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USA issuers announce EMV cards (Chip & PIN -or- Chip & Signature).

USA issuers announce EMV cards (Chip & PIN -or- Chip & Signature).

Old Jan 4, 2012, 8:40 am
  #511  
 
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Originally Posted by mia
Humor me. What is the appeal of a Citi Chip & Signature card with 3% foreign transaction fee when Chase issues Chip & Signature cards with no foreign transaction fee? It makes sense for Citi Premier, but otherwise I don't see it.
Well of course, that was the point that some have made...incidentally the AA cards all have annual fees. The question is whether citibank is issuing any of the chip cards for any of its free credit cards....all the Chase cards, to the best of my knowledge, that have chips have annual fees (and heavy ones at that)......so the quest for a credit card with a chip with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee remains solely, of course, for use in foreign countries other than the USA. For purchases in the USA, one would want a free card with rewards.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 9:27 am
  #512  
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Originally Posted by mia
Humor me. What is the appeal of a Citi Chip & Signature card with 3% foreign transaction fee when Chase issues Chip & Signature cards with no foreign transaction fee? It makes sense for Citi Premier, but otherwise I don't see it.
Depends on the amount one plans to spend abroad I guess?

The JP Morgan Select VISA with Chip and Signature has no forex fee @ $95/yr

Citi AAdvantage World Elite MC with Chip and Signature has the 3% forex fee @ $85/yr

In order to make up for the $10 difference in the annual fee between the two cards, the cardholder has to spend about $333.34 ($10/0.03) abroad for the ROI to justify the JP Morgan Card over the Citi AAdvantage.

For most purchases abroad the no annual fee & no forex fee CapOne card would do fine. But in a situation where say... a restaurant In Brussels refusing the CapOne card for the lack of the chip and you don't have enough Euros on hand, the Citi AAdvantage card will come in as a good backup card...that is of course if your Belgian dinner tab is more than $333.34.

Besides, if you're already a Citi cardholder, why not? Saves the hassle of applying for a new card with a credit pull made.

OTOH, one could also say, why not just get the dual EMV & contactless US Bank FlexPerks card which has a low $49 annual fee? Then the ROI difference between the US Bank FlexPerks card vs the JP Morgan Select card for forex fees would be spending more than $1,533.34 or more abroad (($95-$49)/0.03)

Last edited by kebosabi; Jan 24, 2012 at 9:33 am Reason: mistake on the formula
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 10:16 am
  #513  
 
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Originally Posted by kebosabi
Depends on the amount one plans to spend abroad I guess?

The JP Morgan Select VISA with Chip and Signature has no forex fee @ $95/yr

Citi AAdvantage World Elite MC with Chip and Signature has the 3% forex fee @ $85/yr

In order to make up for the $10 difference in the annual fee between the two cards, the cardholder has to spend about $333.34 ($10/0.03) abroad for the ROI to justify the JP Morgan Card over the Citi AAdvantage.

For most purchases abroad the no annual fee CapOne card with no forex fee would do fine. But in a situation where say... a restaurant In Brussels refusing the CapOne card for the lack of the chip and you don't have enough Euros on hand, the Citi AAdvantage card will come in as a good backup card...that is of course if your Belgian dinner tab is more than $333.34.

Besides, if you're already a Citi cardholder, why not? Saves the hassle of applying for a new card with a credit pull made.

OTOH, one could also say, why not just get the dual EMV & contactless US Bank FlexPerks card which has a low $49 annual fee? Then the ROI difference between the US Bank FlexPerks card vs the JP Morgan Select card for forex fees would be spending more than $1,666.67 or more abroad (($95-$45)/0.03)
....or wait for the inevitable day when a fairly priced (no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee) is available. One would hope that day is not that far off.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 10:52 am
  #514  
 
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Originally Posted by mia
Humor me. What is the appeal of a Citi Chip & Signature card with 3% foreign transaction fee when Chase issues Chip & Signature cards with no foreign transaction fee? It makes sense for Citi Premier, but otherwise I don't see it.
Chase asked me for my tax returns when I tried to apply for a card, Citi gave me instant approval. I'll sooner pay the 3% than submit to that. As for the post immediately above mine, keep waiting. North of the border you can get no annual fee but 2.5% forex fee, but I've yet to see any offering anywhere that offers no annual fee AND no forex fee (not counting the multi-currency cards you can get in Hong Kong- that's another kettle of fish altogether).

