PNC launched the new Premier Traveler which earns 2% back on all purchases in the form of travel credits. It also comes with a 30,000 point signup bonus which can be redeemed for $300 in travel credits.
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Card Overview
PNC Bank recently launched the Premier Traveler credit card which offers 2 miles per dollar on all spend, worth 2% back when redeemed against travel charges. It also comes with a 30,000 point ($300) signup bonus and has no foreign transaction fees. There is an annual fee of $85, waived the first year.
The card is very similar to Barclay’s Arrival Plus and Capital One’s Venture cards which also earn 2% back when redeemed for travel and have no foreign transaction fee.
PNC has long had some cards with complicated rewards systems, so it’s nice to see them introduce a more straightforward option.
Geographic Limitation
PNC only offers their credit cards to people with addresses in the following states: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Washington D.C.
Rewards
Premier Traveler earns 2 miles per dollar of spend. Rewards can be redeemed in your online login or over the phone.
Travel Credit
Each mile is worth 1 cent when redeemed for a travel purchase.
You can redeem for travel charges of 5,000 points or more. You may redeem for all or part of your travel purchase. For example, if you have 5,000 points and you had a travel charge of $50 or $100, you’ll be able to redeem the 5,000 points for a $50 statement credit.
Travel purchases must be redeemed within 90 days of when the travel charge was made.
Other Redemptions
Miles can also be redeemed for a statement credit at the rate of .5¢ per point. To redeem for cash, you only need a minimum of 1,000 points which will yield a $5 statement credit. This option is useful if you have less than $50 to redeem.
Miles can also be redeemed for travel-related gift cards, but no information is given on what the redemption rates are.
Miles can also be used to book travel directly through a designated provider at a rate of 1¢ per point (minimum of 5,000 points). However, I assume everyone would prefer to book it on their own and then redeem the charge for a travel statement credit.
Closed Accounts
If your account is closed with a miles balance, you will automatically receive the cash redemption option, and you’ll get a credit to your account of .5¢ per point. Amounts of less than 200 miles will be forfeited.
Signup Bonus
- Receive 30,000 bonus points, worth $300 toward travel, after spending $3,000 within 3 billing cycles
The wording implies that PNC calculates the 3 months based on the billing cycles, even if it’s less than 90-days. So keep that in mind.
Fees
The card has an annual fee of $85 per year. The fee is waived the first year.
No foreign transaction fee.
Miscellaneous Details
- I’ve seen a couple reports indicating that PNC pulls Experian for credit card applications
- A couple of reports indicate that PNC is a bit tougher than other banks to approve credit cards
- You don’t need an existing relationship with PNC to apply for their credit cards
Our Verdict
$300 almost-cash signup bonus isn’t bad, although it’s less than Barclay and Capital One’s $400 bonus.
Once we have the fee-free Citi DoubleCash and Fidelity 2% cards, all these other complicated 2% cards with annual fees attached don’t make a whole lot of sense for most people.
The main reasons people take a look at these travel 2% cards, like the PNC card, Barclay’s Arrival Plus, or Capital One’s Venture is for one of a few reasons:
- To get the signup bonus; since the annual fee is waived the first year, you can pocket the nice bonuses attached to these cards
- If you need a card with no foreign transaction fee; all three of these cards (PNC, Arrival, Venture) have no foreign transaction fees while the DoubleCash and Fidelity cards do have a 3% or 1% fee, respectively
- If you need multiple 2% cards to increase your spend bandwidth or for any other reason
- If you have trouble getting approved with the other banks
HT: kgarv3 on Reddit
Is this card still available? Can’t find a working link to application
anyone got this card lately i wonder if it can be churned
They are now offering bonus on all of their credit cards now through 05/31/19
Cash Rewards: $100 bonus if you spend $1000 in first 3 billing cycles
Core Visa: $100 bonus if you spend $1000 in first 3 billing cycles
Points Visa: 50,000 points if you spend $750 in first 3 billing cycles
Travel Rewards: same offer as above
The offer is good online, phone or branch but go throw your local banker an easy application.
