topic Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card in Credit Cards

Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:55:05 GMT

Anyone have this card? Is it very difficult to qualify for? It's issued by FIA Card Services aka BofA. I wonder if its one of the products they're selling off this year?

http://personal.fidelity.com/products/checking/content/amex_investment_card.shtml

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:35:49 GMT

Bump any thoughts?

Apparently the Charles Schwab Visa (the only other 2% cash back card) was also administered by FIA until they decided to discontinue it last year. Cardholders were PCed into the BofA 321 Cash Rewards. I wonder if/when the Fidelity Amex will get the axe too?

Looks like a good card but I am wary of FIA/BofA...

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:44:26 GMT

I have a hard time imagining any circumstances that would allow me click on "Submit" for any card managed by FIA. Just can't do it, LOL!

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

tsquad131 — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:00:30 GMT

I got the cash rewards card from boa in october and then applied for the amex in december after i opened a fidelity with ira and both were approved for $1,000 even though I had to call and recon because of the systemic decline. the 2% rewards is only good if its deposited into a fidelity account. whats your history like? I have 1.5 years aaoa 3 years history a car loan and multiple cards with 1% utilization. Lots of newly opened accounts and inquiries too

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:48:14 GMT

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. I built my credit with BofA and wasn't too fond of their customer service.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:07:27 GMT

@tsquad131 wrote:
I got the cash rewards card from boa in october and then applied for the amex in december after i opened a fidelity with ira and both were approved for $1,000 even though I had to call and recon because of the systemic decline. the 2% rewards is only good if its deposited into a fidelity account. whats your history like? I have 1.5 years aaoa 3 years history a car loan and multiple cards with 1% utilization. Lots of newly opened accounts and inquiries too

My history is good but like you I recently opened new accounts so I want to garden for at least a year. I guess it's good to see what BofA does with this product this year before I pull the trigger. 2% back seems great.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:10:32 GMT

tsquad - do you know if this card has extended warranty, car rental insurance coverage, etc. the typical benefits with cards directly issued by Amex?

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

tsquad131 — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:27:08 GMT

Not sure I have to look at my credit card agreement

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:50:57 GMT

Sallie Mae also has a 2% credit card (2 points/$1 spent redemable for a value of $0.01/point starting at 25K points):

https://www.salliemae.com/landing/signaturecreditcard/

The redemption values are very similar to the Fidelity Amex if you are not sweeping the points to a Fidelity account.

FWIW -- Sallie Mae's card is a Visa, and it has a 10K point bonus (which gets you up to $100).

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Open123 — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:41:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Sallie Mae also has a 2% credit card (2 points/$1 spent redemable for a value of $0.01/point starting at 25K points):

https://www.salliemae.com/landing/signaturecreditcard/

The redemption values are very similar to the Fidelity Amex if you are not sweeping the points to a Fidelity account.

FWIW -- Sallie Mae's card is a Visa, and it has a 10K point bonus (which gets you up to $100).

Excellent card. Best pure rewards card in the market for general spending.

Only downside is you have to wait until 25,000 pts before getting the full 2%. There's a small risk they can change the conversion ratio before hitting the 2% threshold, but aside from that, I think this is the best general purpose rewards card.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:16:02 GMT

Interesting, there's a surprising lack of information out there on this card.

I do see a couple red flags though. First, it says "earn 2 points for every $1 spent on everyday purchases" and in the T&C the word "everyday" is replaced with "qualifying." Does this mean there are specific categories? Secondly, does the cash back have to go into paying off a Sallie Mae student loan? I have plenty of those!

It seems kind of weird for a student loan company to get into the credit card business. I can't find a link to this product at all from their main website.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:18:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
tsquad - do you know if this card has extended warranty, car rental insurance coverage, etc. the typical benefits with cards directly issued by Amex?

All the benefits are through FIA and not through Amex so while it does have extended warranty it's not as easy to file a claim as it is through Amex. The reason that I think that this card has a chance of survival is that its an Amex with higher interchange fees. One of the reasons why the Schwab card failed was it was a Visa. You'll see the Visa version of Fidelity card only offers 1.5% for the first 15,000 then you reach 2%. If the Schwab card had something similar to the old Blue Cash where it was 1% on the first $6,500 spent or something then I could see it still being around today.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:25:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
tsquad - do you know if this card has extended warranty, car rental insurance coverage, etc. the typical benefits with cards directly issued by Amex?
All the benefits are through FIA and not through Amex so while it does have extended warranty it's not as easy to file a claim as it is through Amex. The reason that I think that this card has a chance of survival is that its an Amex with higher interchange fees. One of the reasons why the Schwab card failed was it was a Visa. You'll see the Visa version of Fidelity card only offers 1.5% for the first 15,000 then you reach 2%. If the Schwab card had something similar to the old Blue Cash where it was 1% on the first $6,500 spent or something then I could see it still being around today.

