They approve you instantly on the web and assign a credit limit upon approval. From that point, it took about a week or so for the card to arrive.

The cashback card looks okay (and has no foreign txn fee) but is only for people who have other accounts with Merrill, as that's where they put the cash. The other Merrill cards have fees associated with them. Merrill+ is not bad, as you can convert to BA miles, which are not entirely useless. They can also be used in other capacities.

I'm going to continue to use SPG as my primary, but I will use Merrill+ for any and all international txns.