topic Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup in Credit Cards

Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

dlister70 — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 17:15:12 GMT

With the Redstone Signature Visa starting to have a great rewards structure at the beginning of the year, I think more people are going to become interested in their credit card. However, their website and card statements are very rudimentary, and don't even tell you what category the charges were made in, let alone what % rewards you earned. The statement just gives you a line that tells you how many points you earned in total that month with no indicator as to how many points were given to a particular charge.

I emailed the credit union and asked if they could update either the website or the statement to include "dining", or "grocery", or whatever next to the charge so that we could see what rate we were getting. I also asked them what exactly a "discount store" is, since that's one of the categories. The rep replied back and said: "The discount stores would be like Wal-mart, Sams, Dollar Store, any of those type of store will be the discount stores." They also said that there are no plans to update either the statement or the website to show the categories.

It would be cool if Walmart really codes that way, but I haven't tried yet. I'm skeptical that Sams will code as anything other than warehouse store, but that's also a 3% category on the card. My concern was that even if I tried a bunch of stores to see if they were "discount stores", I wouldn't know if it had worked unless I only tried one store per statement. If some worked, and some didn't, the statement won't tell me which one got which reward.

I went back to the website again, and I found that when you go to redeem your rewards, there is a screen that will show you where you got the points from! I've never noticed this before despite having used their Rural King card for over three years. I've just been getting my statement credits, and never noticed that there's another option to show your rewards balance information. Apparently the rep didn't know about this either, or just failed to mention it.

To get to the screen, you first click on the rewards on the home page:

After clicking here, you'll be at this screen:

This will take you to the account statement. Scroll to the bottom, and you'll see this:

This Canteen Vending is a $1.30 purchase for a bag of chips in a vending machine. The rewards are split into a base amount, which is 1.5% for all purchases, and a bonus amount which will vary based on the category.

1.30 x .015 = 0.0195

They rounded it up to 0.02, but you get double points because they are only valued at 1/2 a cent. So instead of 2 points for the base value, I got 4 points for the base value of 1.5% cashback.

This vending machine codes as dining, so it should be 5% cashback.

1.30 x .05 = 0.065

Since it's double points, that would be 0.13, or 13 points for the total of 5% for restaurants.

Since they already gave me 4 points as the base, then 13 - 4 points = 9 points for the "bonus" dining category.

So they gave me 4 points base, and 9 points bonus which = 13 points total which are 1/2 cent value each, so it's really 6.5 cents, which is the right amount for 5% cash back on $1.30 purchase.

I really, REALLY wish that they'd just simplify this and show it on the statement like a bunch of other companies do, but at least there is SOME way to tell what percentage you're getting at a particular store. So now I can test my local Walmart/Target to see if it'll get 3% as a discount store or just 1.5% as an "everything else".

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

ptatohed — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 18:38:34 GMT

Excellent info and digging, thanks @dlister70 .

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

OmarGB9 — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 01:19:08 GMT

@ptatohed wrote:
Excellent info and digging, thanks @dlister70 .

Agreed

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

cws-21 — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 01:30:51 GMT

Thanks a lot, @dlister70, for the lengthy post, screenshots, and explanation. Much appreciated!

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

dlister70 — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 17:20:44 GMT

Ok, maybe their website isn't quite as basic as I thought that it was. I'm just an idiot who never realized that you could click on the plus sign by each charge! If you click on that, it will tell you the category. I can't believe that I've been using this website for 3 years and never tried that. I guess that I owe Redstone an apology for asking them to show us the category, when apparently they were already doing it. But again, the rep didn't seem to know about it either.

I just thought that the + meant that you had an additional charge "added", but then today I noticed that my payment also had a + next to it. I hovered over and saw that it was clickable. I guess that I'd just never noticed that before, but I also haven't been hyper focussed on trying to figure out their categories until I got this new card.

The above method still shows you how many points you are getting to verify that, but if you just need to know the category, then just click the + next to the charge on your transaction list.

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

ptatohed — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 17:50:56 GMT

Ha-ha, nice find and thanks for sharing. The same thing happened to me with my SYW card. I thought the plus just meant a charge and a minus would mean a credit, lol.

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

Beefy1212 — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 22:27:53 GMT

@dlister70 thanks for the research I really need to find a cycling club or something to subscribe to get in with this FCU that is an amazing card for me, and looking at your sig they have some pretty cool looking cards as well (I know shouldn't matter but... it does )

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

dlister70 — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 16:59:30 GMT

@Beefy1212 wrote:
@dlister70 thanks for the research I really need to find a cycling club or something to subscribe to get in with this FCU that is an amazing card for me, and looking at your sig they have some pretty cool looking cards as well (I know shouldn't matter but... it does )

I joined the greater Arizona bicycle club when I was trying to get in with Vantage West credit union to get their Visa card. The credit union rejected me, and the bicycle club emails taunt me to this day.

I wish you better luck when trying to get in with Redstone!

