PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa Card [5% on gas, no annual fee]
 

I know a lot of you have Penfed Platinum Cash Rewards, which gives 5% cashback at gas station.

I received a snail mail today saying now you have the option to convert that card to a new "PenFed Platinum Rewards Card".

www.penfed.org/morerewards

Seems a pretty good deal:
You can jumpstart your rewards by earning 5,000 points the very first time you use your card and another 20,000 points when you spend $1,000 within the first 3 months.

That's 25K points without a hard pull.

And still earn 5pts per dollar at gas stations.

But I've no idea what 25K points can be redeemed, the site doesn't have much info about that except saying 25K points are "$250 that you can use toward merchandise, gift cards, and other rewards".

What do you guys think? Am I miss anything here?

It's a no-brainier to convert but you didn't mention two of the most important reasons why:

1. 3% on supermarket purchases.
2. The rebate on "non-gas" purchases on the current card is dropping to .25%.

I also got the letter in today's mail.

I only use this card for gas and use the AMEX Blue Cash Everyday for groceries, which is also 3% cashback.

Should I still convert?

Is the cash back still applied every month automatically?

I went ahead and made the switch. I wasn't going to till I saw the drop to .25 on other purchases. Pen Fed is the one I always use for gas and I have a few recurring charges on there but most of my day to day purchases go on other cards.

I have been focusing more on the Chase Sapphire, Cap One Venture and now the new Chase Freedom I received. But it is nice to see 3 pts per $ for grocery purchases, especially if they include the commissary. I have had issues with Am Ex not including commissaries for bonus categories.

What I was disappointed to NOT see is more info on what "gift cards" you can get. I am also hoping that 5000 pts is equal to a $50 gift card. Right now on the Pen Fed Am Ex side there are not a lot of gift card choices compared to other cards.

I was surprised when I got my AM Ex Gold.... I "assumed" 5000 MR points could get me a $50 gift card. Only to find out that it takes 6000....

It would be applied as points not cash back. They have a new company that will administer their program. Once that is up and running you would have to take your "points" and order gift cards...including a visa prepaid card

Just talked to Pen Fed. Confirmed that the switch will take place starting on my Feb bill cycle...which for me is Feb 24th.... so I have 3 months from Feb 24th to spend $1000 to get the 25,000 bonus points for switching.

I am glad I called to clarify because I was thinking it started today when I accepted the offer....

I also found out they are changing the company they use to handle their "points" program for Pen Fed Am Ex. So the Am Ex and this new Visa program will now be administered by the same company. The rep I talked to was pretty sure points would not be able to be combined if you have both cards.

I sure hope they don't take away the availability to use the Pen Fed Am Ex points to book travel. I use those points for airline tickets...not gift cards!

The rep also confirmed it is a penny a point. So we should be able to get the visa gift card of $250 for the 25K bonus...

I think I'll keep the old card then. I like the automatic 5% cash back on gas every month. And, I only use this card for gas.


They better not take away my current travel rewards I have saved up!

For me, I only use the card for gas and nothing else. So I really love that they automatically credit the balance every month. It's gonna take me a while to accrue significant amount of points to redeem Visa prepaid cards under the new scheme.

But think I'm going to convert because of the 25K bonus.

I wonder if the free Cellular Telephone Protection Plan will continue.

Talked to a rep today You will be able get a prepaid Visa card (1cent for every point earned). i.e. 2500 points = $25 prepaid Visa card. 5% for gas and 3% for groceries, 1% for everything else is hard to beat with no annual fee.

I did the switch as well. The 25k bonus is worth it, and as much as I like the monthly statement credit, hard to argue against a $250 gift card. It'll also be a good backup grocery card if I encounter a place who won't take AMEX.

Heck no I'm not switching.

5% cashback on gas is 5 cents per dollar

5 pts does not necessarily equal 5 cents per dollar. Easy to manipulate (ie devalue) points over time.

I only use this card for gas and nothing else, so for now, I'm unaffected. I just hope they dont alter the 5% on gas part or I need to look for a new card.

Urgent...
 

For those of you that switched your card over to the Platinum Rewards program that is now 5% gas, 3% grocery and 1% everything else...there is a major glitch with the program....

