Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union offers the Crystal Visa credit card. It comes with the following benefits:
- 3% cash back on all purchases for the first year, then 2.5% cash back
- Minimum $50 redemption
- 0% introductory APR on all purchases for six months
- $99 Annual fee waived first year
Contents
Membership
Membership is open to:
- Farmers Insurance (including Foremost, Bristol West and 21st Century)
- Employees, agents, and agents’ employees
- Employees and agents of Farmers New World Life
- Immediate family members of current members and eligible non-members
- Retirees
- Employees of Farmers Financial Services
Other groups by state:
Arizona
- City of El Mirage
- Orangewood Village Mobile Home Owners, Phoenix
California
- Acoustical Material Supply, Santa Fe Springs
- B & T Industries, Merced
- California Panel & Veneer Company, Cerritos
- Central Valley Diagnostics Laboratory, Merced
- Circle Freight International, Inglewood
- Coldwell Banker, Merced
- George Industries, Los Angeles
- Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce (voting members)
- International Hair/Nails, Merced
- Leed Plastics Corp., Los Angeles
- Lipton Foods, Merced
- Merced County Association of Realtors
- Merced Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Omnikron Systems, Inc., Los Angeles
- Palomar Cleaners, Carlsbad
- Re/Max Associates, Oceanside
- Signet Armorlite, Inc., San Marcos
- S.L. Fusco, Inc., Rancho Dominguez
- Sondo Services, Inc., Los Angeles
- Surface Protection Industries, Inc., Los Angeles
- Teradyne, Agoura Hills
- Toyota of Merced
- Western Flight, Inc., Carlsbad
Colorado
- CareCore, Colorado Springs
Florida
- Bristol West (all locations)
Idaho
- Greater Pocatello Chamber of Commerce (voting members)
Kansas
- Grundfos, Inc., Olathe, Kansas
Oklahoma
- Shepherd Mall Management Co., Oklahoma City
- Shepherd Mall Security, Oklahoma City
Oregon
- Teradyne, Tualatin
Our Verdict
Most people won’t be eligible and probably not that interesting apart from big spenders and it’s difficult to know how tolerant they will be to that sort of behavior. If anybody goes for it then please share your experiences in the comments below. You can find the best cards for everyday purchases by clicking here.
Hat tip to myFICO
I signed up for there 3% cash back Crystal Visa card thinking it is the best cash back credit card. It was a long process getting approved. I’ve used it for several months now and I’m checking my cash back balance and I’m only getting back about 2% back. Their customer service is available only M-F. Also their website is out dated and doesn’t have useful tools like Citi. I’m not even able to set up bill pay of my credit card through ACH through external bank. They also charge an annual fee after first year of $99. I’ll be closing my accounts soon.
I just discovered this and pretty effing pissed-
https://figfcu.org/crystal-visa
“Up to 3% cash back for 12 months from account opening – no rotating categories to worry about
After that, earn up to 2.5% cash back on most purchases for extra spending power
Cash rewards earned on maximum of $10,000 in qualifying purchases per rewards cycle as stated on your credit card statement”
How come no one ever picked up on this? I wasted alot of time. Worst bait and switch I have ever seen.
so the real question is, how is “retiree” defined? both me and P2 are members of AARP…unless that just means retirees from a Farmers financial company
No other site has a review of this card. Congratulations !
Most sites don’t cover cards they don’t make commissions on.
Much better than Alliant Credit Union as bonus here is unlimited and Alliant is capped per month. Question: How close do they check on if you qualify to be a member?????
Alliant card is pretty much dead for MS in my experience
When it comes to MS, just avoid small banks/CUs. They watch everything you do like a hawk.
I couldn’t agree more. Golden 1 CU is one example.. don’t ask me how I know.
What’s the problem? For that 3% grocery?
how do you know? there, I asked
Yeah, I’m curious now and will be waiting for your horror story lol
They have a card that earns 3% on groceries and gas. After hitting it hard and cycling once a month for 4 months while triggering fraud alerts, they (1) locked my account and transferred me to a “Senior Fraud Investigator” and (2) denied me my extra 2% for my grocery purchases for that statement period, earning only 1%. This person warned me that it violates the T&Cs regarding gaming and that they would shut down the account if it happens in the future.
I guess it didn’t help my case, because I investigated the fraud investigator and found his details, so when I called him, I accidentally called him “Mr. LastName” when he only provided his first name through voicemail. I didn’t reply when he asked me how I knew his last name.
lmao so, they denied you the bonus after you tt the rep and called him by his last name? when you say that you triggered fraud alerts, do you mean actual alerts that they notified you about, or do you think that you just got on their radar (and they didn’t tell you until then)?
Haha, no, they weren’t THAT vindictive. They denied the 3% (only gave the 1% base rewards) during my statement posting date. A week or two afterwards, my card was locked, and that’s when I called them and found out it was more serious.
Yes, the actual fraud alerts that they notified me about were via text and phone calls. I triggered these about 3/4-ths of the time when I was purchasing “groceries”, and that is why I suspect I got on their shitlist. One of their fraud algorithms probably do a check where if a customer triggers them X times in T weeks/months, s/he’s probably up to no good.
Interesting… this implies >2% cash back cards are loss leaders.
I’ve found the opposite to be true, highly YMMV I suppose.
The $50 min redemption is a huge turn off aside from the extremely limited availability.
Annual fee will be $99 on subsequent years, inline with many of the 3% promo CC’s
Annual fee is $99, per credit card agreement and disclosure (https://figfcu.org/sites/default/files/DXCC0720_Crystal_Visa_Card_Agreement_Disclosure-WEB.PDF):
“Your annual fee for the card is $99; the first year’s fee is waived. The fee will be charged to your card annually on the 3rd business day of the month following your anniversary date. For example, if your application is approved on April 15, 2020, regardless of activation or first use, your annual fee will be charged no earlier than the 3rd business day in May starting 2021. You will incur the annual fee even if you don’t have a balance. The annual fee is subject to change; you will be notified of a rate increase as required by applicable law.”
Thanks 🙂
So you need $19,800 in annual spend to beat a 2% card after the first year.
I believe is $5,000 (not including interests) only. 5,000 x 2% = $100. Annual fee (2nd year and thereafter): $99. $50 min redemption= 2 redemptions
It’s 2.5% vs 2%. So 99/0.005 =19,800. So if you spend more than $19,800 in the year you will get more cash back than having 2% no fee card.
It is correct. I had a big mistake.