As long as you're net positive in the end, it's worth it. Unless you can find a better deal elsewhere. Get that credit one X5.
If this is the Credit One X5 card, proceed with extreme caution (I wouldn't proceed it all). You have to take several dirty tricks into account with Credit One - the first being that it may be a "jungle application". In other words, you are not really applying for any specific card, if approved, they will give you a Credit One card...not necessarily the one you wanted. Second trick is they like to give very low SLs...are you gonna be able to max the rewards and offset the annual fee if they give you a $500 limit? They usually put terms like "Receive a credit limit UP TO $3,000!" ("UP TO" but hello $500). They charge like $13 for a CLI. Third dirty trick - They don't assign cashback categories by MCC - they use SICC. You will need to look up Standard Industrial Classification Codes to make sure your 5% back places are actually going to be 5%. You might not like what you find here. Fourth dirty trick - they will take their dear sweet time posting payments and not credit you with the date you made it. If you pay 6 days before the due date and it takes 7 for them to process - you're late. For like $10 you can pay to have it processed faster.
There are additional things you have to watch out for if you choose to open any Credit One account - gotta make sure your card actually has a grace period. Gotta make sure when you get a CLI, it's a CLI on an existing card and not them opening a second card for you of whatever unknown type. Yikes? Yikes. Their customer support is also among the worst of any issuer. Read reviews of their customer service and business practices, read lots of them very closely. And then run...run away, far, far, away.
The X5 isn't a completely terrible card. But, they are such a terrible issuer that it kills those benefits, if you manage to get it, with a usable limit. Other cards from other banks offer 5% cash back on those categories with no AF and don't treat you like a prey species.
VS4: 709
I do not have gas spend (I have EV), while I believe that there are some cards in the market that can provide ~3-4% on gas without AF. If that would be the case, I would go for those cards.
If you can pay at the gas stations using mobile wallet, there are already several cards without AF that can give you 5% (in case of having annaul cap, you may get a few of such cards instead of paying $100 AF).
Fico8: EX~EQ~TU~840 (12 month goal~850).
If it were me; absolutely not.
Let's look at this in a different way. How much do you actually spend annually on those categories? You are correct that you would net around $150 if you maxed out the full $5,000 in spend. However, if your annual spend, without worrying about categories, was at least $10,000, you could earn $150 with a generic 1.5%, no fee, no categories, cashback card. And if you spend more than $10,000, you would be ahead.
You can get 5% on gas with NO AF via Comenity's AAA Visa.
You can get 6% on grocery/streaming with Amex Blue Cash Preferred ($95 AF) or if your monthly grocery spend is < $501/month, Citi Custom Cash MC will do the job at 5% with no AF.
@acercode wrote:5% CB on gas, supermarket and others for the first $5,000 then 1%. I would get $250 CB each year and $150 net profit after the fee. Is there a downside to this offer?
Just say no to this.
