topic Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed. in Credit Cards

US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

NoMoreE46 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 03:33:29 GMT

April 14 2025

So US Bank has nerfed the unlimited 4%, 3% and 2.5% CB.

It also has changed the funding requirements for these higher level tiers.

Hoping the "OG" Smartly card holders will be grandfathered.

Re: USB Smartly rumors

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 15:19:00 GMT

v1.1 live and all leaked nerfs confimed

https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/bank-smartly-visa-signature-credit-card.html

What U.S. Bank accounts are used to determine if my Bank Smartly card is eligible to earn a Smartly Earning Bonus?

Bank Smartly Cardmembers may earn a Smartly Earning Bonus if they:

Have a U.S. Bank Smartly Savings account; and
Have qualifying balances with U.S. Bank in open Bank Smartly Checking and/or Safe Debit account(s)

Re: USB Smartly rumors

AskPatient1281 — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 15:25:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
v1.1 live and all leaked nerfs confimed
https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/bank-smartly-visa-signature-credit-card.html

What U.S. Bank accounts are used to determine if my Bank Smartly card is eligible to earn a Smartly Earning Bonus?

Bank Smartly Cardmembers may earn a Smartly Earning Bonus if they:
Have a U.S. Bank Smartly Savings account; and
Have qualifying balances with U.S. Bank in open Bank Smartly Checking and/or Safe Debit account(s)

The level of incompetence, of mismanagement, required to achieve this—to (a) nerf a product less than six months after its launch, and (b) to design a new finance product that is so bad, so absurd, that it is actually laughable—is absurd.

Re: USB Smartly rumors

salt_water_swimming — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 16:42:25 GMT

The funniest part is how the Smartly savings is required but you shouldn't actually put any money in it

Oh well, contrary to the doomer posting, opening the account and moving money in took all of ~4 minutes via online ACATS transfer. In the meantime, I've had a few months of 4% and will continue to ride it into the ground until they come for the grandfathered folks.

Re: USB Smartly rumors

ptatohed — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 17:20:17 GMT

cr@p

Re: USB Smartly rumors

G2244 — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 19:32:20 GMT

So from what I am seeing here, the new terms seem to indicate that the IRA annual fee *is* waived for Gold and above.

"Maintaining an open U.S. Bank Smartly® Checking account in the Smart Rewards® Gold Tier, at a minimum, is required to waive the IRA annual fee. The IRA annual fee waiver does not apply to Personal Trust IRAs."

I have been a bit confused as there has been some discussion of a distinction between an IRA at US Bank Directly vs. one with U.S. Bancorp Investments. The new terms do not seem to address that nuance in any way??

Also not called out but making an assumption. If someone is at the Gold level or above, it appears that it would waive *multiple* Smartly Checking montly fees, but again is not called out specifically. I have a personal account and a joint account. Wish it would be more clear that both would get the waiver (or not).

On my side, this also confirms the other bad news. As expected, there is no longer any waiver for a HELOC. I was waiting to make sure but this makes it much less appealing to keep mine open. It is a nice back up but with no fee waiver, not really seeing it as worth keeping open anymore.

Re: USB Smartly rumors

Gregory1776 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 01:16:01 GMT

@salt_water_swimming wrote:
The funniest part is how the Smartly savings is required but you shouldn't actually put any money in it

Oh well, contrary to the doomer posting, opening the account and moving money in took all of ~4 minutes via online ACATS transfer. In the meantime, I've had a few months of 4% and will continue to ride it into the ground until they come for the grandfathered folks.

If and when this happens, ill have to close the account and take the L,

or try and PC to the altitude reserve.

I'd rather have an my IRA at Charles Schwab or somewhere with better IT, visually appealing. I'm new to the "investment" side of banking...

Re: USB Smartly rumors

UncleB — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 02:38:07 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
@salt_water_swimming wrote:
The funniest part is how the Smartly savings is required but you shouldn't actually put any money in it

Oh well, contrary to the doomer posting, opening the account and moving money in took all of ~4 minutes via online ACATS transfer. In the meantime, I've had a few months of 4% and will continue to ride it into the ground until they come for the grandfathered folks.
If and when this happens, ill have to close the account and take the L,
or try and PC to the altitude reserve.

I'd rather have an my IRA at Charles Schwab or somewhere with better IT, visually appealing. I'm new to the "investment" side of banking...

While the Smartly was never on the table for me personally I'm still hopeful that the old version will remain grandfathered indefinitely for those who went to the effort to obtain it.

Hopefully if there are further negative changes to the Smartly program the Altitude Reserve will be an option (again) and PCs will be allowed. As someone who somehow got approved for the AR a few years ago I have to say it's performed like a champ, and while not a direct replacement for the Smartly it's not a terrible option for those who embrace paying with a mobile wallet.

