PenFed Platinum Rewards card question

[PowerMan572]

I've been briefly looking at this card because of the true chip-and-pin feature. I am going to Europe next month and this feature would be nice for the train terminals. I'll also be going back to Europe in September.

Reviews state the rewards are mediocre, but 3x points in grocery seems pretty great! What am I missing? How are the rewards collected and used?

Here's a link to the card: https://www.penfed.org/visasignaturepoints/

The rewards say you can use them on Travel. How does this work?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

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@PowerMan572 wrote:

I've been briefly looking at this card because of the true chip-and-pin feature. I am going to Europe next month and this feature would be nice for the train terminals. I'll also be going back to Europe in September.

Reviews state the rewards are mediocre, but 3x points in grocery seems pretty great! What am I missing? How are the rewards collected and used?

Here's a link to the card: https://www.penfed.org/visasignaturepoints/

The rewards say you can use them on Travel. How does this work?

Thanks!

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The criticism of the rewards is due tp some hidden nerfing a while back, when (pretty silently) points went from being 1c per point to ~ 0.85 c per point, which you found out only when you logged in to redeem and found the prices "higher" than they used to be.

So 3x on groceries is about 2.55%, which IS good for purchases abroad as most of other cards with higher values only give grocery bonuses in the US.   So I used the card at supermarkets in Europe and got the points.

Points post on statement close, and you redeem them through the site (whichI think they have now integrated).  I have only redeemed for Visa gift cards, so don't know about travel redemptions.

[Anonymous]

Also, it's not "true" chip&pin.   It's sig priority, falling back to PIN only when needed.  In fact, I never got it to ask for a PIN.

[PowerMan572]

Do you transfer the points to airlines or how does it work? I'm only interested in using points for travel.

[takeshi74]

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@PowerMan572 wrote:

 Reviews state the rewards are mediocre, but 3x points in grocery seems pretty great! What am I missing? How are the rewards collected and used?

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For any point/miles card always look at redemptions as well and not just the earn rate.  Don't just assume that 1x = 1%.

[Anonymous]

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@PowerMan572 wrote:

Do you transfer the points to airlines or how does it work? I'm only interested in using points for travel.

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No, it's not a transfer program at all.    Just a pay with points.   One example I looked at shows you redeem at about 0.9c per point, so still less than 1:1    I don't think this is a particularly good travel card.  Penfed has one branded for travel, but that also gets mixed reviews