@Sharingan wrote:
@UncleB wrote:This thread has 'piqued' my interest in this card once again. I had a Fidelity account years ago through a previous employer, and I rolled the account into an IRA before I eventually withdrew all the funds (a terrible thing to do, but times were really hard). The withdrawal was approx. 10 years ago.
Just for 'giggles' I tried to log in just now, and after a password reset I was in... and my account has a balance of exactly 0.02, but it's still there. I'm not sure what type of account it is classified as, but there was a transfer option there (assuming there was somewhere else to transfer to) so I think this might (?) be a sufficient relationship for the Fidelity Visa card (by that I mean without a credit pull to open an additional deposit/cash account).
My credit score is hovering around 720, so I'm not going to be comfortable seriously looking at this for a while yet, but they are back on my 'radar', so to speak. Some folks have mentioned that Fidelity assets might play a part in approvals... while I'm clearly lacking in that department, if they were to look at longevity I would do well, since my relationship with them goes back to the early 90s.
Oh well... a guy can dream, right?
For the interim, if I decide to go for a 2% card I should probably stick to Blispay, which I'm also "intrigued" with at the moment. My chances of getting 'shot down' should be quite a bit less for that one.
I did decide to pickup a Blispay card myself, and it does appear to be the case that Blispay is a much easier alternative for applicants to acquire than the Fidelity Visa Signature or even the Citi Double Cash. I have to give the Fidelity card credit though, it gives the impression of being a much more solid product than what Blispay is offering. I fully expect some "changes" down the road for Blispay, so I have kept that possibility in the back of my mind. The Fidelity Visa Signature has longevity (in my opinion), so it will no doubt be in my wallet much longer than many of my other cards. For this reason, I didn't mind at all that the card had no sign up bonus.
As for your Fidelity account, I wish I knew the answer for you, UncleB. I do kinda suspect that it would have a greater impact if Fidelity themselves were underwriting the card, but that's sadly not the case.
Best of luck if you decide to apply for either card!
I do not share your optimism with the change to Elan. The FIA card has been rock solid, but US Bank has a history of nerfing rewards programs (Cash +) where, as a new lender, BlisPay has no such track record. What leads you to believe that it's more likely that BlisPay would make changes over US Bank?
@wacdenney wrote:
@Sharingan wrote:
@UncleB wrote:This thread has 'piqued' my interest in this card once again. I had a Fidelity account years ago through a previous employer, and I rolled the account into an IRA before I eventually withdrew all the funds (a terrible thing to do, but times were really hard). The withdrawal was approx. 10 years ago.
Just for 'giggles' I tried to log in just now, and after a password reset I was in... and my account has a balance of exactly 0.02, but it's still there. I'm not sure what type of account it is classified as, but there was a transfer option there (assuming there was somewhere else to transfer to) so I think this might (?) be a sufficient relationship for the Fidelity Visa card (by that I mean without a credit pull to open an additional deposit/cash account).
My credit score is hovering around 720, so I'm not going to be comfortable seriously looking at this for a while yet, but they are back on my 'radar', so to speak. Some folks have mentioned that Fidelity assets might play a part in approvals... while I'm clearly lacking in that department, if they were to look at longevity I would do well, since my relationship with them goes back to the early 90s.
Oh well... a guy can dream, right?
For the interim, if I decide to go for a 2% card I should probably stick to Blispay, which I'm also "intrigued" with at the moment. My chances of getting 'shot down' should be quite a bit less for that one.
I did decide to pickup a Blispay card myself, and it does appear to be the case that Blispay is a much easier alternative for applicants to acquire than the Fidelity Visa Signature or even the Citi Double Cash. I have to give the Fidelity card credit though, it gives the impression of being a much more solid product than what Blispay is offering. I fully expect some "changes" down the road for Blispay, so I have kept that possibility in the back of my mind. The Fidelity Visa Signature has longevity (in my opinion), so it will no doubt be in my wallet much longer than many of my other cards. For this reason, I didn't mind at all that the card had no sign up bonus.
