topic Re: Cash + thought in Credit Cards

Cash + thought

FutureBillionaire — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 14:03:14 GMT

Why didn't US Bank just change the bill pay to a 2% category? Or just change the categories that they removed to 2%? Wouldn't that have been a good compromise?

Re: Cash + thought

distantarray — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:05:56 GMT

@FutureBillionaire wrote:
Why didn't US Bank just change the bill pay to a 2% category? Or just change the categories that they removed to 2%? Wouldn't that have been a good compromise?

it would've been a nice idea

Re: Cash + thought

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:55:15 GMT

There are no credit cards today which allow cash back on bill payment categories like insurance payments which Cash + was allowing.

For a customer assuming he pays $100 on home insurance and $150 on car insurance or $250 total per month, US bank would lose $3.75 per customer per month which would add to the loss. Even by changing to 2%, it would reduce loss but not eliminate it.

The only way they would have kept to 2% if the competition credit cards also allowed 2% cash back on such bill payment. In absence of a competition on this category, possibly the bank had no reason to keep it.

Re: Cash + thought

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:43:03 GMT

UGH I'm so annoyed about this because this 5% on the bill payment was the only reason I got this card! I'll wait and see if it comes back and if it doesn't I might just SD this card permanently

Re: Cash + thought

andre181 — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:52:39 GMT

Yeah, loosing bill pay was a big bummer.

Maybe we will get lucky and it will come back once a year or something. Then we could pay insurance for the whole year during that quarter. That would be better than nothing.

I just wish they had left the categories alone and put a $1500 quarterly cap on the 5%. That would have been more than fine.

Re: Cash + thought

jake619 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:03:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
There are no credit cards today which allow cash back on bill payment categories like insurance payments which Cash + was allowing.

For a customer assuming he pays $100 on home insurance and $150 on car insurance or $250 total per month, US bank would lose $3.75 per customer per month which would add to the loss. Even by changing to 2%, it would reduce loss but not eliminate it.

The only way they would have kept to 2% if the competition credit cards also allowed 2% cash back on such bill payment. In absence of a competition on this category, possibly the bank had no reason to keep it.

Yes there is: Barclays Rewards MasterCard is 2% cash back. Not 5%, but better than 0%.

Re: Cash + thought

darkpearl — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:40:17 GMT

I was originally going to apply for the Barclay's bill pay card before Cash+ came out. 2% isn't that much more than my general 1.5% cards so it's not worth it now (nor then which is why I had not applied). I am taking comfort in the fact that I am moving in June and can put department stores and electronics on this quarter to get some cash back on big ticket items we are buying.

ALSO have you all checked out the books category? This would be a great card for a parent with a student in college - books includes textbooks!