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

Beefy1212 — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 20:55:40 GMT

@dlister70 wrote:
@Beefy1212 wrote:
@dlister70 thanks for the research I really need to find a cycling club or something to subscribe to get in with this FCU that is an amazing card for me, and looking at your sig they have some pretty cool looking cards as well (I know shouldn't matter but... it does )
I joined the greater Arizona bicycle club when I was trying to get in with Vantage West credit union to get their Visa card. The credit union rejected me, and the bicycle club emails taunt me to this day.

I wish you better luck when trying to get in with Redstone!

Well I don't think I need to get my Huffy out but...

I gave Redstone a call asked the rep what the secret handshake was to get around the Geofence.

First thing he said was not a problem we get this all the time.... are you near a Rural King?

No? Okay we have a few other popular options

"If you don’t qualify through the options above, you may qualify by becoming a member of one of the service groups listed below. You will need to visit the organization's website and process your donation to recieve paperwork to qualify.

Fayetteville-Lincoln County Arts Center - $10 Membership Fee
Arc of Jackson County - $15 Membership Fee
Spirit of Athens - $20 Membership Fee
Carnegie Visual Arts Center - $15 Membership Fee
Hartselle Beautification Association - $15 Membership Fee
The Land Trust of Huntsville & North Alabama - $30 Membership Fee
Association of the United States Army (Redstone/Huntsville Chapter) - $33 (civilian) Membership Fee

The website stated a credit check was required so I went ahead and asked which CRA... CRA is Experian and it is a soft pull I forgot to ask if that is also for loan products but for now will assume it is also Experian.

I told him I had several recent cards/accounts and asked if that was a problem he said as long you don't have large amounts of money that is delinquent you are likely fine. He wasn't a loan officer and declined to talk about any credit product red flags.

I am going to make a donation to "Arc of Jackson County", an organization that assists developmentally disabled individuals, and give this a go, I also am going to have to accept I am never going to be under 5/24 and should just give up on Chase credit cards lol.

/edit there is 2 different arc of Jackson counties one in Medford Oregon, and one in Scottsboro Alabama... you want Alabama.

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

dlister70 — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 02:24:21 GMT

I tried out a few stores that I thought might code as discount stores. The charges are showing up now so that I can check, but the points haven't been issued yet.

Dollar Tree: Coded as "variety stores"
Walmart Supercenter: Coded as "grocery stores"
Big Lots: Coded as "discount stores"
Target: Coded as "discount stores"

I'm not sure if I'll get the extra points for a "variety store", and I was surprised that my Walmart coded as grocery. I hardly ever go there, but that's good to know in terms of rewards. I don't think that I'll be able to see the points output until I make another payment, but if variety stores gets the 3%, then I'll be sure to say something.

I was also surprised that Dollar Tree didn't code as discount but Target did. It's one of the Targets that has a big grocery section. I guess that's why it's always good to test out with a small purchase before counting on getting a particular % for a big purchase!

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

ptatohed — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 07:04:42 GMT

Not sure if this helps at all but when I use my citi SYW MC at 99-Only stores, I get the 3% for groceries.

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

Credit_Master — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 01:42:26 GMT

I just want to weigh in here and say that after I joined Redstone I noticed very quickly how very similar their website UI is exactly like Affinity's. If you are a Affinity member and are thinking about joining this credit union the transition or experience from a UI standpoint will be very similar. I mean it is like the use the exact same website template. Just an FYI I have noticed and wanted to sure this with other people.

Credit_Master

Re: Redstone FCU Cash Back Category Lookup

dlister70 — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 14:30:01 GMT

@dlister70 wrote:
I tried out a few stores that I thought might code as discount stores. The charges are showing up now so that I can check, but the points haven't been issued yet.

Dollar Tree: Coded as "variety stores"
Walmart Supercenter: Coded as "grocery stores"
Big Lots: Coded as "discount stores"
Target: Coded as "discount stores"

I'm not sure if I'll get the extra points for a "variety store", and I was surprised that my Walmart coded as grocery. I hardly ever go there, but that's good to know in terms of rewards. I don't think that I'll be able to see the points output until I make another payment, but if variety stores gets the 3%, then I'll be sure to say something.

I was also surprised that Dollar Tree didn't code as discount but Target did. It's one of the Targets that has a big grocery section. I guess that's why it's always good to test out with a small purchase before counting on getting a particular % for a big purchase!

The points page updated and I did end up getting the 3% for all four of these stores. Walmart gave the grocery bonus, and Big Lots, Dollar Tree, and Target gave the discount store bonus (even though Dollar Tree coded as "variety store" on the transactions page).

All fast food and restaurants that I've tried have given 5%.

Also of interest, I seem to be able to redeem the points right now even though I haven't even gotten my first statement yet. But that may be because I have already made a payment, I'm not sure? I was thinking that most of my other cards have to wait until the statement cuts before you get your points. US Bank Cash + and Amazon Visa came to mind as ones that typically show zero points until the statement and then suddenly have all the points. Can't remember offhand how Discover or AMEX and others have been..

This is a pretty great card for my spending habits!