scrog

I just glanced at the stuff I received in the mail today but it seems as if the 2% reward has just dissappered. It's now 1% for every award level. Time to dump the card!

ejulber

Looks like you're painfully correct. Ouch -- I had 27,500 points left to redeem and they changed it without any advance notice whatsoever (as stated in their account agreement). At least I got 35,000 redeemed at the 2% rate.

scrog

My wife and I both have 25,000 points on our cards at the moment. The letter does state that as of October 1st the cap is gone and that you can still redeem points under the old plan from September 1st thru October 31st so we must each charge an additional $10,000 fast. Then we will get our 2nd $700 each and then the cards will be gone.

steve100

Total Bait & Switch! This company is horrible! I'm going to dump my card come November 1, 2002.

ejulber

Glad to hear they'll grandfather in the old structure for awhile. However, we'd hit the max 62,500 for the year, so could redeem just 35,000 at 2%, leaving our 27,500 balance, which looks like a 1.5% redemption now (at least until October 31). Beats 1% at least.

First NEA/MBNA changes their program and now FFB. What's next? Geezzz... how's a guy supposed to get free travel these days???

scrog

We had hit our maximum also but October 1st the cap is gone. Charge $7,500 starting then and when the points hit your October bill redeem for the $700.

afang

this sux...i don't even have 20k points. I'll guess i'll switch back to Fleet Card...

DOC 2 BE

Afang --

How is the Fleet Cashback card? And, how is Fleet's customer service and foreign transaction fees??

afang

doc while i am not sure about the foreign transaction charges..i do know however that Farmbureaubank charges none when I asked them.

Fleet Visa gives 2% Cash Rebate, their customer service is not great but not bad...they just recently improved their online bill management...it's a lot better now.



[This message has been edited by afang (edited 09-12-2002).]

DOC 2 BE

Thanx Afang. I'm shopping for a new Visa now that I am limiting my Hilton charges. If anyone knows what Fleet's Foreign transaction fees are I would be most appreciative.

afang

I asked them and got two answers one is 2% another is 1%.

However, if you don't carry a balance, which i don't, this card only gives .85% before $8k, and 1% there after, at least this is what i saw on one of their Rules long ago... if you carry balance after $8k...you will get the fulll 2% rebate...

pdhenry

One reason for the 1%/2% foreign fee confusion is that it's broken into two parts - Visa or MC both charge a 1% transaction fee, and then the bank is free to add a fee of their own (I've seen zero, 1% and 2% bank fees on top of the Visa fee). When calling to determine the fee I'm always careful to ask "Is that in addition to the 1% Visa fee, or including it?" But I still get the wrong answer sometimes...

Given that day-to-day fluctuations in currency rates can be on the order of 1% there may be diminishing return in trying to nail it down more closely than that.

afang

pdhenry That makes a lot of sense. The customer service you find are not as knowledgeable as one may think...but they should at least have some kind of documentation on this issue so everyone's answer will be uniform and a lot less confusing for us customers

skofarrell

That's what I love about cards like this. We'll charge you 14% interest on your balance and as a "reward", we'll give you 1% back

scrog

Not only is the card really bad now with the bait and switch, they won't even honor their own terms. Their letter clearly stated you could redeem points under the old or new program through Oct 31st. I charged additional points after October 1st and after applying for a 35,000 point rebate under the old program including these points and being told at least 5 times in the past month that my redemption was pending I received a call from a supervisor that my request was actually pulled a while ago and that they didn't understand why I wasn't notified of a problem with it. I said that's funny because I bet if you look at my wife's account you will find it was pulled also.
It was.

Anyway, I was told that the points I earned after October 1st were not eligible for redemption under the new plan. I said I still have the letter they sent out that states you can redeem points under the old plan or new plan, without any mention of old plan or new plan points being different. She said she checked with the Vice-President of the bank (to be sure what she was saying was correct) and that's the way it was. She said I was free to write him, which I will do, along with a cc to the Attorney General of the State of Indiana. Indiana is really quite good in delaing with companies that try to screw it's citizens.

DROP THIS CARD, IT"S WORTHLESS!

As an aside, I was once told by First USA that they would not honor a cash rebate I had coming because I was trying to take advantage of the program. I asked them why it was ok for them to offer come-on rates to people hoping they couldn't pay the balance off but was not ok for a customer to come out ahead once in a while. Their answer was no answer.