Last edited by jamar; Jan 4, 2012 at 11:00 am
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 11:15 am
  #515  
 
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Originally Posted by jamar
Chase asked me for my tax returns when I tried to apply for a card, Citi gave me instant approval. I'll sooner pay the 3% than submit to that. As for the post immediately above mine, keep waiting. North of the border you can get no annual fee but 2.5% forex fee, but I've yet to see any offering anywhere that offers no annual fee AND no forex fee (not counting the multi-currency cards you can get in Hong Kong- that's another kettle of fish altogether).

Most Capital One cards have no annual fee and no fore transactrion fee. Pentagon Federal cu has no annual fee and no for transaction fee...the Bank of America rewards card that replaced Schwab has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee (withn at least a 1% rebate on all purchases) m Fidelity Amex card has no annual fee and 2% on everything (but charges 1% for foreign currency not sure it's a foreign transaction fee but the 2% still leaves you 1% ahead)....just to name a few.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 11:44 am
  #516  
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Originally Posted by JEFFJAGUAR
....or wait for the inevitable day when a fairly priced (no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee) is available. One would hope that day is not that far off.
I'm still hoping that Chase brings EMV to the Sapphire Preferred card, which is a card a number of us have and that also has a great rewards program and no forex charges.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 11:50 am
  #517  
 
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Originally Posted by dw
I'm still hoping that Chase brings EMV to the Sapphire Preferred card, which is a card a number of us have and that also has a great rewards program and no forex charges.
I actually called the Chase Sapphire Preferred folks yesterday about some other stuff, and while I was there I asked them if they had any plans to offer EMV chips anytime soon.

Granted this was just a frontline CS rep, but they said that they currently had no plans to issue EMV-chipped cards. Additionally the rep noted that the BA chip/signature card effectively was Chase's pilot EMV-chipped card program for the masses.

I'm hoping they figure something out as it seems FTers have been reporting problems with the BA chip/sig cards in the chip/PIN Euroverse.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 11:55 am
  #518  
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Originally Posted by dw
I'm still hoping that Chase brings EMV to the Sapphire Preferred card, which is a card a number of us have and that also has a great rewards program and no forex charges.
Originally Posted by Jake Gittes
Granted this was just a frontline CS rep, but they said that they currently had no plans to issue EMV-chipped cards. Additionally the rep noted that the BA chip/signature card effectively was Chase's pilot EMV-chipped card program for the masses.
If Citi is going ahead with issuing EMV cards to their existing card line up on a per-request basis for their existing cardholders, I can say that’s a pretty good indicator that it’s a response to Chase’s issuance of new EMV cards (BA/Chase and the JP Morgan Select).

Rather than losing out existing Citi cardholders over to Chase, I’m sure Citi would rather want to retain their cardholders by giving them an EMV option instead. A hypothetical situation might be:

Citi cardholder: “I want to cancel this card”
Citi retention: “Can I ask why?”
Citi cardholder: “Your card is useless outside the US. Chase started issuing those new cards with the chip on them, I’m going over to Chase”

Citi retention (before): [speechless, loses out a customer to Chase]
Citi retention (now): “We offer them too, would you like us to send you a replacement card?” [has a comeback response to retain the customer to staying with Citi]

Citi cardholder: hmmm...ok, Citi can issue me a replacement card with the EMV chip on it, or I could go through the process of applying for Chase's new cards... Ok, I'll stick with you for now



Of course, seeing if that’s the case, Chase might respond back with “fine, if that’s your game Citi, we’ll offer chip cards to all of our lines up too including our most popular Chase Sapphire card!”

If Chase follows up with Citi's response and both companies starts issuing cards in all of their lineup with the EMV option, then it becomes a matter of which card issued either by Chase or Citi works the best for you.

Who says free market competition is a bad thing?

Last edited by kebosabi; Jan 4, 2012 at 12:04 pm
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 12:14 pm
  #519  
 
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Originally Posted by kebosabi
Depends on the amount one plans to spend abroad I guess?

The JP Morgan Select VISA with Chip and Signature has no forex fee @ $95/yr

Citi AAdvantage World Elite MC with Chip and Signature has the 3% forex fee @ $85/yr

In order to make up for the $10 difference in the annual fee between the two cards, the cardholder has to spend about $333.34 ($10/0.03) abroad for the ROI to justify the JP Morgan Card over the Citi AAdvantage.

For most purchases abroad the no annual fee CapOne card with no forex fee would do fine. But in a situation where say... a restaurant In Brussels refusing the CapOne card for the lack of the chip and you don't have enough Euros on hand, the Citi AAdvantage card will come in as a good backup card...that is of course if your Belgian dinner tab is more than $333.34.

