Happy

And I remember reading about how AMEX is profiling customers / potential customers with the Zip+4. Those who live in high foreclosure rates states such as CA, AZ, NV and FL have reported some sort of inexplicable denials and suspected it was due to their zip codes - regardless some of those folks may live in a Condo free and clear for many years and have high net worth but no mortgage - a very common case among many transplanted South Floridians.

MyTravels

AXP caught a lot of bad press over that as well as where you shopped. I believe that AXP discontinued the practice - not because it was ineffective (you'll always have outliers) but because they didn't want the bad press. [my guess is that statistically it was a pretty good indicator]

Zip+4 can be pretty specific. In a condo building it's not uncommon to have each floor, and sometimes the floor is even sub-segmented which each segment having it's own zip+4.

So Zip+4 can generally be pretty precise (especially if you have the penthouse taking up the entire top floor), or the info can also be grouped. If you want to identify high net worth you'd keep Zip+4 at the most granular level. For some instances you may group Zip+4's, in the previous example so that the entire condo building is treated equally (this gives you a larger sample size for statistical probabilities).

Happy

In this case I suspect a very large group of AXP cardholders shop at COST. How did AXP profile this - a discount warehouse club versus Bloomie or Barneys?

CaptainMiles

With Amex and Costco's cozy relationship, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Costco shared purchase details with Amex. What items you purchase, not only your bill total.

But this is getting way off track into OMNIland from this Schwab 2% thread. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

jbalmuth

As noted elsewhere, you can also now change where the 2% rebate gets posted. I changed the destination of the Sept rebate (from Schwab to another brokerage firm) and it posted to the new account last night. Nice to see that that functionality works well.

pawtim

Thanks, I'm a skimmer of this thread, and I missed that part. I just added my checking account and allocated 2 percent to go there as a test. If it works properly, I'll change it to 100 pct. and avoid Schwab.

Now that this card has nothing to do with Schwab, maybe we should start a fresh new thread. There's no point in someone new coming along and reading all the old and now irrelevant posts.

MyTravels

WHERE they shopped not what they purchased.

Your AXP statement itemizes every transaction at each merchant location. A Wal-Mart in Ohio may show up as a different transaction than your Wal-Mart FL.

People who've defaulted (either with AXP or another card or on their mortgage) typically have transactions at these stores (Merchant and location). Then identify other people with the same behaviors. It's good risk management, how use the information is a business decision (cutting lines weren't customer exciting moves, but not really bad PR, while canceling peoples cards became a public taboo).

josephstern

In the short-term, at least, this is great.

I changed my deposits to go to my regular checking account, and I put a note in asking Schwab to close my brokerage account.

So if it lasts, that's one less step to great cashback.

Jim055

Before you dump Schwab remember their DEBIT card still has no foreign transaction fees. Nor any foreign ATM fees.

jbalmuth

Nor any domestic ATM fees, for that matter.... For me it's beome the most important card in the wallet while travelling.

Happy

I wouldn't dump Schwab for the reason that their ATM cards (both the one attached to the brokerage and the one attached to the checking account) do not charge forex fee and reimburse unlimited ATM fees. It also has a daily limit of $2000, and excellent customer service.

Find the debit card with all the above tributes is not an easy task. Fido's has a low $500 daily limit for example. This would not cut it when you have to pay a week's apartment rental in Barcelona in CASH upfront upon check-in. So with Fido's card you would need to plan ahead with several daily withdrawals but with Schwab's card you can do it in one withdrawal.

pawtim

+1

For that reason, I'm keeping it open for now, and I'll leave some money in there.

Sagy

Are you sure? for some reason I thought that the one attached to the brokerage account (SchwabOne) charges 1% forex fee and only the one attached to the checking account doesn't charge forex fee. This is good news for me.

Total agreement on the customer service, this is especially true on calls form foreign locations.

Jim055

Schwab One debit card has NO forex fees. Confirmed in France, June 2010.

Happy

The official language is 1% Network fee, not forex fee. In my experiences the actual exchange rates are just a fraction of 1% higher than the average historical inter bank rates when I compare what on my statement versus what it might have been using the XE sites' historical data.