wco81

Some suggestions for spending cards to replace the Schwab card. It's biased towards mileage rather than cash back cards:

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/16061

akp

My husband and I have had our checking, savings, and line of credit with BofA for almost 20 years.

Great credit.

Huge credit line with the Schwab card, great payment history.

We got offered the Cash Rewards card w/ no annual fee or the $75 Privileges card.

I'll take the Cash Rewards card just to keep the credit history, but this one is going in the sock drawer.

Anita

frank_10b

Has anyone considered writing to the CEO;
I am sure that they don't care however there may be some heavy hitters using this card. I have one friend worth about 100M who charges over 100K on this card and is very upset about the change in terms. (Believe it or not they only offered him the 1% card!)
BofA may not card or may not be aware the customers that they are will loose by ending this program.
Thoughts?

wco81

He's worth $100 million but he's upset about only getting $1000 cash back on $100k of charges versus getting $2000 cash back?

Did you tell him he can't take all of it with him when he goes?

bigbuy

A guy worth 100 million bucks being upset about loosing 1000 bucks is why he is worth 100 million.

jamflyer

Its amazing to me how many people do not get this concept.

josephstern

Further, even if he didn't mind "wasting" his $1000, I'll bet he'd rather that it go to a friend in need or a charity or a crazy bottle of wine, over just plain giving it to B of A.

wco81

NOt getting that $1000 isn't what's going to put him towards bankruptcy or prevent him from making the next $100 million. Doubtful that he made that fortune from credit card rewards.

Maybe if the extra $1000 is an issue (hard to imagine it would be to most sane people or anyone who can do a little math), he should charge and spend less.

bigbuy

My guess is that around 5% but no more than 10% of the general population gets this concept and dang if it ain't the same 5% to 10% that have most of the dough and consequently pay the most in income taxes.

soitgoes

I'm not one to throw out the "they're in the business to make money" line all the time, and the Schwab/FIA card was great while it lasted, but the righteous indignation of cutting back the cash rewards is amusing. Yeah, it means that it's no longer the king of the cards, but there are other decent cards around.
Considering the TOTAL average discount rate (shared between Visa/MC, the acquiring bank, and the issuing bank) is LESS than 2%, someone paying off the bill in full every month and getting 2% paid out every month is not a sustainable business model. One of the "problems" with the Schwab card was that it attracted primarily pay-in-full customers. It wasn't a risky portfolio, but it also wasn't profitable.

So, sure, the $100M net worth guy can contact the BoA CEO, but $100,000 of annual charges, while much more than I spend on all my cards combined, isn't a huge sum likely to get the attention of senior execs (especially if internal analyses show a net LOSS on the account).

The $100M net worth guy should indeed re-evaluate where he puts his charges (it's not WHY he's worth $100M that he cares, but I would care, too, if I were that wealthy), but complaining to BoA is probably a waste of time. A better use of time is finding a better card for the spending pattern.

k374

I abhor Bank of America and would love to cancel this card as well as I received this notice too. I already have a Cap1 so probably going to start using that. However, will have to research some other good cards with 2% cashback.

I really like Charles Schwab as a company so I would prefer to give my CC business to them if I can. Schwab knows how to take care of their good customers.

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

That I agree with. I was sad to FIA takeover the card, and now kill it. I wish Schwab had another forex-free card. Even if it had only 1% cash back, I would get it.

mnredfox

Well, despite FIA taking over Schwab as stated, it still worked mostly the same with the 2% back to the Schwab account. I was bemoaning the fact that when BOA takes over the card, there is no more relationship to Schwab.

Happy

As Soitgoes points out, this card is a money loser for the owner. That is primarily the reason Schwab sold it because this "loss leader" did not produce the hoped for result by attracting people to invest with Schwab even though they had to open a Schwab account in order to receive the rebate.

It is not FIA "take over," it is Schwab SOLD the card. Schwab does not want to be in the CC business. Your rebate depositing back to Schwab account really is just a SHAM - there is NO real relationship other than the new owner BofA (FIA is a sub) decided to maintain status quo until they come up with a strategy to transform the card.

I honestly dont understand what is the worth in the name, when the name has already sold the card out right to a new owner.

Also, what is the value of the rebate going back to Schwab account? A lot of people here promptly changed it to another bank once FIA "took over", or in reality, Schwab sold the business. Obviously there is no value to many to have the rebate deposited to Schwab account.

Happy

Schwab does NOT want to be in credit card business. It has tried TWICE already as far as I know. I had a Schwab Visa long before this 2% rebate card, that was 0% forex fee. It changed to 3% forex fee in 2007 just over a year after it was introduced. Then much later it introduced the 2% card which lasted about 2 years? then Schwab decided it could not / would not sustain the loss any more so a business decision is made and the card is sold.