The OG Fidelity 2% card is removing its 2,500 points ($25) minimum redemption value by the end of August. This is great news for avoiding orphaned points and for taking advantage of various spend offers when the card is not your main driver.
Hat tip to reader Daniel
Wow, so exciting to be able to access that $24.99 slightly ahead of schedule. With the interest on that, you may be able to retire early
I am happy when there is any positive changes these days. Normally they screw us and make it seem like it is for the users benefit.
How can Fidelity offer a 2% card for years on end when Schwab cancelled theirs after two years and now only offers a 1.5% card?
I’m not privy to Fidelity’s decision making, but I imagine it’s because it attracts people to their business. Fidelity is a wealth management company first and foremost. People hear that the Fidelity card is a good card, so they open up a brokerage account and move their assets to Fidelity to go with the card.
Clearly it works for them, or they wouldn’t have continued to make the card better and better over the years.
And, the Visa Signature average interchange fee is about 2.10% + swipe charge. Close enough for a loss leader.
The business strategy makes sense, but Schwab is also a wealth manager and direct Fidelity competitor, so the original question remains. How come the 2% cb card works for Fidelity but not for Schwab…
Now if they’d only credit the offers quicker instead of waiting 3 statement cycles, then it would be perfect.
Yes!!! This is my primary complaint with the card. I would give them a pass on the time to credit if they had a tracker, or otherwise confirm you met the offer terms. Instead we wait 8-10 weeks after the end of the promotion (not when you met the terms), and then they credit properly maybe 75% of the time
This would be great news for me if I didn’t stop using this card (besides the monthly waiver) years ago because it’s inferior to my UCR. 😉
Eric, how does your 1.5% cash back UCR beat them? Because you’re in Platinum Honors Preferred Awards too? Thanks
Eric 🔗
#1. Yes, I am.
#2. I noticed that you wrote “too”. Are you implying that you have Preferred status also?
Congrats Eric. I’m working towards there. If not for helpful readers like you and others, I’d be living paycheck to paycheck….
Eric 🔗 so thank you!
OG?
I know what OG stands for but what does that have to do with this announcement?
Literally nothing. OG Fidelity card was issued by BofA and was AMEX card. Then it was acquired by Elan and anything after that can no longer be OG by definition.
It’s rare for someone to agree with me on here. I’m more used to people making snide (or worse) replies to my comments, like what’s their name did earlier today in this post. 😉
Don’t worry Eric you’re my favorite character in Doc’s comment sections
Eric, these kind of people stand no chance here!!! I’m with you
Eric 🔗
I appreciate the support! 😀
The $25 minimum was the main reason I stopped using this card as my primary. Now I might go back to it. A few weeks ago they sent me a survey and I mentioned the $25 problem. They listened.
About time. I’ve started using this card more for overseas travel for day-to-day stuff like supermarkets.. probably the best cashback for overseas supermarkets at 2%?
Navy Federal More Rewards earns 3% on groceries with no FTF
It’s the best no-hassle, no AF cash back card for overseas use.
BofA Premium Rewards card gets 2.62% everywhere no FTF, but need $100k assets.
Citi Premier gets 3x points on groceries, no FTF, but comes with $95 AF.
Capital One Savor (or USBAR if tap to pay is available)
The futurecard (debit) is also nice to have when traveling since it gives 5% on public transportation (subways, trains, ferries, buses) which many travel cards exclude as travel. Plus it’s currently giving 5% on groceries through September I believe
It’s interesting that Futurecard does not have FTF, but as a debit card it may not have the same protections as a CC, which could be helpful overseas.
This will probably get me ridiculed but I actually use the zero fee Verizon card for overseas supermarkets. Clearly pointless to non Verizon users but otherwise it’s an effortless 4% with no FTFs on foreign supermarkets and restaurants. Have the Fidelity card as well but this change is meaningless to me as the $25 minimum was never really an issue.
Getting 4% CB on grocery is not bad at all.
There are spend offers on this card? Where do you see them?
They’re usually announced by email.
https://www.fidelity.com/go/visa-signature-rewards-1502
$150 for 1k, not much but I’d get the card for the actual features
Nice to see a positive change to a product. While the points/travel cards can provide value (in select situations).
I hardly use this 2% cashback credit card since I get 5% cashback on almost everything.
ok
Thanks for sharing. Everyone, I’m sure, has been wondering.
That funny
This card isn’t for me either with the optimizing and churning I do, but this is my go-to recommendation for friends and family wanting a simple set up. This change just makes it even easier to recommend.
how? what are your card stack that enables that?
For relative simplicity, most of my card spend is w/ BoA @ 5.25% — grocery, gas, online, dining with Custom Cash Rewards. 2.62% otherwise with Unlimited Cash Rewards.
Need preferred rewards platinum honors. I churn the brokerage balances with Merrill for bonuses.
You keep your Bac Checking account open though, right?
Yes, so there is the trade-off of no checking bonus churning.
Am I correct that you are like me and have multiple CCRs to take full advantage of this? I told someone recently that I don’t mind missing out on the Checking churns with the value that I get from my Bac cards. 😀
^ a clarification, I get 5.25% on grocery by using the store app which codes as online for some major chains. Otherwise it’s 3.5% with the platinum honors boost.
That’s interesting. Have you ever tried that with buying Visa/MC GCs in those grocery stores?
I have never been able to get Visa/MC GCs to work paying with the Kroger pay. No matter the override that happens with the cashier. Maybe it’s just me.
…it’s just now occurring to me that the same methods which trigger the CSP’s online grocery category probably also trigger the CCR’s online category.
You mind sharing what stores you are going to and how it codes as online? I am aware of Kroger Pay for the Kroger family of stores and Paypal show-to-pay for Safeway/Albertsons family of stores.
This is best for foreign everyday travel. There’s no 5% everything card that also has no FTF and no AF (if there is I would love to know!)
These aren’t 5% but technically, BofA Platinum Honors at 2.625%, Alliant at 2.5% and SoFi at 2.2% beat this rate. USBAR can get up to 4.5% for mobile wallet purchases when using Real Time Rewards. I have the Kroger card which has 5% for mobile wallet but I’ve never been able to get it to work for foreign transaction purchases.
Yeah unfortunately I’m not qualified for Preferred Rewards due to Merrill perma-banning me. There are also those who don’t want to or can’t get into the BoA PR system.
I have CCRs and TRs at Platinum Honors through P2 and P3 but need a better foreign travel card for myself.
What did you do to make Merrill ban you?
He’s leaving out the important detail of FTF so he can feel good about his numerous BofA CCR cards and/or cards with rotating 5% categories.
No FTF is not important to me at all. To each their own.
Not everything is about you.
Wow, do you not see the hypocrisy in your reply to me? You wrote “[h]e’s leaving out the important detail of FTF”. That means that having no FTFs is important to you but it is not to that person.
Unlike you, I understand that we don’t all think the same as I wrote “[t]o each their own”!
My comment about FTF was to BG.
No one cares if FTF matters to you or not, so why even write it as a comment? Just move on.
I initially replied to you to defend
P.G.. I was writing that I also don’t care about FTFs so I can understand why they left it out!
Ironically, I’ve gotten in the most arguments on this site when I defended someone and then someone like you got offended by it. The person that I defend rarely, if ever, thanks me so you’re right that I should have stayed out of it!
Wait till you learn that there’s a hack to get no FTF on CCR cards…
Nice trick, thanks for the idea.
Google’d this…. seems like something they could fix very quickly hmmmm