FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - US Bank Smartly Visa, 2-4% cashback on everything.
Old Jan 11, 2025 | 11:14 am
  #62  
LAX
10 Countries Visited
20 Countries Visited
30 Countries Visited
All eyes on you!
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia, PA
Programs: FA
Posts: 6,480
Originally Posted by Caspavio
the 1099 certainly complicate things. not sure why USB will want to hamstrung their product, but i guess many people will not realise this until too late. but really 4% isnt really as good as it seems. you can easily find cards with more cashback for most spending categories. i think the most problematic category is retail, so i generally aim for sign up bonus for big ticket items and kroger branded cards give you 5% when using mobile pay. also 2x points cards are not that bad, considering that one would probably get more than $0.01 a mile. i dont recall redeeming below the $0.015 valuation.......
If 1099 turns out to be true, I think it's USB trying to put a "cap" on the rather generous 4% rewards (for any spend). While this will likely turn away those who might somehow turn this into a goldmine, it would still attract people who values simplifying their CC spending by turning to this card. I think it's intended to capture a targeted group of clients. While the actual "cost" of taxing the reward might be smaller than what I initially thought, the difference between what I can earn now at 2.62% will likely be not worth the effort, especially when I am fine with mixing and matching other cards that offer 5% or so on certain categories.

LAX
LAX is offline