My "switch date" was February 24th. I called in January and confirmed. The website also said it was effective February 24th....

On February 24th I tried to register my card online on the new page for the awards tracking and redemption. It wouldn't let me. So I called and was told it would not let me because I needed to wait till midnight for it to switch.

So I decided to try again today. Would not work. Called PenFed. The rep said she looked in the system and I was registered...but she said some people were having problems registering on the website and she would manually set me up and I would need to change my password after she did...

After trying on her end it did not work. So she put me on hold and called the group that managed the website.....after 35 total minutes she came back and told me that although it stated that I was registered to switch on February 24th... I was not. And that I would have to wait till March 24th to be switched over due to a glitch!!!!!

She said they had about 2800 customers this has happened to. And most of these customers have no idea yet! So they are going to rush off and try to make the $1000 spend based on what they were told their "switch date" was.

I told her this was unacceptable. I needed to go grocery shopping tomorrow and was planning on spending $300 stocking up. I wanted this $300 to be included in the $1000 spend for the bonus. She told me it probably would not count toward the $1000 spend.....

She is going to call me back after she talks to her manager tomorrow. But what bothers me the most is that if you call Pen Fed customer service they will tell you that you are registered. That is what they see in THEIR system. But in actuality I wasn't registered after all due to this "glitch"...

I would suggest that if you cannot sign up on this page then you are not actually registered so I wouldn't rush off to spend that $1000 to get the bonus etc...

https://www.penfedplatinumrewards.com

I'm assuming if you got a confirmation email you are good to go correct?

Or did you get one and attempted to call and confirm the switch?

Thanks.

If you have not been able to log into the website and set up your rewards account you probably are not really set up. Another indicator for me is if I log into my Pen Fed account I am still showing up as "Platinum Cash Rewards"...but I shouldn't be because I was supposed to switch.

I had 2 people tell me I was registered...even the girl today said I did switch over on 2/24. But when she couldn't get me set up on the website on her end she put me on a long hold and made a call to "someone". It was after this call that she found out about the "glitch" that they said is affecting 2800 accounts. She then said I wouldn't switch to 3/24! I do not know if this is automatic or if she had to have someone "hard push" me through!!!

I am hoping to get more information tomorrow after she speaks to her manager. But she did tell me to hold off on making purchases because she didn't think it would count towards the bonus....

Also..I found the email you were speaking of.... I got the same email....I got it back on 1/29....and I didn't switch like I should have due to this glitch. Funny thing is the email states 2/26 and Pen Fed tells me I switched back on 2/24 at midnight...which I didn't!!

Where do you set up your rewards account?

Found it, penfedplatinumrewards.com

I'll give it a shot, hopefully it works. Thanks for the heads up though, as I was about to start using this card for everything for the next couple of weeks.

Sure enough, it doesn't work. I guess I'll be on the phone with them tomorrow morning.

Update 2/27
 

I called back today to get more information on the status of my account. Sure enough the first rep I spoke to said there was a problem and a bunch of people didn't get switched. She said they just got an email about it. She then went on to tell me that I was not switched...but that I could go ahead and start working towards the $1000 bonus starting now and I had 3 months from today to do so. She said I would get cash till March 26th then switch to points. She also said I was only going to get .25 back for anything other than gas! I said that makes NO SENSE. Why would someone rush off to meet the $1000 spend this month when they were only getting .25.

She puts me on hold for quite awhile and comes back and said I AM stitched to the new points program after all. (this is after she tells me I am not). She said my account was not one that was part of the glitch. I ask her why I cannot register on the website and she tries on her end. No luck. She then tells me I have to call another number for that group and they can fix me. I call and sure enough...they can't help. They don't even show my account number being part of the program and refer me back to main Pen Fed.

This call gets me back to a rep that confirms that I officially switched on 2/26 and I am earning points. She is concerned because the rep I spoke to yesterday and today made no notes on my account. Not even the rep from yesterday who was supposed to call me back today after she spoke to her manager.

But what this rep DID do is note my account that I am on the points program. She also said if a month from now I don't get the points then it is noted that I was told I would and they would fix in manually. She then called someone about me not being able to register and I am supposed to get a call back from another department once they figure out what the problem is...