short version -
March I gave in and went for the short-lived 'enhanced' SUB.
Approved $3,000 SL.
SUB
1. 30,000 pts for $3k spend in 90 days
2. 20,000 pts for $12k additional spend in 12 months (total $15k spend)
long version -
sucky SL. I tried to recon. WF has this escalations dept that acts like they care. and they actually call back. But they have little power all they do is act as a team you can actually back into, but all of the decisions are still done by automatic systems or underwriters that you can't speak with. I spend two weeks waiting on a callback and then all they did was do a SP CLI request over the phone and then hurry off the line when they got the 14 day message. Stuck with $3,000 SL. If I wasn't committed to this idea of stacking the points and getting the VISA Signature I would just abandon ship.... see my other post about the bonus points not posting....if they can't fix that then i will indeed abandon ship. My Citi Premier application was after this and I still at least got $7,000 with them.
I've had a negative experience with their business banking so won't hesitate to just say eff it if they can't credit bonuses on hotels. anyway, see below for strategy
I was at first, feeling envy towards those that were able to get the Chase Freedom Unlimited with the 3x on up to $20,000 spend in 12 months.
Knew that these type of SUBs were coming. Banks have been reporting cost of acquisition being way too high due to churners. Barclays screwed up their Arrival Premier offer so that probably was a good cautionary tale to the rest of the financial industry and that the next long-term style offers would probably offer some balance of initial bang with long term bucks.
I did the math on the FU and it's actually surprisingly disappointing. You have to spend a ton to get past the initial ROI of 15,000 UR for $500 spend. The 4x on the Avios cards is a better return, too bad the return is Avios and not Ultimate Rewards.....
So yeah I think this offer is good. You still get the original SUB but you also get 1.66x on the remaining $12,000 spend. ...which is essentially $1,000/month + an extra $1,000 dispersed however you want over the remaining 11 months. Or think of it as $2,000/month for the first 3 months and $1,000/month the remaining 9 months.
One of the biggest mistakes I think people make is loading general spend onto a SUB. I'm surprised bloggers and so-called points/miles authorities fail to emphasize the strategy of getting a card when you are about to spend a lot on one of the card's bonus categories. Your ROI is obviously better that way. A CSR SUB isn't really 50,000 UR for $4,000 spend. It's really 54,000 UR for $4,000 spend if do general spend. but up to 62,000 UR for $4,000 spend if you using it solely for restaurants and travel.
So since this card has an absurd amount of bonus categories I did the math on the year long spend plus SUB.
If I only use the card for airfare, hotels, parking, tolls, homestays, eating out, ordering, gas, rideshares, car rentals, streaming services and end up having $15,000 in total spend during the first 12 months I will get 95,000 pts for $15,000 spend. That's 6.33 pts per $1.
And if I can take it easy with apps /new accounts over the next 15 months and get the VISA Signature card, or get DW to get the card between now and the 13th month(or whenever I hit $15,000 in spend) then we will end up with $1,425 of airfare redemptions which turns out to be 9.5% return on the first year spend, which is really awesome.
You don't have to do the full set of math to realize that the combo of the Propel and VISA Signature cards is very competitive with CSR.
as always, thanks for reading my ramblings. if you want more DPs no prob.
