Ridgewood Savings Bank has launched three new credit cards:
- Mastercard® Platinum
- Mastercard® Platinum Rewards
- Mastercard® World
The first card isn’t that interesting as it comes with no sign up bonus and the earning rate is low. The Platinum rewards card comes with a 20,000 point bonus if you spend $2,000 in the first three months and 0% introductory APR on balance transfers. The card of real interest is the Mastercard World card, let’s take a look in more detail.
Ridgewood Savings Bank Mastercard World
- Annual fee of $95 is waived first year
- Sign up bonus of 50,000 points after $5,000 in spend within the first three months
- Card earns at the following rates:
- Earn 3 rewards points for every $1 you spend on travel and dining
- 2 rewards points for every $1 you spend on gasoline
- 1 rewards point for every $1 spent on other purchases
Our Verdict
Points look to be worth 1¢ each so this is effectively $500 back for $5,000 in spend. I have no idea how difficult it is to get approved or what credit bureau they pull. If anybody does sign up for any of these cards please share your experiences with other readers in the comments.
Hat tip to reader Chong786
P2 applied for the Business World Elite card last month and was denied. She is a current customer with a personal checking account that she opened in December. The app went pending with a message that someone would reach out within 10 business days. We received no subsequent communication from the bank, not even an email acknowledging the application, until a few weeks later when a letter came in the mail saying that the app was denied because they were “unable to verify information”. The letter was not from Ridgewood but from Pinnacle Bank in Tennessee, which apparently issues all Ridgewood cards. We haven’t bothered to follow up and likely won’t but maybe P1 will also throw in an application at some point. Oddly P2’s credit was never pulled (DPs indicate Ridgewood pulls Experian, at least for personal cards).
I was busted, I applied for personal, then business then personal for SO and then business and I got busted on the last one. I think they have become aware of churners, rinse and repeat and will probably close their promotion soon. hard to get approved now.
I applied for this, I have a 780 credit score and they did not give me the World Mastercard, only the Platinum Rewards, which gives you $50 for a $1K spend 🙁 Lame. I only deposited the minimum in the checking account ($25) so maybe that gave me away? Just FYI
Exclusively for Ridgewood deposit customers…
Has anyone had any experience downgrading this card to a no annual fee card once the annual fee hits?
I live in Fairfield County, CT and got the World Mastercard with $500 bonus about a year ago. This time around, it was my SO’s turn. An online application was submitted for a checking account which was denied because the address was NOT New York. Mark Ridgewood Savings Bank for New York only.
Hey
William Charles or @chuck just some feedback – on the biz cards section of your best current credit cards page, it links to this post which is actually the personal version of the card.
The correct link should be:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ny-ct-only-ridgewood-savings-bank-launches-new-business-credit-cards-500-bonus/
Fixed, thank you.
Did they just change the redemption option for the direct deposit? It seems they restrict the bank to be only the ridgewood savings bank.
This is correct. They only let you use Ridgewood Bank for the routing number and you cannot seem to change it on the DD redemption option.
So has anyone opened a checking or savings account and thrown maybe $1000 in there just so they could qualify for the MasterCard world card? Also Interested in any MS DPs
Adding a DP- I’m a FL resident and was insta approved for this card. Noting however that I used to be a NYC resident and still have a checking account with Ridgewood that I made to collect an account bonus back when I lived in NY- glad that I downgraded that account to a fee free one to keep instead of closing now. For the record I’m under 5/24, been out of the game for a little bit.
Did this card end up reporting to your personal credit reports?