topic Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered? in Credit Cards

Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

NathanKnope — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 17:27:07 GMT

I have been reading a lot of old threads on this website that have been very informative, inlcuding one about the Elan Max Cash Preffered Card (similar to the US Bank counterpart, but generally easier to qualify for). I am very interested in applying for this card and I read because it is a card from Elan, you can apply for it at any of the banks/credit unions that offer it regardless of your member status of that bank/cu.

If my understanding of that is accurate, you can basically appply for whichever bank/cu's Max Cash Preferred physically looks the nicest to you! Having said that, has anyone compiled an extensive list of the bank/cu's that offer the card so I can look to see which card I find the most physcially appealing? I tried googling for this but the one list I found seemed out of date.

Thanks

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

Aim_High — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:01:03 GMT

Welcome to My Fico Forums, @NathanKnope.

I started the original Max Cash Preferred thread after I discovered that Elan had quietly started introducing it among its' various lenders in December 2020. Unfortunately, myself or the other members of the forum have not discovered any "Master List" of issuers. The lenders we have discovered have been found through various random methods. In my original thread, I thought that the cards might be geofenced to the banking footprint of local financial institutions, so I put together a list of about 75 lenders who offered the card at that time, and those lenders represented a wide geo-footprint of the entire country. (Putting that list together required a few hours of research. It's not an easy one-stop search.)

Since then, we have learned that:

An applicant does not have to be a current customer of a lender to be approved for a card
An applicant does not even have to physically reside within the normal banking footprint of an issuing lender
Your payments are submitted directly to Elan. From my understanding with those who have the card and also deposit accounts with a lender, they still have to manage the card separately from their deposit accounts.
If you are an existing customer of the issuing lender, it doesn't appear to give you any special advantages in the underwriting process. If you are a customer, it doesn't appear to make any difference in underwriting whether you have $1 or $1 Million on deposit.
The only advantage to having a banking relationship with that lender is that for getting true CASH back (instead of statement credits), you must have a deposit account with that specific lender. That is the same for the similar US Bank Cash Plus, which only deposits to US Bank accounts, from my understanding.

So unless you want to have a card from a local lender who offers the Max Cash Preferred, you can apply with any of them.

See >THIS LINK< for the original MCP Mega-thread with a list of lenders (each one was linked to that lender's current website at the time of the posting.)

*The search methods I used were via various web searches for Max Cash Preferred, randomly looking up some of the largest lenders who partner with Elan, or opening one of the Elan card links and making slight modifications in the five-digit web-ID in the address bar. You can find the lists of lenders by state or by size through various web searches.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

NathanKnope — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 19:06:28 GMT

Great work on that megathread! I read through almost the entire thing last night! I know its superficial but I find most of the Max Cash Preferred cards ugly, but the Community Banks of Colorado has a cute one. I think I am going to wait to open it later this year though since I have two recent new credit accounts and I hear Elan doesn't like too many new accounts (dislikes it less than US Bank, but still don't like it).

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

JNA1 — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 03:19:02 GMT

Some banks (such as First National Bank of Texas) have made changes that you have to log in using the your banking credentials to apply for their version of the MCP. When DW got that card, you could apply directly on the Elan site, but they shut that down. People without a banking relationship cannot apply for that card any longer.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

Curious_George2 — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 05:29:37 GMT

Welcome, @NathanKnope. I will DM you a list I compiled back when the card was new. I found around 250 institutions. That's only a small fraction of what's out there, but it's something. I got tired of grinding through the URLs. Note that I say "institutions" because not all of them are banks or credit unions. There are also trade unions, alumni associations, and my personal favorite, the Society of Decorative Painters.

I agree that the physical cards are, generally, rather ugly. Some people like the Banc of California one. Good luck!

