Hello All,
Just got an email approval from First Tech FCU for their Odyssey Rewards WEMC and thought I would share the data point since this is a tricky one around here. $25k at 10% APR. $300 SUB. It is a 3% travel, 2% dining, PIN priority card. I just saw on their rates section that I think $25k is the minimum for this card?
https://www.firsttechfed.com/borrow/credit-cards/odyssey-rewards
https://www.firsttechfed.com/rates/credit-cards
Saw the recent thread about true Chip + PIN priority card options getting smaller:
I have the SDFCU 2% card that is PIN priority, but they are no longer offering it that way and mine is going to expire soon. I checked out the wiki mentioned in that thread for all credit cards with PIN priority:
https://www.spotterswiki.com/emv/cardsearch.php?priority=pin&type%5B%5D=credit
As discussed a bit in the thread, there's only 4 banks left that have the full set of PIN features:
BMO Harris/Diner's Club - legendary cards but unfortunately no longer available for app's
First Premier - never heard of them but it is for people with bad credit, CC has no rewards and $170 AF
STCU - Premium Rewards card isn't bad but they are geo-restricted which is why I've never heard of them
First Tech FCU - Odyssey Rewards is kind of a cool card and they aren't geo-restricted
So that got me reading about First Tech CU and really wanting to get their Odyssey Rewards WEMC. Probably last chance of getting a PIN priority with all features before they disappear for good. Don't really have a need for any cards as far as rewards, which is why I haven't apped for one in so long, but thought why not snag this one for the novelty if I can. It has a $75 AF, but first year AF waived and $300 SUB, so can try it for 5 years for free.
Read a bunch of threads about First Tech approvals and them preferring large annual incomes and not liking large amounts of cards/large total available credit relative to income. Even though I have 9 open cc's, the 3 Amex are kind of hidden on my business credit profile. I close out cards that I don't use anymore and don't push CLI that hard so my personal profile only shows 6 open cards with total available credit that is below my annual income.
They pulled Experian and I was 791 at the time, 4 inquiries, 3 within the last 12 months, 2 for the auto loan 6 months ago and one for the refinance 3 months ago. All other data points were solid, total credit usage was less than 1%, had 6% showing on the Altitude Reserve, no derogs, Average Age 4 years 1 month, Credit History 10 years. No new cards since USAlliance May of 2020.
They gave me $25k at 10% APR which isn't their lowest offered for the card at 6.9%, but isn't the highest at 18%, either. Their approval email said it was dependant of POI for the annual income I told them when I apped which is no problem but worth noting. I got to looking around the site and they offer a lot of good products and their internal Rewards system isn't bad. Like a lot of banks you can get extra stuff for a certain number of swipes per month which I'm not a big fan of since they usually aren't worth it, but this one might be. It has a $10 a month streaming credit that can offset a lot of spend rewards, increased checking/saving rates that are better than I can get anywhere else and .5% more rewards on the CC. I think the math comes out that if I use this card 20 times on dining in a month and spend $500 my rewards rate is 4.5%, if I spend $1k on dining it is 3.5%. That's not including the checking/savings rates difference, either. I like the CU from what I can see and their tech is real nice which is one of the things I was looking for in a new card/CU. I'm thinking it might make sense for me to go for that 20 swipes a month and park some cash with them, but not sure yet.
Feels good to snag a new one after over a year and contribute a data point. See you all later.
Congrats on your approval!
Grats on the excellent SL 
Congrats on the Odyssey approval
Congrats on a very nice approval! .. Thanks for sharing all the extra DP's
Congrats on the 1st Tech Odyssey card!
This is one that's been on my radar for a while now, but I've been hesitant due to my existing CL's. Thank you for all the data points you've included as well!