As for your Fidelity account, I wish I knew the answer for you, UncleB. I do kinda suspect that it would have a greater impact if Fidelity themselves were underwriting the card, but that's sadly not the case.
Best of luck if you decide to apply for either card!
I do not share your optimism with the change to Elan. The FIA card has been rock solid, but US Bank has a history of nerfing rewards programs (Cash +) where, as a new lender, BlisPay has no such track record. What leads you to believe that it's more likely that BlisPay would make changes over US Bank?
This isn't US Bank. It's Elan. Not the same thing, even though Elan is part of US Bank. Elan works to run third party credit cards and in this case via a partnership/cobranding with Fidelity. Elan can't just change the rewards program without Fidelity's approval. Considering the switch to Elan was partly to do with Fidelity not feeling the FIA Amex card offered the right benefits for their customers, I highly doubt they would want to change the new Elan card.
@wacdenney wrote:
@Sharingan wrote:
@UncleB wrote:This thread has 'piqued' my interest in this card once again. I had a Fidelity account years ago through a previous employer, and I rolled the account into an IRA before I eventually withdrew all the funds (a terrible thing to do, but times were really hard). The withdrawal was approx. 10 years ago.
Just for 'giggles' I tried to log in just now, and after a password reset I was in... and my account has a balance of exactly 0.02, but it's still there. I'm not sure what type of account it is classified as, but there was a transfer option there (assuming there was somewhere else to transfer to) so I think this might (?) be a sufficient relationship for the Fidelity Visa card (by that I mean without a credit pull to open an additional deposit/cash account).
My credit score is hovering around 720, so I'm not going to be comfortable seriously looking at this for a while yet, but they are back on my 'radar', so to speak. Some folks have mentioned that Fidelity assets might play a part in approvals... while I'm clearly lacking in that department, if they were to look at longevity I would do well, since my relationship with them goes back to the early 90s.
Oh well... a guy can dream, right?
For the interim, if I decide to go for a 2% card I should probably stick to Blispay, which I'm also "intrigued" with at the moment. My chances of getting 'shot down' should be quite a bit less for that one.
I did decide to pickup a Blispay card myself, and it does appear to be the case that Blispay is a much easier alternative for applicants to acquire than the Fidelity Visa Signature or even the Citi Double Cash. I have to give the Fidelity card credit though, it gives the impression of being a much more solid product than what Blispay is offering. I fully expect some "changes" down the road for Blispay, so I have kept that possibility in the back of my mind. The Fidelity Visa Signature has longevity (in my opinion), so it will no doubt be in my wallet much longer than many of my other cards. For this reason, I didn't mind at all that the card had no sign up bonus.
As for your Fidelity account, I wish I knew the answer for you, UncleB. I do kinda suspect that it would have a greater impact if Fidelity themselves were underwriting the card, but that's sadly not the case.
Best of luck if you decide to apply for either card!
I do not share your optimism with the change to Elan. The FIA card has been rock solid, but US Bank has a history of nerfing rewards programs (Cash +) where, as a new lender, BlisPay has no such track record. What leads you to believe that it's more likely that BlisPay would make changes over US Bank?
Oh, you mean aside from the blatantly stated language on Blispay's own website that they may "change this offer," in this case in regards to the financing they so heavily promote as a benefit (the first listed on the home page!) of the card? What more of an indication do you need when it comes straight from the horse's mouth?
Blispay does refer to the financing as promotional; and typically, that word is not used to describe features or benefits that are permanent.
Also, is the Cash+, which isn't even directly related to subsidiary Elan's portfolio, the only example you have that led you to the conclusion that U.S. Bank has a history of nerfing rewards programs? I'm sure one could dig up examples of FIA/Bank of America not only nerfing products, but discontinuing them as well. Several Merrill Lynch products have been axed in recent years with cardholders forcefully changed over to other FIA/BoA products. How did that affect your FIA Fidelity AmEx's rewards? It didn't. So I don't think it's quite fair to be jumping to conclusions just yet regarding Elan. Finally, if things were so rosy at FIA for Fidelity, even with the higher swipe fees that AmEx cards command, they probably wouldn't have needed to make the switch.
