Sharonview Federal Credit Union offers the Visa signature card, let’s take a look at in this quick review.
Card Basics
- Sign up bonus of 27,000 points (worth $200) after $1,000 in spend within the first 60 days
- Card earns 2x points per $1 spent
- No annual fee
How Much Are Points Worth
Sharonview uses dreampoints rewards, you can redeem for gift cards and cash back at the following rates:
- 3,500 points = $25 (gift cards only)
- 7,000 points = $50
- 14,000 points = $100
- 27,000 points = $200
Eligibility
During sign up you need to select a branch location, not sure how near a branch you need to live but they have branches in NC, NJ, SC.
Our Verdict
If you spend $1,000 then you’ll end up with 29,000 points, that’s enough for a $200 cash redemption and you’ll have 2,000 points left over. I can’t really find anything useful to do with those remaining points. The card itself isn’t worth keeping and using long term due to the fact that other cards earn 2% cash back on all purchases (this earns under that rate and is much more restrictive). The sign up bonus itself isn’t that bad as far as cash sign up bonuses go, but it’s far from being anything amazing. Still this could be an interesting option for somebody that values cash sign up bonuses and has already done the bigger offers from the major credit card issuers. For a full list of all the sign up bonuses we do recommend, click here.
Hat tip to reader Stan
The New Jersey location is “exclusively for Sanofi Corporation employees.”
With their redemption rate, this card isn’t good beyond the SUB. People have to decide if it’s worth HP.
It’s not as bad as it looks at first glance, though most people here still have better options.
Earning 2 points per $1 means it’d take $3500 in spending to get the 7000 points it takes to get the $50 statement credit, something that would cost 5000 points on more-sensible 1-point-per-$0.01 redemption programs. 5000 / 3500 = 1.43, so I think this works out to be just shy of a 1.5%-cashback card.
For those who manufacture spend, most can see at a glance that their $7K spend using CitiDC, they’ll earn $140 (as long as they have zero balance at statement closure), while this card earns only $100 where it takes only $5K spend to earn that with CDC.
It is really up to the individual if $200 SUB is worth HP to them since there are CCs with better SUB offers and redemption rates with no AF as well.
how hard is it to get approved and if we are out of state but a member do we need to go to a branch?
Read the two discussions about this CU from last year, that I gave URLs to in a previous comment here. Quite a few people did sign up online from out of state.
Sharonview had a short-lived hot CD deal last year. They were allowing people from outside their area to join at that time, via one of several organizations.
bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=243215
depositaccounts.com/banks/sharonview-fcu/offers/
Do we need a banking relationship? Would it make it easier to get approved?
Lol/24
All credit unions require you to at least open a small savings account to become a member.