What's next for nerfing?

[Anonymous]

Over the past 18 months or so, several cards have been badly nerfed, e.g.:

BCP: $6k cap imposed on 6% spending, reducing rewards from unlimited to $360

US Bank Cash Plus:  Removed most profitable (for us!) categories, imposed a $2000 per quarter cap, reduced bonus for $100 redemption to once a year, and removed banking enhancements.

Penfed:  Reduced points value on Plat Rewards, reduced discount from 5% to 3% on Cash Rewards, new sig card will offer only 3% on gas.

(Soon):  Citi Premier:  Removed ALL important features: 15% discount, companion ticket, flight points, reduced travel redemption enhancement from 1.33 to 1.25

I'm sure there are many others, these are just the ones that annoyed me personally.   So, any predictions as to the next victim? 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Over the past 18 months or so, several cards have been badly nerfed, e.g.:

BCP: $6k cap imposed on 6% spending, reducing rewards from unlimited to $360

US Bank Cash Plus:  Removed most profitable (for us!) categories, imposed a $2000 per quarter cap, reduced bonus for $100 redemption to once a year, and removed banking enhancements.

Penfed:  Reduced points value on Plat Rewards, reduced discount from 5% to 3% on Cash Rewards, new sig card will offer only 3% on gas.

(Soon):  Citi Premier:  Removed ALL important features: 15% discount, companion ticket, flight points, reduced travel redemption enhancement from 1.33 to 1.25

I'm sure there are many others, these are just the ones that annoyed me personally.   So, any predictions as to the next victim? 

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Citi prestige is getting nerfed too.

Barclays Priceline has been nerfed for new customers. Customers who were grandfathered in the previous reward structure haven't been switched to the new structure yet, so that's a posibility.

[CreditScholar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Over the past 18 months or so, several cards have been badly nerfed, e.g.:

BCP: $6k cap imposed on 6% spending, reducing rewards from unlimited to $360

US Bank Cash Plus:  Removed most profitable (for us!) categories, imposed a $2000 per quarter cap, reduced bonus for $100 redemption to once a year, and removed banking enhancements.

Penfed:  Reduced points value on Plat Rewards, reduced discount from 5% to 3% on Cash Rewards, new sig card will offer only 3% on gas.

(Soon):  Citi Premier:  Removed ALL important features: 15% discount, companion ticket, flight points, reduced travel redemption enhancement from 1.33 to 1.25

I'm sure there are many others, these are just the ones that annoyed me personally.   So, any predictions as to the next victim? 

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Citi prestige is getting nerfed too.

Barclays Priceline has been nerfed for new customers. Customers who were grandfathered in the previous reward structure haven't been switched to the new structure yet, so that's a posibility.

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What's happening to the Prestige?

And add the Chase 10+10 exclusives to that list. No more 10 points per transaction on the Freedom via the trifecta.

[Anonymous]

The status of Prestige is unclear.  A post here gave some details of what is changing, but "usually knowlegeable" people have said they have been told it is not changing.  Time will tell.

[CreditScholar]

I think the better question is which cards are clearly unsustainable in the long-run? This will give a good idea as to what might be downgraded in the future.

[Anonymous]

The rumor about Prestige sorta came from this thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/CitiBank-products-ASK-AWAY/m-p/2371489/highlight/true#M...

I'm interested in the Prestige, but only if it's going to stay the way it is currently. I still got about a month before I apply for anything, so hopefully we will know by then.

I can't really think of any cards that can still be abused to a fairly good extent, except for the Ink Bold / Plus. However, 50k in spending in office supplies / telephone etc, is achieveable and realistic for businesses, so rather than to nerf the card, Chase is most likely going to continue clamping down on people with fake businesses.

[CreditScholar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The rumor about Prestige sorta came from this thread: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/CitiBank-products-ASK-AWAY/m-p/2371489/highlight/true#M670022

I'm interested in the Prestige, but only if it's going to stay the way it is currently. I still got about a month before I apply for anything, so hopefully we will know by then.

I can't really think of any cards that can still be abused to a fairly good extent, except for the Ink Bold / Plus. However, 50k in spending in office supplies / telephone etc, is achieveable and realistic for businesses, so rather than to nerf the card, Chase is most likely going to continue clamping down on people with fake businesses.

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+1. This is the better way to do it.

5 UR points per dollar isn't sustainable from a pure mathematics perspective, but the idea was that as a business card there would be a variety of business expenses put on there. While some would be in the bonus categories, others would clearly not be. As such, they would be able to offset their losses in the 5x categories that way.

I don't think it was their intention for people without "real businesses" to be using it for bonus categories only. Using Ink products as part of a rotation of cards for 5x personal spending clearly isn't what Chase had in mind. These people need to be eliminated in order to keep the overall program viable in the long-term.

[Anonymous]

I'm always curious about the 40K signup for CSP, with the first year AF waived.   I guess that enough people keep the card, rather than cash out the points and downgrade before the AF comes due.   Same applies for things like Arrival.   But changing sign-up bonuses is less troublesome I would assume, new people lose out, but no-ones reward structure is changed like in the other examples.

[Open123]

I would suspect to see the Ink's 5X Office/Cell reduced at some point.  Unless they have a way of purging those who use the card solely for VR loading and GCs, I don't see how it could be sustained.  In general, I don't think any unlimited 5X rewards can be sustained in this day and age; hence, the reduction in 5% gas cards.

I always though the Fid Amex would reduce the 2%, much like Schwabb did.  However, I think in this case, given the higher Amex merchant fees, 2% is likely sustainable, whereas it would not be for Visa/MC.

Currently, with everything else, I can't think of anything else that would at great risk of being nerfed.  

[Anonymous]

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@Open123 wrote:

I would suspect to see the Ink's 5X Office/Cell reduced at some point.  Unless they have a way of purging those who use the card solely for VR loading and GCs, I don't see how it could be sustained.  In general, I don't think any unlimited 5X rewards can be sustained in this day and age; hence, the reduction in 5% gas cards.

I always though the Fid Amex would reduce the 2%, much like Schwabb did.  However, I think in this case, given the higher Amex merchant fees, 2% is likely sustainable, whereas it would not be for Visa/MC.

Currently, with everything else, I can't think of anything else that would at great risk of being nerfed.  

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Re unlimited 5x.  I guess I forgot Citi Forward, I've been expecting that 5x to go away, especially with the new "enhanced" version on the TY Pref and TY Premier, where they offer 2x and 3x on dining/entertainment.  Makes no sense for a lower level card to have 5x...