Upgrade Visa 3% Cash Back?

[dlister70]

I received a pre-approval junk mail today for this Upgrade Visa which I'd not heard of before.  Looks like a line of credit that you can use a Visa card to access.  The part that intrigued me was the 3% cashback on "Home, Auto, and Health categories".  

If I could pay my yearly auto insurance or home insurance on it, that might be interesting.  But I've read that there's no grace period, so I don't know if I'd even want to use it for that.  Even if I pay it off the next day, and the cashback was more than the interest, I still have a problem with that.

However, when I went to the website to try to get answers, it just wanted me to enter my info to see what my credit line would be.  The website did not mention the 3% cashback on certain categories and said it was just a 1.5% cashback card (on payments).  But also mentioned a $200 sign up bonus which the letter did not mention.

I searched here and saw some old threads that talked me out of signing up for this card, but I did wonder if anyone could confirm the lack of a grace period.  I saw it mentioned several times that there LIKELY wasn't a grace period, but don't think I saw anyone say for certain that there wasn't.  

Probably not worth getting for just an extra 1% over my Double Cash MC on a couple niche categories, but since they're kind of expensive categories (depending on what home and auto would include.. Home Depot?  Autozone?), it did make me think.

[FinStar]

As other Upgrade card threads have confirmed (several flavors), there is no grace period once the 'draw' posts to the account.

Others who have this particular card can confirm whether merchants like Home Depot or Autozone triggered the 3% c/b.

[NoMoreE46]

@dlister70 
I believe merchant codes for "home" items versus "homeowners insurance" are very different.

Same for Auto and Auto insurance.

There are big spends for me too.

I think that there is a Synovous [South Eastern US] card that does 3% back on insurance premiums...

BBVA did (RIP).

[DaveInAZ]

I bit on an offer from Credit Karma (the very first time I clicked on a CK offer) for the Upgrade Visa for the offer of a $400 bonus for also opening their Rewards checking account. I was approved for a CL of $18,600 @ 14.96 APR on 4/13, a HP on TU, Fico around 750. The next day I opened the Rewards checking, funded with a $100 pull from Penfed. 

Yeah, there is no grace period on the Upgrade Visa, checking Doctor of Credit it reports as a Line of Credit, not a revolving credit account. My go to account for sock drawer CCs & things like this is my electric utility which has no fee for payments with a CC or debit and allows small partial payments. So I did a payment of $5.55 to "test" things out. I tried to pay it off the next day but it wouldn't let me. Finally yesterday it should an "auto payment" of $.19 scheduled for 5/19 from Penfed. "Auto pay" is automatic, it says to turn it off you have to call, so it clearly tries to string things out to earn them interest. But it did let me pay the $5.55 in a pull, but strangely only as a pull from Penfed - it won't let me pull it from my Rewards checking. 

I went for the 1.5% cashback card because I don't plan on using the card much at all, and that 3% cashback card on "Home, Auto, and Health categories" is for very specific merchants. "Home" is Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wayfair, etc. "Auto" is Discount Tire, Firestone, Tires.com, etc. And "Health" is Walgreens, CVS, etc. I highly doubt you'll get 3% on insurance. And even then you'd have to pay it in full as soon as they let you to avoid interest. The card hasn't reported yet on the CRAs.

The bank bonus is a nice deal, the standard offer is a $200 bonus, you have to click CK offer to get the $400. It only requires 3 debit card transactions, no minimum amount specified. I've done 4, all between $3-$4, 3 electric payments & 1 Amazon GC reload. According to comments on DoC it posts within 30 days. But the Upgrade Visa is only worth it for the nice CLs they seem to give out - if you need help on utilization.

[unsungivy]

Don't forget that the Upgrade Visas are only good for 5 years or something (so I've heard). After that they don't allow new purchases. So it's a limited-time line of credit that you can swipe on a card, with no grace period.