Credit-Card-Question

Old May 10, 2008, 4:17 am
  #1  
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Question Credit-Card-Question

Hi,

I now had the MilesMaker Gold and then the American Express Platinum offer.
But 700 CHF (or the 500 CHF as HON) does not give me enought benefit for the price (BTW, after cancelling, I got the offer to pay half ...). I also do not want to use SWISS credit cards at the moment since I got promotional welcome bonuses twice within a short periode. Expessionally that I still have the MasterCard of Lufthansa (DKB). I spent about 2.000 CHF per Month.

Now I am considering following options:
COOP SuperCard plus
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: None
Welcome Bonus: 666 (A friend gets the same bonus as well)
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 3, spent in COOP CHF 1.50 *
Note: Exchange normally 2 Superpoints for 1 Miles, but sometimes its 1.5 for 1.

Corner Card Miles and More classic
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: CHF 140 (I think, free for HON)
Welcome Bonus: 5000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 2 (Some miles extra after 10',20' and 30')

Corner Card Miles and More gold
Initial Cost: CHF 150
Annually Cost: CHF 220 (I think, free for HON)
Welcome Bonus: 10000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 2 (Some miles extra after 10',20' and 30')

SWISS Mastercard
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: CHF 120
Welcome Bonus: 1000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 2

SWISS MilesMaker
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: None
Welcome Bonus: 2000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 1.60

SWISS Visa Gold
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: 220
Welcome Bonus: 3000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 2

SWISS MilesMaker Gold
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: None
Welcome Bonus: 5000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 1.34

SWISS Amex Platinium
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: CHF 700
Welcome Bonus: 10000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 1

SWISS Amex Golf
Initial Cost: None
Annually Cost: CHF 200
Welcome Bonus: 2000
CHF spending per Miles: CHF 1.6

Actually, I am in favour of the COOP credit card as it does not cost me anything and I can take any promotion comming from corner bank or SWISS. Anyone having different points that I might should take into consideration? Other offers available?
chumbawumba is offline  
Old May 10, 2008, 8:50 am
  #2  
 
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All the Cornerbank cards, as well as all the Swisscard AECS cards, are now free of charge for SEN and HON members. I like the Cornercard Gold and switched to that from the former Cornercard basic. To my surprise, I was credited the welcome bonus again despite not being a "new" customer.
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Old May 10, 2008, 9:05 am
  #3  
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Question Initial Fee

Originally Posted by airoli
All the Cornerbank cards, as well as all the Swisscard AECS cards, are now free of charge for SEN and HON members.
What about the initial fee of the gold Corner Card - Will this also be "free"? What do you thing?
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Old May 10, 2008, 10:31 am
  #4  
 
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Be carefull about comissions

Originally Posted by chumbawumba
What about the initial fee of the gold Corner Card - Will this also be "free"? What do you thing?
Actually I'm as well very satified with Corner Card gold...they are freee for SEN and HON...

I did have a look on the "SWISS" offer recently, but and therefore worthfull to read T&C: comission for foreign currency transactions with Corner Card are 0.7%, "SWISS" cards charges you 2.5% (!) for the same...so decided to stay with corner card
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Old May 10, 2008, 12:58 pm
  #5  
 
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One thing to look out for the Coop Supercard: it is NOT a substitute for your regular cards but could be a complement. Despite their advertising claims, they basically always give you a credit limit of 4000 which is split between all cardholders. One or two business trips gets you over the limit really quickly. If you beg them, after six months or so they MIGHT raise you to 6000 which is barely tolerable. (I find this strange as the card appears to be managed by the same company [AECS?] that does the SWISS cards.) The other cards on your list have much higher limits and also apply the limit separately for each cardholder e.g., spouse. Now that I am using the Coop card as my third card and my wife uses it as principal, I am much happier with it.
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Old May 10, 2008, 1:02 pm
  #6  
 
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Online Access / Paymend modalities

The corner cards give you online access to your account which might be useful.

Credit Suisse issuing the normal Swiss M&M Cards and the Coop Cards are not offering this.

Re Coop Card: Be careful. It seems the send you a bill in the middle of the the month and you have a very short time period to pay for it. AND: - it is not possible ot have it debited to a bank account automatically. (At least it used to be like this). This is done on purpose and not a technical issue. That why they try to extort some money from you. (Fees for reminding you plus interests)

To put it in short: if you travel a lot: Cornercard is your best bet.
All other cards charge to much commission outside Switzerland and the Coop Card is only useful is you are really not travelling
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Old May 10, 2008, 3:18 pm
  #7  
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Wink Nice good input

Thank you guys for all that input.

Originally Posted by cltucci
Despite their advertising claims, they basically always give you a credit limit of 4000
Just as a site note: With the Amex, I currently have half of this sum. And Amex would like to have it higher.
Originally Posted by cltucci
I find this strange as the card appears to be managed by the same company [AECS?] that does the SWISS cards.
Yes, that is a fact.
Originally Posted by Tomasz
Actually I'm as well very satified with Corner Card gold...they are freee for SEN and HON...
After I printed out the form, I now found the wording. The initial fee is waived and SEN/HON do not need to pay the anual fee as long they keep the status. FTL get an discount of CHF 80.
Originally Posted by Tomasz
comission for foreign currency transactions with Corner Card are 0.7%, "SWISS" cards charges you 2.5%
SWISS and COOP card both have this high commission - another point agains those cards.
Originally Posted by airoli
All the Cornerbank cards, as well as all the Swisscard AECS cards, are now free of charge for SEN and HON members. I like the Cornercard Gold and switched to that from the former Cornercard basic. To my surprise, I was credited the welcome bonus again despite not being a "new" customer.
Good to know ... But you loose some of the insurance with the gold card ...
Originally Posted by Key8
The corner cards give you online access to your account which might be useful.
That is a valid point. From time to time, I like seeing my current status and what's up with the account. With Amex, I can not do that.
Originally Posted by Key8
Coop Card: Be careful. It seems the send you a bill in the middle of the the month and you have a very short time period to pay for it.
You can change this. A collegue of mine requested the change and it worked. But he had hassel afterwards. They charged him interest because the banking application handled it the wrong way and assumed, that he did not pay his last bill in time. They fixed it later.
Originally Posted by Key8
AND: - it is not possible ot have it debited to a bank account automatically.
I prefer paying myself. If my account gets debited, my bank sends me a letter and I have to pay the porto.
Originally Posted by Key8
To put it in short: if you travel a lot: Cornercard is your best bet.
All other cards charge to much commission outside Switzerland and the Coop Card is only useful is you are really not travelling
It looks like I will do as you recommend.^
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Old May 13, 2008, 2:54 am
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Corner Card is soon going to start a new promotion and will bring you probably up to double of the usual welcome bonus/miles. This information is confirmed but I don't know the exact date. Probably sometime in the next few months.

