Fidelity Changing Over to Elan on Saturday + Call to Covert your 1.5% Card to 2%

Background

The Fidelity credit cards, which used to be issued by FIA/BofA, are now issued by Elan/US Bank. Here’s our full review on the card, and it even comes with $100 signup bonus at this time.

New applications have been going through Elan for some time now. As of Saturday, July 23, all old FIA cards will no longer be active. All credit card balances and rewards balances will transfer over on July 26.

Check out this FAQ for more details on how the switch will work.

Two Versions

There were two commonly held Fidelity cards. The more ubiquitous was the Amex 2% version, which earned 2% back when redeemed into a Fidelity account. The other version was the 1.5% Visa which had a tiered rewards system: it got 1.5% initially, and after spending $15,000 annually it began earning 2% back.

Now that Fidelity switched over from FIA to Elan, all cards come as Visa cards. Oddly, they kept the rewards structure on both versions of the cards exactly as it had been prior; the 2% folks get 2% and the 1.5% folks continue at the same tiered rewards structure.

Upgrading

The good news is that it’s possible to upgrade your card from the tiered program to the flat 2% program. Many people have had success doing that with a simple phone call. (1, 2, 3, 4)

No new card number is issued when you do the change, and no hard pull is done. It’s just a behind-the-scenes upgrade in the reward program on the card from the tiered system to the 2% system.

It’s a bit unclear as to how fast the upgrade will take place to begin earning 2%: some were told it’s instant, others were told that it would take a day, and yet others were told it would take until statement close. In practice, it sounds like it’s working immediately.