The BBVA NBA card offers 5% cashback on all purchases during All-Star weekend and the two weeks on the NBA finals. The upcoming promo will run Feb. 12th – Feb. 14th.
Will we actually get 5x?
Lots of people pointed out that for the last 5x promo during the NBA Finals, there were some issues with the card. Let’s take a look at those issues and see how they’ll apply to us now.
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Scaling your Purchases
At the beginning of the last promo, many got their cards frozen. However, as time went on, they eased up, and most people had reasonable amounts of success.
They acknowledged at the time that they had to loosen some of the fraud triggers due to higher-than-anticipated usage, and I’m hopeful that they’ll do better from the get-go this time. Of course, this round only lasts three days, so there isn’t much time to play with.
Note that BBVA does seem to have a soft limit of $5,000 per day. Some have been able to bypass it by calling in, from memory, but $5k is the standard. Another workaround mentioned is to tell them that you are traveling internationally, and then they may give you a higher limit.
Credit Limit Threshold
Aside from the $5k per day threshold, we’re also restricted by the credit limit. Overpaying probably won’t work to give you a higher limit. And even if you use the online payment option in your BBVA login, it will probably take some time until your credit limit gets freed up, especially given that it’s a weekend.
All-in-all, I’d say that most people can expect to be throttled at spending up to their credit limit – just one time – over the course of the weekend.
Swipe Date or Post Date
Of greater concern is that in the previous 5x period, the bonus 4% only came through automatically for purchases that posted to the account by the last date of the promotional period. It usually takes a day or two for a charge to go from pending to complete, and those purchases of the final day/days didn’t automatically get the bonus 4%. (See Missing Points on BBVA NBA Credit Card, Transaction Date Vs. Post Date where we discussed the issue then.)
The odds that BBVA fixed this issue are slim in my opinion, so let’s work with the assumption that we’ll bump into the same problem on this go-round.
What’s particularly irksome here is that the 5x promo falls on a weekend, a time when transactions process even slower. It’s entirely possible that even purchases made on the 13th won’t go on as complete until the 15th when the promo is over. This will vary by the merchant.
The Good News
The good news is that BBVA is very helpful with manually crediting missing points, both when the 5x didn’t come through correctly on the last go-round, and when other issues have cropped up with bonus points.
From what I remember, it always ended up needing a phone call to rectify. It goes like this: you message them, they call you back, they escalate, they call you when it’s rectified. Or just skip the message and call them directly.
I’m allergic to the phone and I’ll probably try messaging them first, but, from memory, messaging doesn’t work for rewards and you’ll have to end up calling.
Online Purchases
In the post: Online Credit Card Purchases – Transaction Date and Post Date we gave examples about many online merchants who won’t run the charge as pending immediately at the time the order is placed, rather it runs through at the time of shipment.
For our purposes, if you place an online order during the promotion period, it may very well come through too late to trigger the bonus. This is especially true for orders placed online on the 14th, or even the 13th, since these can process slowly over the weekend. Even calling in for manual credit might not work since it doesn’t really deserve the credit.
Electronic Wallets and Marketplace Merchants
There is also wording in the fine print,
Purchases made through a third-party payment account or on an online marketplace (with multiple retailers) will not earn additional points. A purchase may not earn additional points if the merchant submits the purchase using a mobile or wireless card reader or if you use a mobile or digital wallet to make the purchase.
One reader was denied getting manual crediting for purchases on eBay and Amazon due to this language, although that was not my experience for automatically credited points. Regular online merchants should be fine, so long as you don’t pay with an electronic wallet like Paypal, and it’s a single merchant, not a marketplace (e.g. staples.com or macys.com).
To me, it seems that this wording is really meant for the NBA or grocery bonuses, not the 5x everywhere bonus, but since I won’t be your BBVA rep, my opinion doesn’t help much. 🙂
Gift Cards
In the previous promo, when BBVA manually applied the bonus 4% credits over the phone, they asked about what was purchased to ensure it wasn’t a Visa/MC/Amex gift card or similar cash equivalents. In my experience, they were okay with merchant gift cards (eBay gift cards, in my case), and it seems reasonable to earn points and bonus points on those.
It would make sense to keep away from these Visa prepaid cards and the like since you may not end up getting the bonus for them upon manual questioning.
…payments made for prepaid and reloadable cards such as certain gift cards, and similar cards, payments made for payment instruments that can readily be converted to cash (for example, travelers cheques, money orders, wire transfers, and similar products or services), are NOT Qualifying Purchases for purposes of the Program.
How to Run Up Spend
Some ideas for increasing your spending in three days?
- Go shopping 🙂
- Pay out your insurance, utilities, phone bills, etc., for the next few months (most will allow you to overpay)
- Give any charitable donations you had in mind
- Pay off any bill you may have piled up: medical bills, gym memberships, college tuition, etc.
- Buy merchant gift cards at places you shop – local shops, favorite restaurants, or online merchants
Riskier Options Due to Cash-Like Nature of Charge
- Reader mentioned the idea of paying off your taxes with a credit card for a fee (I’d think this is a legit charge that can earn 5%, but no guarantee that BBVA can’t claim that it’s a ‘cash-like transaction’)
- Buy Visa/MC prepaid gift cards
- Loading Serve
My Recommendations
I suggest charging up to $5k per day on each of the three days that the promotion runs. If you max out the $15k, you’ll get $750 in rewards, or $450 more than what you’d get on a 2% card. Not bad.
Buying Visa/MC/Amex gift cards is risky since there’s a chance the points won’t post automatically, especially on Sunday the 14th. Same goes for online purchases – orders placed on the 13th and 14th have a good chance of not coming through in time to get the bonus.
Hitting $15k over the three days is tough, but I’ll certainly charge up anything I can! My credit limit is $11,500, so I’ll try spending that much over the three days. $5k per day on the first two days, if possible, and then finish off the last $1,500 on Sunday.
In the end, there’s no guarantee as to how this whole thing will play out – they do write in the terms “EXCLUSIONS APPLY” which leaves them an opening to start denying things. Hopefully, they won’t deny any legitimate purchases, and it will all work out.