Regarding the commission: Even if Credit Suisse is charging 2.5% and Corner Bank only 0.9%, you will still find the difference not that big since Credit Suisse is using the Interbanking exchange rate and Corner Bank the Retail Banking rate (slightly higher then interbanking exchange rate)... Therefore you will end up with a lot smaller difference!
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Old May 13, 2008, 8:04 am
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If you don't have made your choice yet, I'd like to quote my and bchl's comments from another thread ( link ):

Originally Posted by bchl
be careful about your calculation... Cornerbank is using the retail-bank exchange rate which is significant higher then the interbank exchange rate used by Credit Suisse. After my last calculation it's still cheaper to use Corner Bank's card comparing to the 2.5% charged by Credit Suisse, but the difference isn't that big like you mentioned here.

Personally I still prefer to use my BA Diners or AF MasterCard. BA for more generous 1:1 mileage (250 CHF for the card!) and AF for much lower foreign exchange fees (1.5%, lower then the 0,9% from Cornerbank).
Originally Posted by goliath
Also, if you have a lot of refunds / credits to your credit card (as I do), Cornerbank uses a much worse exchange rate for those bookings, like a bank they have "buy" and "sell" exchange rates:

I.e. I spend 1000 USD today, they charge me 1000 USD @ 1.05 today = 1050 CHF.

Tomorrow I will be refunded the 1000 USD back to my card, but they only credit me 1000 USD @ 0.97 = 970 CHF.

So I've lost 80 CHF.

If I do the same on a M&M card (or any other credit card I own or have owned, for that matter...), they are using the same exchange rate and I don't lose money on those transactions (exchange rate fluctuations set aside).

Also, if you have a problem with any of your transactions, their chargeback / refund system is awful and they rather send you to their insurance company to *try to* take care of it. Happened to me a lot of times with them, but never had any such problems with other cards.


Those were the main two reasons I've cancelled my Corner cards - but that's just me having a lot of refunds / credits and "risky" transactions.
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Old May 13, 2008, 10:21 am
  #10  
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Thumbs up Feedback

Thanks for this feedback. I always thought where the big difference is comming from. It is good to know those facts, whereby they do not change my desicion. As said, I still have the MasterCard of DKB and I am happy with it.
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Old May 15, 2008, 6:14 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by airoli
All the Cornerbank cards, as well as all the Swisscard AECS cards, are now free of charge for SEN and HON members. I like the Cornercard Gold and switched to that from the former Cornercard basic. To my surprise, I was credited the welcome bonus again despite not being a "new" customer.
Is that true ? their website seems to mention only the milemaker cards.
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Old May 22, 2008, 10:56 am
  #12  
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Question Corner Card - Priority Pass

Yesterday, I got my card.
In the attached document "your cornercard", it says at the end (translation freely done by chumbawumba, who got knocked down ...)
Priority Pass
The whole world is angry about hevyly used airports and long waiting time at check in, about being late and lost connection. With a Priority Pass, you can relax. Undepend of Airline and class, that you booked, you will find a relexing atmosphere, all comford you can imagin and the possibility, in the time between, solve business matter. Holder of Cornercard have a option to special conditions for the priority pass, and - as a special "Aufmerksamkeit" - in the first year two entries for free to the VIP lounges.
In German:
Inhaber der Cornercard haben Anrecht auf den Priority Pass zu speziellen Konditionen und - als spezielle Aufmerksamkeit - im ersten Jahr 2 Gratis-Eintritte zu den VIP Lounges
Where is the hitch?
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Old May 22, 2008, 11:09 am
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by chumbawumba
Where is the hitch?
The hitch? You will still be paying for the Priority Pass. I don't know the exact price, but if I remember correctly, it is not much less than the standard price. You can check the price after logging into you account at Corner bank (onlineaccess).

Compare to the standard cost of $ 99 annual fee & $ 27 per entry.
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Old May 22, 2008, 2:39 pm
  #14  
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Talking Priority pass

With the Corner card, you pay 79 US-$ instead of 99 US-$, every visit 24 US-$ and, that is the offer, the first two visits are for free.

With my nice german Master card, the offer is as following:
Standard 69 EUR (instead 99 EUR) - Every visit 24 EUR.
Standard Plus 212 EUR (instead 249 EUR) - Every visit 24 EUR, 10 visits for free.
Prestige 339 EUR (instead 399 EUR) - Every visit for free, guests cost 24 EUR.

In any case, the priorty pass is much cheaper than to pay for the status. ...
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Old May 23, 2008, 12:50 am
  #15  
 
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or you get the BA Diners Card and have access to some lounges for free (unfortunately they have just lost their German lounges).. But it does for ZRH and Quito
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