I see, thanks for looking that up! Hopefully after some inquiries drop off I will be in a better position to apply.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:58:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting, there's a surprising lack of information out there on this card.

I do see a couple red flags though. First, it says "earn 2 points for every $1 spent on everyday purchases" and in the T&C the word "everyday" is replaced with "qualifying." Does this mean there are specific categories? Secondly, does the cash back have to go into paying off a Sallie Mae student loan? I have plenty of those!

It seems kind of weird for a student loan company to get into the credit card business. I can't find a link to this product at all from their main website.

It's my understanding that qualifying purchases = net purchases for the Sallie Mae card.

FYI -- Sallie Mae is/was also offering a card with 5% cash back on gas, groceries and books (I can't find a like, so I think it is now was).

As far as a student loan company entering the CC business, Sallie Mae now offers savings accounts, money market accounts and CDs with competitive rates. Also, the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) changed the way that federal student loans work going forward -- banks like Sallie Mae will no longer issue federal student loans. Sallie Mae (and similar companies like Nelnet) will have to diversify their finacial offerings to survivie.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:00:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
tsquad - do you know if this card has extended warranty, car rental insurance coverage, etc. the typical benefits with cards directly issued by Amex?
All the benefits are through FIA and not through Amex so while it does have extended warranty it's not as easy to file a claim as it is through Amex. The reason that I think that this card has a chance of survival is that its an Amex with higher interchange fees. One of the reasons why the Schwab card failed was it was a Visa. You'll see the Visa version of Fidelity card only offers 1.5% for the first 15,000 then you reach 2%. If the Schwab card had something similar to the old Blue Cash where it was 1% on the first $6,500 spent or something then I could see it still being around today.
I see, thanks for looking that up! Hopefully after some inquiries drop off I will be in a better position to apply.

The bank interchange rates for Visa Signature and MasterCard World cards are a lot closer to Amex interchange rates than normal CCs. THat's why almost every really good rewards card with a Visa or Mastercard name plate is issued as a Visa Signature or MasterCard World card.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Repo-ed — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:06:13 GMT

Depsite my 401 being managed through Fidelity, I'm quite certain they would give me the ol' decline.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:10:01 GMT

@Repo-ed wrote:
Depsite my 401 being managed through Fidelity, I'm quite certain they would give me the ol' decline.

Fidelity has nothing to do with the management of the card. It's FIA (aka Bank of America) that is responsible for all credit decisions.

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Repo-ed — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:34:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Repo-ed wrote:
Depsite my 401 being managed through Fidelity, I'm quite certain they would give me the ol' decline.
Fidelity has nothing to do with the management of the card. It's FIA (aka Bank of America) that is responsible for all credit decisions.

Depsite having banked with BoA for the past 20 years, I'm quite certain they would give me the ol' decline

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:05:08 GMT

I have been looking into the Fidelity AMEX, but searched the forum and found this post with the suggestion of the Sallie Mae 2% card. However, I try this link and the others I found on google and it comes up with a page moved error. So has the Sallie Mae card beend discontinued?

Also for anyone that has the Fidelity AMEX for awhile, what is their opinion on it?

Re: Fidelity Amex 2% Cash Back Card

Anonymous — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:26:42 GMT

The Fidelity card is a good card if you do a lot of general spending (at places that take Amex, like Costco!). There are definitely better cards if you're looking for rewards in a particular category. And with the 5% rotating categories you really end up only being able to use the extra 1% for three quarters.

If you decide you still want it, the benefits are similar to some lower end cards, like only $100,000 in travel accident insurance, does NOT have price protections, etc. But the normal stuff like extended warranty, purchase protection, collision damage waivers, etc. are all there. You redeem either through FIA or through Fidelity. With FIA, you have to accumulate 30,000 points to be able to get the full 2% CB. If you get some sort of checking or investment account with Fidelity, you can redeem at 2% once you hit 5,000 points. Their mysmartcash account or something reimburses you for ATM fee, gives you free checks, etc. Points expire after five years.