Besides, if you're already a Citi cardholder, why not? Saves the hassle of applying for a new card with a credit pull made.

OTOH, one could also say, why not just get the dual EMV & contactless US Bank FlexPerks card which has a low $49 annual fee? Then the ROI difference between the US Bank FlexPerks card vs the JP Morgan Select card for forex fees would be spending more than $1,533.34 or more abroad (($95-$49)/0.03)
The Citi Aadvantage World Elite Card that I have is Gold and the annual fee is only $50. I was able to request a replacement card with Chip yesterday. Again, saves me from having to get an additional card for occasional use.

Dan
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 1:23 pm
  #520  
mia
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Originally Posted by kebosabi
If Citi is going ahead with issuing EMV cards to their existing card line up on a per-request basis for their existing cardholders, I can say thats a pretty good indicator that its a response to Chases
Slightly different interpretation: when Citi announced the Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard they mentioned Chip & PIN, but now they have backpedaled to Chip & Signature. I surmise they have encountered a technical obstacle, but seeing that Chase (and others) were issuing Chip & Signature they decided to begin distributing the cards. PIN verification can be added later.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 1:54 pm
  #521  
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Originally Posted by JEFFJAGUAR
Well of course, that was the point that some have made...incidentally the AA cards all have annual fees. The question is whether citibank is issuing any of the chip cards for any of its free credit cards....all the Chase cards, to the best of my knowledge, that have chips have annual fees (and heavy ones at that)......so the quest for a credit card with a chip with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee remains solely, of course, for use in foreign countries other than the USA. For purchases in the USA, one would want a free card with rewards.
Originally Posted by kebosabi
Citi AAdvantage World Elite MC with Chip and Signature has the 3% forex fee @ $85/yr
Actually, AA cards may not have a "net" annual fee.

Do you care if a card has an annual fee if it's offset by something you can definitely use, that makes the "net" annual fee zero (or less)?

AA cards can be obtained through signup offers that waive the first year annual fee.

But then, many people are able to get a retention bonus, multiple years in a row, on Cit AA cards, by saying they're considering cancelling because it's not worth the annual fee to them, and then being offered something like an $85 statement credit (which offsets the $85 annual fee charged the previous month) for 5 purchases (no minimum amount in my past experience). So while you do get charge an $85 annual fee, if you charge $85 in the next month, you don't have to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Chase has several hotel cards that have an annual fee after the first year, but give a free hotel night certificate each year after the first. So again, if you can use the free hotel night certificate, you're likely to save more on that one hotel night than you paid in the annual fee. I call that no "net" annual fee.

Now, getting back to the issue here: Do any AA cards have the chip option yet other than the MC? The reason I ask is because most current offers that waived the first year annual fee, such as away7.citicards.com, are for Visa and Amex only. Many people who have an AA card from a couple years back (when Citi AA favored MC over Visa) are likely to have an MC, but for new signups getting the MC (with a good offer including first year annual fee waived) might be trickier.

And I don't know if any of those Chase hotel cards (Priority Club, Marriott, and Hyatt) that have no "net" annual fee have chip card options yet.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 2:12 pm
  #522  
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
Do any AA cards have the chip option yet other than the MC?
jamar from post #500 says he talked to a Citi rep and would be getting chipped AA VISA card as a replacement, but no news if he has them yet.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 4:47 pm
  #523  
 
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Originally Posted by JEFFJAGUAR
Most Capital One cards have no annual fee and no fore transactrion fee. Pentagon Federal cu has no annual fee and no for transaction fee...the Bank of America rewards card that replaced Schwab has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee (withn at least a 1% rebate on all purchases) m Fidelity Amex card has no annual fee and 2% on everything (but charges 1% for foreign currency not sure it's a foreign transaction fee but the 2% still leaves you 1% ahead)....just to name a few.
I meant "with EMV". Remember? The problem we're having with those is that there's no IC chip?

And no, I still haven't received my replacement. They said it'd take 7 business days to ship out to China (where I am now) so it might take another couple of days.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 5:58 pm
  #524  
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Originally Posted by mia
Slightly different interpretation: when Citi announced the Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard they mentioned Chip & PIN, but now they have backpedaled to Chip & Signature. I surmise they have encountered a technical obstacle, but seeing that Chase (and others) were issuing Chip & Signature they decided to begin distributing the cards. PIN verification can be added later.
Good point; might be another reason why Citi is oddly silent about this but is accepting requests over the phone.
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Old Jan 5, 2012, 12:58 pm
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For those that have ordered a card and received it already, how long from the day you made the phone call did the card arrive? Thanks.
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