Mountain Trader

The Fidelity card would almost worthless to me given Amex' limited acceptance overseas. I'd much rather revert to Cap One, even as they are. 1.25% (at least it used to be) on everything is much better than an extra card with limited use at a higher rate.

As for appearance, the only beauty I want in a card is in the benefits it provides.

Bearbear

The new black card comes if you need a replacement. I just got one because of fraud, for example.

It is so cheesy it looks like a fake card. But that won't stop me from using it if the benefits stay the same.

chespeak2002

I use this 2% card to purchase $500 Visa GC at giftcards.com, final net cashback is 3.32% (after fees, etc). So basically 3.32% cash back on everything, pretty good.

pawtim

I agree with you. (Although I do tend to be an optimist.)

The main draw for me on this card is that it rebates 2% on everything -- for me the prospect of paying a 3% forex fee on some things isn't worth as much. (I can't recall whether we still pay the 1% Visa forex fee on this card, just no more on top of it, but either way.)

In addition to the FIA Fidelity 2% card, there's also a thread about what seems to be this very card being offered to people, with 2% rebate on everything and a 25% bonus when redeeming $300 or more, effectively making it a 2.5% rebate. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...verything.html

So, I don't see too much motivation in BoA reducing the benefits of this card when it also issues other cards that are pretty equivalent, give or take. Time will tell.

aBroadAbroad

Definitely 0% forex on the Schwab card. For us, it was the one variable that made it worth it for us to get one. We've avoided at least $3,000 in forex fees just this year alone. Granted, we were already doing the same with the CapOne rewards cards, but now we're also getting the 2% rebate (versus the max of 1% on CapOne if we redeem for explicitly travel-related charges, otherwise more like 0.05%, at least with our cards... YMMV).

If this were to change, we'd pretty much stop using the Schwab card. We can do 0% forex on our CapOne rewards accounts, and we have a Visa issued by a credit union that charges no forex and earns 1% cash back, so the Schwab would just go into the safe deposit box.

thesilb

Just to add a data point, my "new" Schwab logo card worked just fine in China yesterday. So I assume the poster several above may have had the "older" Schwab branded card. I don't think you need to worry about your "new" Schwab branded card not working overseas.

Also, I had been to China in August and the card got cut off at Park Hyatt about $5,000 into my stay. This time I called in advance to let them know I would be in PRC and would have high charges, and all circa $15,000 went through fine. I was pleased...

dw

First saw this mentioned on FW: Logging in today, the "Rewards" tab is gone as is any mention of how many points I have from my last statement. Hopefully this is just a technical glitch in the system and not a sign of a pending change.

islandguy84

This is currently the case for all of my FIA cards, not just Schwab and has also happened before on a weekend, last time everything re-appeared as expected by Monday. I wouldn't worry about it.

josephstern

So my wife and I each have a former-Schwab card.

This week in the mail, we each got junk mail from B of A. The offer is a 1% cash rebate card, since we're good customers.

Problem is, the only account we each have with B of A is this one. So it sounds to me like they're hinting that our 2% will be gone soon.

Or they just send this to everyone with no clue about what customers would want this, but I doubt it.

dgreen12

I think you're giving the marketers at BofA way too much credit. My experience has been that they don't filter mailing lists much, if at all.

denCSA

I've been monitoring this thread for quite a while, as I have had this Schwab card for just shy of two years now. I wanted to provide my anecdotal evidence on FIA (BofA).

My first CC ever was the eBay Anything Points card (also managed by BofA/FIA at the time), and for some reason I got an amazing 5.9% fixed rate (and I was just out of high school at the time!) on it so I held on to it. About two years after having the card I received a letter from eBay/FIA, stating that the eBay - FIA relationship was ending and my card would be converted to a [crappy] Worldpoints rewards card administered by BofA/FIA. The rewards system was terrible, but I held onto it because of the 5.9% fixed rate, that was a no-brainer for me.

I had the card for years after that with no issues, BofA/FIA changed no terms and it just continued. Well, then the CARD Act was announced. Then all my CC companies went nuclear on me and the 5.9% gravy train ended, received the 'we're changing your terms to a variable rate, blah, blah' and I subsequently opted-out and canceled the card.

My point here is that this is not just a similar situation, it is IDENTICAL to what has happened with Schwab/FIA (eBay ended its 'Anything Rewards' program) and its cashback program. The replacement card I received from BofA after the eBay transition was a blank, bland white card with no branding at all besides the BofA logo, similar to this ugly black card they are sending out. Granted, my previous situation was before the CARD Act, but ultimately much of the fallout due to that has already occurred.

I have limited faith in BofA/FIA that it will continue the status quo with the cashback until the next industry shock causes closer review of the individual rewards programs.

rexmism

I found out several months ago to my amazement that I could use this card to pay my mortgage (Wells Fargo). I have really been enjoying that and was so sad to see they were taking that away. I checked my Chase card's list of vendors and no luck. Anyone know any credit cards that will send payments to lenders like that? Seems pretty rare.

nydad

How did it work?

rexmism

I just went to bill pay under the Schwab/FIA card site and Wells Fargo was one of the vendors listed.

dinosims

I was using this to pay my electric bill to ConEd. However, FIA's billpay service made a distinction between in-network and out-of-network, with the out-of-network not getting reward points for the transaction (but getting the ~30 day float, as well as no cash advance fees/interest). ConEd was out-of-network, as were most of the ones that I looked at, including vender's like Verizon or Time Warner where you could pay by credit at their site and have it get reward points.