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

unsungivy — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 12:38:46 GMT

@Curious_George2 wrote:
Welcome, @NathanKnope. I will DM you a list I compiled back when the card was new. I found around 250 institutions. That's only a small fraction of what's out there, but it's something. I got tired of grinding through the URLs. Note that I say "institutions" because not all of them are banks or credit unions. There are also trade unions, alumni associations, and my personal favorite, the Society of Decorative Painters.

I agree that the physical cards are, generally, rather ugly. Some people like the Banc of California one. Good luck!

Well, those other associations go THROUGH the banks and credit unions. Society of Decorative Painters goes through Kansas something-or-other.

But I agree it's prolly the "best" one if you're just looking for attractive/fun (even with the stupid Kansas FI logo on it).

Some of them are interesting graphically, so it's worth looking at as many as you have the patience for if what it looks like matters to you.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

KJinNC — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 12:59:25 GMT

I used a URL hack to apply without specifying the FI, and got a Northern Sky Bank card. That is nowhere near me - I am in North Carolina - but it is near Elan headquarters. I do not know if it was random or if they sent me to a low-volume bank or chose it in some arbitrary way.

The Northern Sky card has a plain brushed metal look. The card is plastic, I just mean it is designed to look like brushed metal. I wouldn't call it attractive or unattractive. But I think Northern Sky got acquired by United Valley, so this design may not be available anymore anyway.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

unsungivy — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 18:58:18 GMT

@KJinNC wrote:
I used a URL hack to apply without specifying the FI, and got a Northern Sky Bank card. That is nowhere near me - I am in North Carolina - but it is near Elan headquarters. I do not know if it was random or if they sent me to a low-volume bank or chose it in some arbitrary way.

The Northern Sky card has a plain brushed metal look. The card is plastic, I just mean it is designed to look like brushed metal. I wouldn't call it attractive or unattractive. But I think Northern Sky got acquired by United Valley, so this design may not be available anymore anyway.

... except that when we went back to look, your "hack" was actually just a url that now belonged to United Valley, so not random at all. They just hadn't been showing that it was an owned url yet when you used it.

If you want a blank one, figure out a FI that's going to drop Elan as it's processor in the future for whatever reason. After they drop Elan, your card becomes a blank Elan card. Such as my Visa did post-merger, and I'm expecting my MC to as well, if they ever complete that merger.

In the meantime, the Amplify MCP looks cool!

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

KJinNC — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 18:41:58 GMT

I think the URL mapping was updated to Northern Sky or United Valley after I used it. Maybe because I used it. Maybe somebody said "oh, this one isn't mapped and somebody just used it, let's map it." But I remember this was confusing in the thread, since I pasted in the url I'd used later and somebody saw a Northern Sky or United Valley code in it. I used the same URL that somebody else posted earlier. At the time I applied, the picture of the card on the application page just said Elan, but when I looked later, it said either Northern Sky or United Valley (don't remember which)

In any case, I'm satisfied with it, though I'd have probably picked something less jarringly distant from me if I knew it would give me a FI anyway. But no big deal, the card isn't even in my wallet. I just set it for autopay on my cable bill.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

unsungivy — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 18:59:24 GMT

Speaking of my "generic" Elan MCP Visa...

I never see this sort of this via my still "branded" MCP MC. Seems like when you end up generic Elan, they actually give you offers. I think I've seen something from them before, but I'm not 100% sure.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

unsungivy — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 18:50:44 GMT

@KJinNC wrote:
I think the URL mapping was updated to Northern Sky or United Valley after I used it. Maybe because I used it. Maybe somebody said "oh, this one isn't mapped and somebody just used it, let's map it." But I remember this was confusing in the thread, since I pasted in the url I'd used later and somebody saw a Northern Sky or United Valley code in it. I used the same URL that somebody else posted earlier. At the time I applied, the picture of the card on the application page just said Elan, but when I looked later, it said either Northern Sky or United Valley (don't remember which)

In any case, I'm satisfied with it, though I'd have probably picked something less jarringly distant from me if I knew it would give me a FI anyway. But no big deal, the card isn't even in my wallet. I just set it for autopay on my cable bill.

