topic Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card in Credit Cards

Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

deacon91 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 03:19:42 GMT

What is the best way to go about opening a UBS infinite credit card?

My understanding is that if one wishes to open a UBS infinite card they must either have a UBS RMA account or have an active account with a UBS wealth advisor. I called their office number in Weehawken and tried to apply for an RMA account first. I got asked for my SSN + statements proving my holdings only to have the financial advisor to tell me that their team thinks I'm not a good match. For background context - I am a software engineer with more than 150K in comp this year (with upward trajectory) and around 1m in net worth. My FICO score is in low/mid 800's and have around 15 CC's opened in the past 5-6 years. I'd prefer to oepn an RMA account instead of creating a wealth advisor fund (their fees @ 1mil is 1.2%)

Am I just wasting my time? Is there a "magic word" to say to open an RMA account? My employer uses Fidelity so I can't open an RMA through an employer either. Thanks in advance.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

xenon3030 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 05:56:16 GMT

This card has a hefty AF of $495, while its reward is very weak in comparison to the other infinite Visa cards in the market. It is rare to find anybody to have this card.

Do you visit Switzerland frequently , that you would like to get a card from UBS?

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

northway — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 11:59:34 GMT

You can apply without an RMA account. Contact UBS Credit Services and ask for an application packet to be mailed to you. You'll have to fill it out once it arrives and sent it back, and the application tends to go into a black hole of sorts. You'll be notified if you're approved or not shortly after seeing them pull TransUnion.

Via this route, you won't be able to manage the card online at all and you'll be required to handle everything via mail or phone call.

If you still want an RMA account, just keep calling around to different UBS affiliated groups until you find one that will work with you. I keep barely $5k in my RMA account and the financial group is happy to collect the annual fees.

It's a much simpler process if you're an already onboarded UBS client and you'll have full web access.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

deacon91 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:09:39 GMT

Thank you @northway. I gave credit card services a call and had them send the application packet with the case number.

Do you know any particular groups that would be open to something like $5K? Is there a good way to look for that information? I called a few and they were pretty adamant about the 250K being the minimal line of investment

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

FicoMike0 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:03:37 GMT

Whatz an rma account?

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

deacon91 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:10:35 GMT

@xenon3030 I feel like I churned all the cards I wanted and UBS just happened to be the next one.

How hard (annoying?) it is to get is also motivating me to want it even more lololol.

@FicoMike0 RMA is UBS's brokerage account. Basically you need this to do basic things with the credit card instead of being beholden to a phone like the old days as northway is alluding to.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

northway — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:11:20 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Whatz an rma account?

It's UBS's name for a cash management account. Resource Management Account. Morgan Stanley calls theirs an Active Assets Account.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

northway — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:12:39 GMT

@deacon91 wrote:
Thank you @northway. I gave credit card services a call and had them send the application packet with the case number.

Do you know any particular groups that would be open to something like $5K? Is there a good way to look for that information? I called a few and they were pretty adamant about the 250K being the minimal line of investment

Can't help ya there. Eventually you'll find someone. I'd suggest implying that you'd increase your contributions monthly and they'll more than likely just forget all about you after opening the account.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

xenon3030 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 22:26:57 GMT

@deacon91: It seems that lots of homeworks are needed for this card . How do you plan to use this card effectively, considering its hefty AF and its small SUB?

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

swankytiger — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 23:48:56 GMT

Its one of the 2 cards that still has unlimited Priority Pass Restaurants, the other is the BoA Premium Rewards Elite.

UBS infinite statement credits

$250 annual credit for qualifying air travel purchases
$500 annual credit for dining and airport lounges for cardholders who spend at least $25,000 on the card per year

so that makes it basically free. the points are worth 1.4-1.8cpp if you use them correctly

Its a Vanilla Visa Infinite otherwise.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

xenon3030 — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:15:59 GMT

It looks to be a terrible card in comparion to the other cards in the market like USBAR, CSR and BOA-PRE. Assuming to use the annual airline credit, its effective AF would be still $245. Its SUB does not cover even the AF of the first year .

The dining/lounge credit is only 2% and it has a condition of spending 25k per year.

I guess, if you are a very frequent traveler (maybe international ones) and especially, if you have a strong financial bond to Switzerland to have a good motivation to get a prime credit card from the top Swiss bank, the card might work for you.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

northway — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:57:41 GMT

@swankytiger wrote:
Its one of the 2 cards that still has unlimited Priority Pass Restaurants, the other is the BoA Premium Rewards Elite.
UBS infinite statement credits
$250 annual credit for qualifying air travel purchases
$500 annual credit for dining and airport lounges for cardholders who spend at least $25,000 on the card per year
so that makes it basically free. the points are worth 1.4-1.8cpp if you use them correctly
Its a Vanilla Visa Infinite otherwise.