Yes PNC is very conservative when it comes to lending but they are loosening that SLIGHTLY.
They use Experian as 1st attempt and if they can’t pull Experian they use TransUnion.
Same ? as Avi, does anyone know if this card is churnable or what the rules are re. getting sign-up bonus after closing the acct? Thx
Got this in-branch early July at the same time I signed up for the $300 checking account promo. I was taking a long trip to Europe in late July, this card doesn’t have forex fee, and I didn’t have a card waiting for a signup bonus. Figured $360 in exchange for $3k of spending I’d be doing anyway was a good trade.
A few things that the review doesn’t point out:
– Points post as soon as the transaction posts, no need to wait until the statement closes
– The bonus will post as soon as you hit the $3k spend, even if that is mid-cycle
– The redemption posts same-day as a statement credit
I really like their interface for redemption. I basically gives you a list of all eligible charges and lets you pick/choose the ones you want to redeem. It helpfully keeps a running tally for you at the bottom, so you can play around toggling different combinations on/off until you get the ‘just right’ redemption amount assuming you have a wide enough variety of charges. I was able to redeem all but 23 of my points!
I know it isn’t a whole lot of money if you leave 500ish points stranded, but I am just philosophically against stranded points. The other cards (I’m looking at YOU Arrival+) put up so many barriers that you are practically guaranteed to leave some points stranded.
+1; I agree/verify.
To access the rewards, log in to your account, if you have multiple accounts with PNC, click on the PNC Premier Traveler Visa hyperlink.
Center right of screen, box labelled “Rewards Balance.” Bottom of box, click “Show Card Benefits and Rewards >”, a drop down will appear with four “>” bullet options.
Click the fourth bullet: “>PNC Rewards Center.” this will open a new screen with your PNC Premier Traveler Visa Rewards.
Click the “> Redeem” buttom to the center right. This will open a drop down where you can select how you want to use your rewards (4 options, 2×2 box): Travel Purchased, Book Travel, Travel Gift Cards, & Cash.
As stated above, you can get 1cent=1point redemption value on Travel Purchased (I recommend using this redemption option). If you have any eligible travel purchases, you will be able to click the “Redeem Now” button here. If you don’t have any eligible purchases, the “Redeem Now” button will be grayed out. Refer to gloobnib’s comment above for redemption interface.
Cheers!
I like the sound of that a lot, actually. Is there a minimum redemption count? Or is it just limited to your travel expenses?
7/24/17 – applied online, immediately went to pending
7/31/17 – received phone call from 844-554-9255 to cell which was used on application. Asked for my name, stated they were from PNC and recently received an application from me, wanted to verify I actually applied for the card. I verified (but didn’t provide any other info, just my name). I asked about the status, they said verifying I was the actual applicant was the last thing they needed before it went to underwriting. They then volunteered that it looked like it was going to be approved.
Hung up, nearly instantaneously received confirmation email that my account was approved.
Experian pulled on date of application (I live in IL). My experian.com info reports 15 open cc, 9 installment (student loans), 2 residential (home and rental), 26 total, no negatives, AAoA 4 yrs 2 mos, 9 closed CCs in last 24 mos, oldest account 14 yrs, 2% usage, 13 inquiries (before PNC inquiry).
how often can you churn this account?
MPX doesn’t count as a “travel” purchase, so you can’t redeem points towards MPX charges.
Maybe dumb question from Newbie. Got this card with my new Performance Select Virtual Wallet account simultaneously. I need to spend 3k to get 30K mile bonus. I see that 2k visa or MC credit card spend can go to this account. Bad idea to try to fund 2k from PNC visa to a PNC checking account? Has anyone tried?
FYI, PNC does not count NW Buxx transactions towards minimum spend.