can work!