Post Date or Transaction Date?
We  reported on June 18th that it was the last day for racking up 5x rewards on the BBVA NBA credit card. A reader commented there that they were told by a BBVA rep that purchases would not trigger the bonus rewards unless they post to the account by the 18th. Transactions made on the 18th won’t work. I expressed my skepticism (based on what we’ve written before) and thought that in-store purchases would be dependent on the swipe date.
It turns out that the BBVA system is not automatically crediting us with points for transactions which didn’t post by the 18th, as the reader suggested. Conversely, we reached out to the social media team on Twitter and they said that swiped transactions on the 18th should be earning bonus rewards.
@Chucksth We read your tweets and wanted to clarify that the promotion was based upon the transaction date.
— BBVA Compass (@BBVACompass) June 30, 2015
The Twitter team suggested either contacting BBVA customer service or contacting the Twitter team for assistance.
My Attempt
As one who likes avoiding the phone at all costs, I was in touch with the Twitter team who ultimately got me connected (via the despicable phone) with a BBVA rep.
After verifying my identity the first thing the rep asked me was, “Were these gift cards that you purchased?”
Uh oh!
I got lucky in that a good part of the gift cards were, in fact, not Visa gift cards, rather eBay gift cards. So I mentioned that I purchased some eBay gift cards – among other gift cards – so as to lock in the extra points on the final day. That  seemed to fly okay by the rep and she didn’t grill me on what the ‘other gift cards’ were. Hopefully, I’ll end up getting the points. (It’s still under review.)
Going Forward
This is  important to note for the future as well that – barring a system change – those final purchases may not automatically accrue the bonus rewards.
There’s also a chance that the current travel bonus will be dependent on the post date and not the transaction date. However, I’m inclined to believe that this is not the case and it will work. This is based on the fact that the other such bonuses (signup bonus and grocery bonus) seemed to have posted quicker, like the non-bonus points posted. Even the 2x grocery points are automatically posting with the transaction date. Only the extra 4x rewards took time and are apparently tied with the post date.
In any case, with regards to the travel promo, you should be able to follow up and get the bonus manually if it doesn’t post automatically. The main risk here is only when  purchasing gift cards which may not hold up to human review.
