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@digitek wrote:I've had it for a few months now and I really like it. I switched from CSR + Freedom, both of which I closed out. I went with Alt Reserve + Uber. Lower AF by $50 and lower effective AF by $75 ($400 AF with $325 credit as opposed to $450 AF with $300 credit), almost exact same insurance except for lower amount on trip cancellation ($10k vs $2k), many more opportunities to use it with mobile payments as opposed to just restaurants, I don't really care much about airport lounges, US Bank is solid all around.
If you also have a Samsung product with MST then you can use the card practically anywhere you have to swipe even if it doesn't support typical NFC mobile payments. Samsung Pay even gives some rewards for using it, but they aren't worth much and not sure you can redeem for actual cash, only towards Samsung products.
Of all the major AF (Amex Plat, Citi Prestige, CSR, Alt Reserve) cards it made the most sense to me. I don't travel a whole lot, 3-4 times a year, and value lounge access at $0, just wanted a card with good travel insurance, Visa network, dedicated 'good' customer service, no FTF, and I really like the mobile wallet increased cashback category. Personally, I like the Real-Time-Redemption style of using points over any of the others, too.
I noticed you also have the Gold as well. I’m interesting in how you use that with the Alt reserve since you mentioned you use the Uber as well.
Anyways yeah I was just approved for this card and so far I’m liking it! I am thinking I will just drop my Gold in October when the 2nd fee hits. I don’t like the idea of paying for multiple 200+ annual fee cards. Ill still have the BBP for 2 MRs for all purchases regardless. I’ll then use the Altitude Reserve+Savor for essentially all purchases. Reserve will handle all mobile payments/travel/non cat spend while Savor will take care of restaurants/entertainment that don’t take Apple Pay.
So I was literally at the dentist getting ready to pay with my BBP then I discovered that the terminal said Apple Pay. I was in shock because the dentist would be the last place I would expect to take mobile pay. I asked the lady if they took mobile pay because it said it on the machine. She was like “I don’t think it works, someone else has tried it”. I’m like “cool do you mind if I try it”. Of course, she was like sure and to my surprise it worked!
I have around a 2k dental expense coming up next week so that’s an easy 6k points! I am also planning on moving the expense over to my Discover, which has a 18 month/0%/3% fee. Despite the fee, I’m still coming out ahead which is nice. My BBP has around 8 months left on its 0% APR so I’ll gladly take that trade off for an extra 10 months!
I mainly got it for use abroad (as my most common expenses, groceries, have other cards offering more than 3x/4.5 travel) But like OP, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday at my auto repair place, took SP (via NFC), $1495 triple points, good process towards SUB (and hopefully insurance will pay most of it anyway!)
But wish travel was as broad as CSR, have to pull that out for parking and tolls!
@JR_TX wrote:
I’m sure it’s awesome if you travel enough to justify the $500 AF.
It’s 400$ AF and it’s an effective 75$ annual fee after the 325$ credit. You really don’t even have to travel much to justify it. Travel and mobile pay both earn 3 points.
@longtimelurker wrote:I mainly got it for use abroad (as my most common expenses, groceries, have other cards offering more than 3x/4.5 travel) But like OP, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday at my auto repair place, took SP (via NFC), $1495 triple points, good process towards SUB (and hopefully insurance will pay most of it anyway!)
But wish travel was as broad as CSR, have to pull that out for parking and tolls!
True! It’s nice discovering places that you least expect would accept Apple Pay. That alone makes the card a keeper!
I've had this card for about a year and a half. Since I'm accumulating Marriott and AMEX points, I don't use it very often. The one place I do is COSTCO, since they switched to VISA only for credit cards.
Haven't tried using the mobile payments feature (since I don't have a phone with working fingerprint scanner) but expect, if you do and use it frequently at places like COSTCO, the 3 X points would be attractive.
So far, I've kept all the accumulated points banked -- between those and the $325 annual travel credit, it seems like a good deal to keep this card alive. Plus, it's satisyingly solid metal -- just wish it also could do tap to pay (but then it would need to have the sandwich construction of AMEX metal cards).