Elan offer: Spend $75 online, get 1,000 cash back

[Anonymalous]

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@TryItAgain wrote:

Lol of course I Never expected $1k, but $10 seems like a joke for the spend, even $20 is reasonable.

I'm not truly mad, just a little miffed as it doesn't even equal other cards standard cashback rates.

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It's 13.3% cash back, on top of whatever you're already getting for the card. And for most people, it's effectively a free $10, because it's hard not to spend $75 online over the holiday season.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymalous wrote:

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@TryItAgain wrote:

Lol of course I Never expected $1k, but $10 seems like a joke for the spend, even $20 is reasonable.

I'm not truly mad, just a little miffed as it doesn't even equal other cards standard cashback rates.

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It's 13.3% cash back, on top of whatever you're already getting for the card. And for most people, it's effectively a free $10, because it's hard not to spend $75 online over the holiday season.

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It's also amazingly generous compared to US Bank's other offers (which really are a joke) where you need to spend ~ $10K to get $25 back  

[TryItAgain]

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@Anonymalous wrote:

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@TryItAgain wrote:

Lol of course I Never expected $1k, but $10 seems like a joke for the spend, even $20 is reasonable.

I'm not truly mad, just a little miffed as it doesn't even equal other cards standard cashback rates.

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It's 13.3% cash back, on top of whatever you're already getting for the card. And for most people, it's effectively a free $10, because it's hard not to spend $75 online over the holiday season.

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It's a little over 4%, since it was 3 spends of $75.  It's all good.

[longtimelurker]

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@TryItAgain wrote:

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It's a little over 4%, since it was 3 spends of $75.  It's all good.

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Well, that was your choice or misunderstanding, the three transactions just had to total $75.    You could have spent $100K and made the offer much less generous!

[FormerCollegeDJ]

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

I love this time of year! Credit card companies compete with each other to grab shares of our holiday spend by dangling special offers. It's nice to get 10x points on gas from Chase, $10 back on $50 of retail spend from US Bank, and an extra 2% back on everything from BofA. 

But Elan outdid them all with this targeted offer I received today on my Max Cash Preferred card, via email:

I know what you're thinking: does that mean 1,000 points? I don't see how it can; the Max Cash Preferred doesn't earn points. It earns cash. I don't see any way to interpret it other than meaning $1,000 cash back.

I quickly executed four online transactions totaling more than $75. Now, I wait to see if they will honor the offer. Anyone want to make a prediction about that?

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I haven't read the other comments so someone may have already noted this, but there is no dollar sign ($) in front of the "1000".  Because of that, it is almost definite the 1000 does not stand for $1000.

[TheBoondocks]

It could be on anything as long as its online?

[longtimelurker]

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@FormerCollegeDJ wrote:

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I haven't read the other comments so someone may have already noted this, but there is no dollar sign ($) in front of the "1000".  Because of that, it is almost definite the 1000 does not stand for $1000.

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A quick check of the comments would show that you are right, many other people noted that!

[Curious_George2]

Update: I received the "correction" email someone posted up-thread. Among other things, it says if I have questions I should call a certain phone number. I called, got two front-line reps who didn't know anything about the offer, then got transferred to a supervisor who said, with a degree of hostility that shocked me, there was no way they would honor the original offer, or give anything more than $10. 

I then wrote a letter, asking Elan to honor the offer and complaining about the call center supervisor. I sent it to the address he provided, with a copy to the executive office. 

About three weeks later, I received a phone call from an exceedingly polite gentleman I'll call H. H knew all about the offer and my letter. He had even reviewed the recording of my phone call, and said they provided feedback to the supervisor's manager. 

H said they have received many complaints about this offer, and apologized for the situation. He told me they were not able to give a $1,000 bonus, but they will give me a $75 statement credit and fifty rewards dollars. I told him I think that's a fair compromise, and I thanked him. 

So, in the end, I'm getting $125 back for $75 spend (I spent more, but that's beside the point) plus the cost of two stamps. I'm happy with that.

[longtimelurker]

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

Update: I received the "correction" email someone posted up-thread. Among other things, it says if I have questions I should call a certain phone number. I called, got two front-line reps who didn't know anything about the offer, then got transferred to a supervisor who said, with a degree of hostility that shocked me, there was no way they would honor the original offer, or give anything more than $10. 

I then wrote a letter, asking Elan to honor the offer and complaining about the call center supervisor. I sent it to the address he provided, with a copy to the executive office. 

About three weeks later, I received a phone call from an exceedingly polite gentleman I'll call H. H knew all about the offer and my letter. He had even reviewed the recording of my phone call, and said they provided feedback to the supervisor's manager. 

H said they have received many complaints about this offer, and apologized for the situation. He told me they were not able to give a $1,000 bonus, but they will give me a $75 statement credit and fifty rewards dollars. I told him I think that's a fair compromise, and I thanked him. 

So, in the end, I'm getting $125 back for $75 spend (I spent more, but that's beside the point) plus the cost of two stamps. I'm happy with that.

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Well, I would be with the call center supervisor, and basically accuse you of willful misunderstanding!   But Elan obviously thought it better to give you some money to make it stop....

[CreditCuriosity]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

Update: I received the "correction" email someone posted up-thread. Among other things, it says if I have questions I should call a certain phone number. I called, got two front-line reps who didn't know anything about the offer, then got transferred to a supervisor who said, with a degree of hostility that shocked me, there was no way they would honor the original offer, or give anything more than $10. 

I then wrote a letter, asking Elan to honor the offer and complaining about the call center supervisor. I sent it to the address he provided, with a copy to the executive office. 

About three weeks later, I received a phone call from an exceedingly polite gentleman I'll call H. H knew all about the offer and my letter. He had even reviewed the recording of my phone call, and said they provided feedback to the supervisor's manager. 

H said they have received many complaints about this offer, and apologized for the situation. He told me they were not able to give a $1,000 bonus, but they will give me a $75 statement credit and fifty rewards dollars. I told him I think that's a fair compromise, and I thanked him. 

So, in the end, I'm getting $125 back for $75 spend (I spent more, but that's beside the point) plus the cost of two stamps. I'm happy with that.

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Well, I would be with the call center supervisor, and basically accuse you of willful misunderstanding!   But Elan obviously thought it better to give you some money to make it stop....

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I would add to this likely the recording is what got you the extra $ and how the person spoke to you rather than the bad way the email was sent out.  They certainly didn't have to honor above the $10 and suprised they did.  Anyways we all do what we think is right/wrong and will leave it at that.