It's actually not so vanilla. It has the most comprehensive benefit/insurance suite out of basically any card in existence. So if you're looking for protections, you can't go wrong.

Could the rewards be better? Sure. But for an overall Infinite product, it's actually pretty good.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

northway — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:59:20 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
It looks to be a terrible card in comparion to the other cards in the market like USBAR, CSR and BOA-PRE. Assuming to use the annual airline credit, its effective AF would be still $245. Its SUB does not cover even the AF of the first year .

The dining/lounge credit is only 2% and it has a condition of spending 25k per year.

I guess, if you are a very frequent traveler (maybe international ones) and especially, if you have a strong financial bond to Switzerland to have a good motivation to get a prime credit card from the top Swiss bank, the card might work for you.

It has absolutely nothing to do with financial bonds to Switzerland. UBS is one of the largest brokerage firms in the United States, and spending 25K for a free card isn't out of possibility for mostly anyone who has the funds to have a UBS brokerage or Wealth Management account to begin with. It's not a mass market card and it was never meant to be.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

xenon3030 — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 01:15:57 GMT

Sometime ago, UBS as the bank #1 in Switzerland was forced to acquire bank#2 in that country (Credit Suisse) to prevent a severe financial recession. So, UBS became the major bank without competitor in Switzerland (which is not a good scenario for any country). I hope that the situation becomes better, regarding banking competition there.

If somebody has any financial relationship to Switzerland, definitely he should have a bank account, CC or any product with UBS there

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

northway — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 01:21:22 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
Sometime ago, UBS as the bank #1 in Switzerland was forced to acquire bank#2 in that country (Credit Suisse) to prevent a severe financial recession. So, UBS became the major bank without competitor in Switzerland (which is not a good scenario for any country). I hope that the situation becomes better, regarding banking competition there.

If somebody has any financial relationship to Switzerland, definitely he should have a bank account, CC or any product with UBS there

You realize you're basically saying "If you have any financial relationship to the United States, you must have a Bank of America product".

JPM Chase bought Washington Mutual to help avoid a financial recession and became the largest bank in the country, is that a good scenario?

There are dozens of other banks in Switzerland.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

xenon3030 — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 01:55:34 GMT

I mean the banking compeition got heavily reduced there. There are only 2-3 major players there. There are also several very small banks there but they have a long way to catch-up

In the US, there are several large banks that are too big to fail (BOA, WF, Citi, Chase, etc). One acquisition may slightly degrade competition. But the competitors are too big to fail and they would catch-up soon.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

deacon91 — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:27:26 GMT

@xenon3030 - @swankytiger is more or less on point. I don't want to dox myself but my reimbursed spend was in the range of 80K and I expect that to balloon up to 160K'ish.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:36:33 GMT

@swankytiger wrote:
Its one of the 2 cards that still has unlimited Priority Pass Restaurants, the other is the BoA Premium Rewards Elite.
UBS infinite statement credits
$250 annual credit for qualifying air travel purchases
$500 annual credit for dining and airport lounges for cardholders who spend at least $25,000 on the card per year
so that makes it basically free. the points are worth 1.4-1.8cpp if you use them correctly
Its a Vanilla Visa Infinite otherwise.

Right, but remember putting $25K on it may have some cost, as the multipliers aren't all that great (some reviews praise the card for the perks rather than the earnings). But $500 credit can be useful!

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

deacon91 — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 17:12:34 GMT

Ok - so I ended up getting an envelope with the application.

It seems the current bonuses are 25K UBS points after $3K spend in 3 months on Visa Infinite and 5K UBS points after $3K spend in 3 months for Visa Signature. Hopefully it goes through. I'm past 5/24 rule for chase but I've only opened 1 credit card in the past year and most of those cards are about to hit their 2 year mark. Hopefully low util rate + high fico scores will help.

I've also tried calling few UBS offices - one of them is super snooty - "we only take individuals with $5m+ in net worth".

Again - thank you all.

Re: Proper way to open a UBS Infinite credit card

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 17:46:16 GMT

@deacon91 wrote:

I've also tried calling few UBS offices - one of them is super snooty - "we only take individuals with $5m+ in net worth".

You should explain that you personally try to avoid people with wealth in the $5m range, just one financial crash away from near poverty. $100M gives a better cushion, but hey, if they are going after the subprime market....