VegasGambler

Actually, maybe I am wrong here. The fee chart shows no change / cancellation fees for First Class. Has it always been like that or is this a recent change? For some reason I always thought that non-refundable F tickets had change fees, just like any non-refundable ticket.

unavaca

It's been that way at least all this year.

Zacnlinc

Anyone have an offer from Comenity for a zero% balance transfer? Been waiting for one myself since they came on the block. Even Barclay isn't offering one to me (yet). Been keeping the balance well below the limit since having both cards!!

VegasGambler

I was wondering what you were talking about, and then I got home from work today and found this offer in my website.

It's the same standard crap that every card offers. 0% APR for a little over a year (til Jan 2016) so long as you make min payments, 3% transfer fee.

The glory days of no fee balance transfers are long gone...

VegasGambler

I think I have finally figured out the details of making use of the "no change fee" perk with the VX Premium Visa.

When you buy MC or MCS tickets, there is a $75 change fee that applies -- this is waived only if you bought the ticket with the card (not with the travel bank). If you cancel online, it will charge you the $75 and then give it back to you as a statement credit eventually (I've never done this so I don't know how long it takes in practice). If you call and cancel over the phone, they will waive the cancellation fee right there, so all the funds are put into your travel bank immediately.

For a MC/MCS ticket bought with the card, if you want to take advantage of a price drop (but keep the same itinerary), and it's 21+ days before the flight, you don't need to cancel and rebook. You can just call them, and they will refund the price difference straight to your travel bank. This does not change the payment method on the ticket, so it is still eligible for "no change fees"

So, my strategy is:

1. Book F fares with travel bank funds, if available.
2. Book MC/MCS fares with VX Visa
3. If an F fare has dropped, cancel and rebook online
4. If a MC/MCS fare has dropped 21+ days before departure, call and ask for the fare difference to be put into your travel bank. You can do this multiple times if the fare drops multiple times.
5. If a MC/MCS fare has dropped <21 days before departure, call and cancel, and leave the funds in your travel bank. Re-book with the Visa.

Of course if you fly very little in F, this might not work (since you rarely get a chance to use those travel bank funds). In this case I would only use travel bank for MC tickets if you are pretty sure that the price will not drop significantly and your plans will not change. It might also be worthwhile to do your <21 day cancellations online rather than over the phone (because the $75 eventually gets refunded as a statement credit, rather than the travel bank, where you might have trouble using it)

SoCalZman

Great strategy, thanks for sharng. Now that I am not flying as much I was debating to myself whether to keep using the premium visa card or downgrading to the $49. This makes me want to keep it.

VegasGambler

Definitely, it takes the guesswork out of buying tickets.

Also, if you're flying less, the extra status pts and rollover can help you maintain status that you might otherwise lose.

anothertraveller12

So how happy is everyone with Comenity so far?

Personally, I've found it a huge step down from Barclay. Amongst the issues I've had:

- one of the worst websites I've used for credit cards. There's a bug I've reported to them where any transactions from the last day of the previous month get double counted to the current month. It's fine when you go to pay your bill (doesn't appear to actually charge you twice at payment), but it's concerning when you're reviewing your payments. Still not fixed.
- No online customer support - you have to call for anything. Last time I called I got asked no fewer than 8 different "verification questions". Once I was finally through the woman immediately transferred me to another department without warning and I had to do them all again with the next person who picked up.
- constant calls to verify transactions to "protect against fraud", and yet when my card actually gets compromised, they let through several transactions before contacting me
- Speaking of which - they told me they had sent me a new card. A week later - no sign of it. I called to ask where it was, and they claimed it was sent and to be patient. When it finally arrived (days after I needed it to book some flights), I was able to check the USPS history, and saw they posted it after my complaint call.
- Seriously amateur people working there. Nobody seems to know what is going on or actually able to help me

I'm cancelling at the end of this year, and as such, switching my frequent flyer program too. So disappointing.

GrayAnderson

How does the status rollover work? i.e. If I have 25,000 points, do I automatically start at 5,000 for next year?

Zacnlinc

[QUOTE=vision4bg;23945714]So how happy is everyone with Comenity so far?

Personally, I've found it a huge step down from Barclay.QUOTE]

I agree completely with you as well...

The website is a bit too "amateur" for me. But it does the basics. I also wished I was able to electronically send my payments to them from my bank but was told that Comenity hasn't replied to their requests to go online with my bank (Union Bank of CA).

Thus, sending payments to them from my bank would require UBOC to actually post a payments to Comenity via USPS and that I'm to wait 5 days before it should credit to my account. Old school!!!

I tend to send payments on their due date via the Comenity site at this point and haven't had any "issues" (yet) as they payments post that same day. (One just needs to wait 2 days afterwards to see it online though!!) Again, old school...

VegasGambler

This is your bank's fault, not Comenity's. With WF I am able to send electronic payments to Comenity with no problem. For some of my other bills, they have to send a paper check. It's up to your bank to add Comenity's information to their list.

SoCalZman

Yup. I agree the website could use some updating but electronic payments have not been an issue for me.

My only big wish left is that they had an app like my other credit cards.

GrayAnderson

I wish the website updated a bit more frequently, but...eh, that's life for you.

VegasGambler

The main problem with the website is that they don't show pending charges anywhere. So your individual charges don't show up until they post, which can take a few days.

Your available credit is updated immediately when you have pending charges, though, so you can figure out the total of your pending charges by some simple subtraction.

I agree that this is annoying, but you get so much back in rewards pts, not to mention the other perks, that I don't really care. This card is easily worth a thousand dollars per year to me. I'm willing to put up with a bad website for that.

GrayAnderson

Oh, the same thing here...no doubt in my mind that it's worth the hassle. That said, it's still a mild hassle I wish wasn't there, that's all.