I’ve been enjoying earning 4% on all purchases using the U.S. Bank Smartly card. Since I prefer cashback, this takes away much of the thought process in using one card or another since 4% will usually be close to what the other card would be earning, anyway. I’ve also found myself avoiding signup bonuses with large spend requirements since the math doesn’t math when there’s a 4% loss on the spend amount.
Alas, the news broke that starting 9/15/25 there is a $10,000 limit per month on the 4% earn, and that some categories like Taxes and Insurance are excluded. Some people also got the ‘bad nerf’ version of change in which they’ll need $100k in their checking account to be eligible for the 4% rate. Most people, myself included, got the ‘good nerf’ version which still allows brokerage deposits to count toward the $100k.
Since I’m already set it up with the whole Smartly system, my plan is to continue using the card as before. Even a transaction which does not earn the full 4% will still earn a respectable 2%, which is only slightly worse than the 2.62% with the Bank of America relationship cards.
For paying taxes I’ll switch over to a BofA card. Credit card signup bonuses with high spend requirements will come back into the mix when my Tax spend category is only a “loss” of 2.62%.
The new exclusion which is most vague to me is the “Business to Business transaction” category. I’ve used my Smartly card to pay various contractors for home improvements and the like. These were often large charges and they sometimes have credit card processing fees tacked on. I happily accepted that given the expected 4% return, but going forward I might pay via cash/Zelle instead due to the uncertainty on the rewards.