@Sharingan wrote:
Blispay does refer to the financing as promotional; and typically, that word is not used to describe features or benefits that are permanent.
I used to have a Direct Merchants Bank Titanium card with a similar, albeit slightly different benefit to the Blispay card, where DMB had what they referred to (as I can best recall anyway) as "an ongoing promotion of a 90 day / 3 months interest-free grace period on all purchases", meaning that every purchase that was made on the card had deferred interest for 90 days, and as long as you paid the full balance due by the end of the 90-day period, you owed no interest and could also carry a balance on other purchases at the same time. The DMB card listed itself as an ongoing promotion -- I had the card from about 2001 or thereabouts until about 2008, when HSBC acquired DMB, and HSBC sadly decided to discontinue the 90-day grace period promotion, and so I closed my DMB card shortly thereafter. But the ongoing promotion for my DMB card lasted a good 7-8 years or so, before HSBC discontinued it.
One thing I can't quite seem to wrap my head around is why people seem to be so excited about the Fidelity VS card, if even though it has 2% cashback rewards, the go-to APR is 14.24% V? With almost all credit cards these days having variable interest rates and the Prime Rate having anywhere to go but up, do the people who are enamored with the Fidelity card also realize that their go-to APR could be 16.24% V or higher, within the next 2 years? (I read an article online that said that the Fed was hoping to raise interest rates by a total of 2% in 2 years, which is where I got that figure from btw.)
ETA: Personally, with a go-to APR of 14.24% V, I would not app for the Fidelity card, even with the 2% cashback benefit. I have the Blispay card, but that is a different story because although the Blispay APR is even higher, it has the 2% cashback benefit plus deferred interest for 6 months (ETA: for purchases of $199 or higher). Also excluding my Blispay card, my highest APR for my 2% cashback rewards cards is 11.25% V, with my FNBO BucksBack VS card.
@galahad15 wrote:One thing I can't quite seem to wrap my head around is why people seem to be so excited about the Fidelity VS card, if even though it has 2% cashback rewards, the go-to APR is 14.24% V? With almost all credit cards these days having variable interest rates and the Prime Rate having anywhere to go but up, do the people who are enamored with the Fidelity card also realize that their go-to APR could be 16.24% V or higher, within the next 2 years? (I read an article online that said that the Fed was hoping to raise interest rates by a total of 2% in 2 years, which is where I got that figure from btw.)
ETA: Personally, with a go-to APR of 14.24% V, I would not app for the Fidelity card, even with the 2% cashback benefit. I have the Blispay card, but that is a different story because although the Blispay APR is even higher, it has the 2% cashback benefit plus deferred interest for 6 months (ETA: for purchases of $199 or higher). Also excluding my Blispay card, my highest APR for my 2% cashback rewards cards is 11.25% V, with my FNBO BucksBack VS card.
Your inability to wrap your head around it is simply due to your reluctance to look beyond interest rates.
I would imagine most people here discussing rewards don't care what the interest rate is if they are not carrying a balance on such cards. It should go without saying that if you revolve a balance for even one month, depending on how high the balance is, it could wipe out the entire amount of earnings for rewards an individual has accumulated on the card. If I need a card with a low interest rate, I would get a dedicated card for the purpose of carrying a balance or consider another type of loan. Hell, every interest rate on a credit card is too high unless it's 0%. I am not so sure if very many people looking at the Fidelity card would be interested in several of the low interest cards in your signature simply because they don't want to pay ANY interest, period. It's a very simple concept. It doesn't matter if it's 6.25 or 29.99, there would be no realization of rewards if interest is paid.
As for Blispay, deferred interest is great, but again, many people with rewards cards already don't pay interest. Blispay also -just- came out, unlike the Fidelity card, which has been around for several years. I'm sure there are many posters who are skeptical of what Blispay is offering, and I don't blame them. It's a startup...