Re: USB Smartly rumors

bs1234 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 03:27:23 GMT

Without the inside numbers it's hard to tell, but I am (happily) surprised by the grandfathering. \

Generally, if the losses are big enough, the issuer will nerf the card for all to stop the losses, as with the original Cash+. The current approach is more when they think things are bearable now but don't want more customers under the old conditions. This can also be used in conjunction with identifying "abusers" and closing their accounts, and it seems there were some warning about this. So, if USBank was a rational entity, we can interpret this as possibly positive for continuing grandfathering. (As it isn't, probably stop next week!)

I am with @UncleB on the AR as a good alternative, and again, that happily hasn't been meaningfully nerfed, perhaps because it brings in a revenue stream from annual fees.

Again, the actual figures may present a very different picture from what we believe on MyFico. It's possible that many AR users are paying the annual fee, but not using up all the travel/dining credit and making minimal use of mobile pay. so no threat. In the case of the Smartly, it's clearer that they feel something is wrong, hence the drastic nerfing, but not so bad to prevent grandfathering

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

CreditMagic7 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 03:39:51 GMT

@NoMoreE46 wrote:
April 14 2025

So US Bank has nerfed the unlimited 4%, 3% and 2.5% CB.
It also has changed the funding requirements for these higher level tiers.

Hoping the "OG" Smarlty card holders will be grandfathered.

WOW So Soon Too! Im glad now they stuck me with a $500 SL on my approval that summarily pressured me to immediately/same day closing it straightway without going through all the multiple hoops they require.

It doesn't seem like they accurately enough thought that product through before offering it IMO.

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

NoMoreE46 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 03:43:14 GMT

Less than 6 months- this has to be a Nerf record.

Keep the ~~snickering~~ comments coming.

@CreditMagic7 wrote:

@NoMoreE46 wrote:
April 14 2025

So US Bank has nerfed the unlimited 4%, 3% and 2.5% CB.
It also has changed the funding requirements for these higher level tiers.

Hoping the "OG" Smartly card holders will be grandfathered.

WOW So Soon Too! Im glad now they stuck me with a $500 SL on my approval that summarily pressured me to immediately/same day closing it straightway without going through all the multiple hoops they required.

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

GZG — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 04:59:37 GMT

@NoMoreE46 wrote:
April 14 2025

So US Bank has nerfed the unlimited 4%, 3% and 2.5% CB.
It also has changed the funding requirements for these higher level tiers.

Hoping the "OG" Smartly card holders will be grandfathered.

they should have just discontinued the card

this new version is a comical embarassment and they should be ashamed of themselves

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

creditrizz — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 07:10:33 GMT

Maybe now they just want to attract the biggest ballers of ballers. Those who spend so much cash that they keep 100+ racks in their non-interest bearing checking accounts at all times anyway because that's just a week's worth of spending to them.

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

CreditMagic7 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 07:40:21 GMT

@NoMoreE46 wrote:
Less than 6 months- this has to be a Nerf record.
Keep the ~~snickering~~ comments coming.

Here's a good one.

As a souvenir i still have the (long closed now) heavy metal Smartly card laying on my desk.

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

Varsity_Lu — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 09:55:21 GMT

Not a US Bank guy, so help me with this: what has changed?

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

Gregory1776 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:33:19 GMT

@GZG wrote:
@NoMoreE46 wrote:
April 14 2025

So US Bank has nerfed the unlimited 4%, 3% and 2.5% CB.
It also has changed the funding requirements for these higher level tiers.

Hoping the "OG" Smartly card holders will be grandfathered.
they should have just discontinued the card

this new version is a comical embarassment and they should be ashamed of themselves

The idea of having 100k in checking or savings is insane for most people. If your moving that much in cash on a regular basis, sure, probably makes sense, but then 4% back on a credit card just doesn't matter for you.

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

Gregory1776 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:35:22 GMT

@creditrizz wrote:
Maybe now they just want to attract the biggest ballers of ballers. Those who spend so much cash that they keep 100+ racks in their non-interest bearing checking accounts at all times anyway because that's just a week's worth of spending to them.

Amazing. I made my comment then saw this. 😁

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

Gregory1776 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:38:24 GMT

@Varsity_Lu

they capped the amount of bonus cash back you could earn to 10k spend in a month and removed the ability to have investment balance with us bank count to the 100k balance to unlock the 4%.

Now you need it in a checking or savings account.

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

unsungivy — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:46:55 GMT

I am fairly sure as well that they did not previously exclude Tax and Insurance payments from the earn (I feel like some people had verified paying insurance, and that there was no fine print to that effect). Which is why I gave P2 the go-ahead last night to use the Smartly for the taxes.

I do not think the timing of this announcement is a coincidence, given what today is.

Re: US Bank Smartly card: Officially Nerfed.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:48:15 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
@Varsity_Lu
they capped the amount of bonus cash back you could earn to 10k spend in a month and removed the ability to have investment balance with us bank count to the 100k balance to unlock the 4%.

~~Now you need it in a checking or savings account.~~

@Gregory1776

Incorrect.

You have to have it in the 0% checking account for it to apply to the tiers.

You do have to have a saving account open, but the balance in the savings account does not apply.