MBNA Amtrak MC-Happy Users?
 

I am planning to apply for the Amtrak MC as I am seeking a way to earn United miles with a low fee card and incur only a 1% foreign currency fee. The Amtrak card does that.

I'd like to know if there are any users of the Amtrak MC out there who could tell me if they've hit any problems with the card?

P.S. I know there are those who prefer the Starwood Amex card. The problem with that for me is that it is still Amex and a lot of places I go overseas only take Visa or MC.

I have this card and the customer service from MBNA has been great, but I don't like the fact that the points expire after 3 years unless you book an Amtrak ticket. Also, you can only redeem points in increments of 5,000. I think the minimum for Starwood is 2,500.

I'm mainly using my Starwood card for the miles and this one for big ticket items so that I can redeem the points before they expire.

Excellent card, excellent service from MBNA as well. Amtrak points post very fast, and transfer of Amtrak points to UA took less than a week.

Steve4-

I'm not sure the three year expiration on Amtrak is a problem for me. Can't you just transfer the miles to UA, and then after the transfer, under UAs rules they don't expire? Or am I missing something?

I was actually going to transfer the points to Continental (OnePass miles never expire). The thing is that I don't think I'll be able to put $5,000 worth of charges on this card in a three year period unless I make a large purchase or buy some savings bonds. I usually run most of my everyday expenses through my AMEX Hilton and Starwood cards and I'm mainly keeping the Amtrak card as a backup for places that don't take AMEX.

I would be also interested in the Amtrak MBNA Mastercard.
On the website it shows only 500 bonus points for opening the account.
Are their better offers out?

Similar to Steve4 I only use my MBNA Amtrak where my Starwood AmEx is not accepted. Fortunately, I'm taking some graduate classes and the college accepts VI/MC to pay the tuition. With each class running me $1,800 the miles add up quickly.

The Amtrak card is a good MC to have to complement the AMEX Starwood--"The Mother of All Cards."

Point transfers post quickly. Access to account activity on line. A great card for foreign transactions. As you note, only a 1% fee on foreign transactions. No problems. Highly recommend.

another benefit is flexibility - with the First USA Visa you're locked into one Mileage Plus account. With the MBNA card, you can transfer your points to ANY MP account - how often have you wished your credit card miles could sometimes go into your spouse's account?

and there's no annual fee!

I went through the same analysis two months ago-- use my Starwood as a primary card, so wanted a second card that earns real miles and had no fee for <$500/month. So, now I use my Starwood Amex for any domestic charge that accepts Amex, and my MBNA Amtrak for all others + international charges to save the B.S. extra Amex 2% vig. I have had a good experience so far with the card, but be careful-- they mailed me the card linked to a new Amtrak Guest Rewards account instead of my old account(I am one of six people on this site who actually takes Amtrak regularly, it seems). So, I had to call Amtrak and MBNA is in process of sending me a new card with the right link. Otherwise, have been happy, and I looked into every card that gave miles with no annual fee.