Update 3/16/20: Card is now live, more details here.
Chase sent out a memo to bankers with a few interesting pieces of information about the United Club credit card:
- The United Club Visa Signature will be replaced with United Club Visa Infinite Card.
- The United Club Card is currently available for signup at the time of this writing, but it will apparently stop being available sometime between now and March 15th when the new Infinite card goes live.
- The new Infinite version will have a $525 annual fee. That’s higher than the current United Club Card annual fee of $450.
- From March 15 – May 17, Chase will have a special launch offer on the newly branded United Blue Infinite card of 100,000 bonus miles when you spend $5,000 in three months. After May 17th, signup bonus will go back to the standard 50,000 points with $3,000 spend offer.
- The terms are clear that the Signature Version and the Infinite version are considered one card for signup bonus purposes; if you got a bonus for any United Club card in the past 24 months, you are not eligible for the a bonus on the new Infinite card.
- Existing United Club Visa Signature cardholders can choose to keep their card or upgrade to the Infinite version. The $450 annual fee is not changing on this version.
- The language sounds like it might be possible to keep the Signature version with its lower annual fee long term. I assume they’ll eventually switch everything over, but it could potentially continue for years at the lower $450 fee if you don’t elect to upgrade.
Final Thoughts
The United Club Card has a $450 annual fee and typically comes with a 50,000 points signup bonus on $3,000 spend. Currently, the public signup bonus is showing at 75,000 on $3,000 spend. It shows an end date of 3/12/20.
If you already have the card, it could make sense to keep the old version long term and save $75 per year. It depends on how you value the Infinite benefits. To me the Infinite change sounds like a positive way of spinning the increased annual fee. I can’t think off the top of my head of any significant benefit to Infinite over Signature now that they stopped with the $100 airline benefit. We’ll have to wait to see what kind of benefits will be offered on the card.
If you don’t yet have the card and are interested in the card long-term it might make sense to apply now at 75,000. You’ll lose 25,000 on the signup bonus, but will save $75 per year, hopefully for a bunch of years.
