Originally posted 4/2/19. Reposting 4/11/22 as this $150 offer is still around, and now they added 0% APR for the first 12 months as well. Direct Link (ht Azure)
The Offer
Direct link to offer | New Link
- Receive a sign up bonus of $150 when you spend $1,500 or more within the first 90 days on the Fidelity Visa card.
Card Details
- No annual fee
- Card earns 2% cash back on all purchases
- 1% foreign transaction fee
- This Bonus Cash offer is available only to new Fidelity Rewards Accounts booked through this special offer. Existing and previous Fidelity Rewards card members are not eligible for this offer
- Card issued by Elan services (subsidiary of U.S. bank)
Our Verdict
The card often doesn’t have any bonus, or has a bonus of $50 or $100; I don’t think we’ve ever seen a publicly available $150 bonus before (even when it was issued by FIA card services). There is a targeted offer of $300 out there currently, and there’s also a public $100 offer with a lower $1,000 spend requirement.
This is a pretty good deal if you need a card that has a high base spend, if you already have one of those (or don’t need one because you’re spend just goes to minimum spend requirements) then there are better cash sign up bonuses out there. You can read our full review of this card here. We’ll add this to our list of Best Credit Card Signup Bonuses.
Keep in mind you also need to open an eligible Fidelity account as well (cash management is best option if you don’t want to invest with Fidelity).
Big thanks to reader YL for sharing this
Just got a bunch of fraud charges this morning of almost 2k that I needed to report as fraud. I suggest the rest of you check your cards also.
Insta-approved. Always wanted this card. Thanks, Doc.
Can I use the card right after approval? Like amex card.
Applied yesterday and the application still pending. called to check status of application and it says it takes 3 business days to make decision. let’s see how it goes.
Update: received the email today – Approved!! thx, DoC!
Fidelity is awesome – but Elan has been pretty awful in comparison. I use this card as a daily driver but just know their customer service and support is abysmal. I’m probably going to swap to another 2% card in the future maybe SoFi
I was shutdown a little after this card switched from Amex to Visa maybe 4 years ago, but I still have an Elan card through US Bank. Cycling the limit is what probably gave me the boot. What are my chances of being approved for the Fidelity card again? Thanks!
150 for 1.5k spend?….insert AmIaJokeToYou.jpg
Great bonus to pay for rent or mortgage. I open new credit card every month.
meh…this has been on my list for a while, once I’m out of 5/24 (I keep sucking myself back in). Once I get it can hold indefinitely and do tradeline sales with it, MM for sure
I wish they would get rid of that 1% FTF.
Is it just 1%? Most cards are like 3%. This would still give one a 1% rebate which is better than -1%…
For the ones that are 0%, I wonder if they just hide it in the fx rate. FX can be volatile intraday by more than 1%, it’s hard to know what card actually gives you a good rate (meaning, you can get 0% fee with a bad rate and be worse off than 1% fee with a good rate). Does anyone know how this is actually done? I assume a bank like Chase can do its own conversion but I always thought VISA did the conversion for cards and then threw on top the 1% fee.
Unless a person lives outside the US, getting 1% cash back for a no annual fee card is pretty good. Not amazing, but good for occasional overseas use.
I believe Mastercard has the best forex rates overall.
Yes, no annual fee and still positive rebate after FX fee is good. The thing is as Lisa K below points out Cap One is no fx fee across the portfolio, so a QuickSilver gives 1.5% back which is greater than Fidelity net of 1% fee. (Also, formerly Cap One now GS GM card has no fx fees afaik, so if you like gm rewards, that’s better than 1.5%.) I don’t know of other cash back cards with no annual and fx (i was going to go for paypal 2% but then they introduced fx fees.)
The caveats are:
Some cards charge different fx fees for different customers (i read this in Citi’s or Chase’s materials at one point — they charged more for residents of NY/NJ/CT to the tune of 3% vs 1%)
As i mentioned, not sure how good a rate you get with a no fx fee card. These large banks have their own currency trading divisions, they can just take these credit card charges as dumb flow and fill them at slightly worse prices. With a smaller issuer or regional bank I imagine they have to rely on the Visa or MC network which might be fairer? This is pure speculation, would be useful if someone had inside info.
I agree. I have had this card for years and it is is my go-to for general spending, but I switch to my Cap One for overseas transactions.
$1500 spend LOL
For those looking for other options:
– Wells Fargo Active similarly is a 2% card but has a better SUB
– The PayPal card, once available for sign-ups, will give 3% on PayPal and 2% on everything else (especially interesting if the 3% PayPal works on Federal tax payments, as overpaying taxes before filing will be very fun)
– The SoFi card has 2% back on everything, but also has no Foreign Transaction Fee (which makes it my go to overseas card.)
There is also SDFCU 2% CB card with $200 SUB but spend is higher at $3k
Are these VISA cards? (Paypal is MC right?).
I basically use this at Costco even though I have the citi costco card… but waiting a year for a costco rebate is unpleasant.
The Citi Double Cash is probably also worth a mention. The 2% is broken up as 1% + 1% (when you charge + when you pay), but it’s still in the family of options.