Yup, I remember, I was one of the people that went to the link you supplied and looked The link showed United Valley, but your card said Northern Sky, so we researched the interwebs and found out about the merger/buyout being the link betwen the two names at least. They may have assigned it later, but it may also have just been that the image/heading on it wasn't updated yet... possibly because they were mid buy-out.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

JNA1 — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 21:13:44 GMT

I've always thought ENT Credit Union's card looked good.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

CreditCobra — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 21:10:34 GMT

That Alex Martin guy has a TON of cards!

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

JNA1 — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 04:33:20 GMT

@CreditCobra wrote:
That Alex Martin guy has a TON of cards!

No doubt - I'm totes jelly! 😂

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

DaveInAZ — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 18:32:10 GMT

@JNA1 wrote:

Some banks (such as First National Bank of Texas) have made changes that you have to log in using the your banking credentials to apply for their version of the MCP. When DW got that card, you could apply directly on the Elan site, but they shut that down. People without a banking relationship cannot apply for that card any longer.

Oh, that's interesting. I applied for the First National Bank of Texas card & was approved In Jan. 2021 because it was one few that was a Mastercard, so I could use it on Plastiq for my mortgage payments. But actually when I added it Plastiq gave me a message that "this lender does not allow this card to be used for loan payments". So I still use my PayPal 2% MC that happily accepts all charges. But I use my FNB TX Elan card for cellular & home utilities payments for 5%, so I'm happy enough with it.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

Bill77 — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 01:41:33 GMT

I know this is an older thread but does anyone know if there is a list of the Mastercard only versions of the Elan MCP?

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

CreditCobra — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 03:21:11 GMT

I put this list together a while back. It's a little dated now, but it might be a good starting point.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/SmorgasBoard/Max-Cash-Preferred-the-really-big-list-of-beautiful-cards/m-p/6550666

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

mgood — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 17:20:59 GMT

@CreditCobra wrote:
I put this list together a while back. It's a little dated now, but it might be a good starting point.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/SmorgasBoard/Max-Cash-Preferred-the-really-big-list-of-beautiful-cards/m-p/6550666

Thank you.

I scrolled through the other list and only saw one bank in Texas and the nearest branch is 232 miles away.

On your list I found two more Texas banks, with branches much closer to me.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

CreditCobra — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 17:30:35 GMT

@mgood wrote:
@CreditCobra wrote:
I put this list together a while back. It's a little dated now, but it might be a good starting point.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/SmorgasBoard/Max-Cash-Preferred-the-really-big-list-of-beautiful-cards/m-p/6550666
Thank you.
I scrolled through the other list and only saw one bank in Texas and the nearest branch is 232 miles away.
On your list I found two more Texas banks, with branches much closer to me.

Glad this helped! There are a lot more (maybe 2x-3x more) banks and credit unions that offer these cards, but I limited my scope to just the cards that weren't the very plain looking silver cards. Good luck on your credit journey.

Re: Elan Max Cash Preferred - Master List of Banks/Credit Unions Where It Is Offered?

mgood — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 17:40:34 GMT

@CreditCobra wrote:
@mgood wrote:
@CreditCobra wrote:
I put this list together a while back. It's a little dated now, but it might be a good starting point.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/SmorgasBoard/Max-Cash-Preferred-the-really-big-list-of-beautiful-cards/m-p/6550666
Thank you.
I scrolled through the other list and only saw one bank in Texas and the nearest branch is 232 miles away.
On your list I found two more Texas banks, with branches much closer to me.
Glad this helped! There are a lot more (maybe 2x-3x more) banks and credit unions that offer these cards, but I limited my scope to just the cards that weren't the very plain looking silver cards. Good luck on your credit journey.

I'm planning to get the US Bank Cash+ next. Maybe sometime down the road if I need another one, I'll get the Elan version. Just keeping my eyes open for future possibilities.

And the card from First National Bank Texas is not bad looking. Kinda cool, in fact.