We reported a few weeks ago on some gift cards being fee-free on Evolve. Today, Evolve sent out emails stating that they’re killing the deal. Okay, they didn’t actually say that, here’s the email:
I killed the deal.
In that post I theorized that the reason that US Bank gift cards were still fee-free was because the fees to process them were low. I couldn’t imagine it was just a glitch since Evolve was just coming off glitches and they just re-coded the system for all cards to show the 3% fee properly. Others disagreed with me in the comments and were sure it was a glitch.
I was wrong.
We wrote more on this topic of killing deals a few days ago, see Open Discussion: How Should We Handle MS Topics? The discussion is still ongoing, so please head over there and let us know what you think about the topic.
Since then we’ve decided to keep all sensitive information related to manufactured spend off the main site. For now, we’re sending it out in the subscriber’s newsletter. We’ve already sent one such subscriber’s-only post, and we have a few more coming soon.
If you haven’t yet signed up for the newsletter, take the opportunity to do so now using the “subscribe via email” box on the right side of the page.
Giving yourself credit for killing the deal is a bit excessive. If you were the only blogger to release the info then maybe, but that is not the case.
The bigger point here is that if you starting collaborating with other sites, such as Saverocity, then bummer for all of us. Saverocity does not need anymore influence over everyone else. As a personal note, I found your site after becoming tired of Saverocity. I now rarely visit their site.
Don’t let the big guys derail you.
Chuck/Will – lemme be the voice of reason here. I completely agree with JB here, you guys DiD NOT kill this or any other deal out there. dont listen to these dumbass distractors who are just selfish at best and trolls at worst.
honestly, nothing to take away from your blog, but your site isnt big enough to force corporate wide change. it just isnt. nothing wrong with that, but lets keep things in perspective and level headed here. dont blame yourself, dont knock yourself. this is a free country and here in america, you are allowed to write and post about anything you want to. and I used to love your blog for doing that since day 1 – I hope that trend continues, otherwise folks might move onto greener pastures elsewhere.
remember, haters gonna hate. so do what’s best for the majority of your readers on what I still consider a small, niche site and POST about relevant things including MS as it develops. we ALL KNOW deals come and go. there’s no point pussyfooting about it. google didnt kill anything, you didnt. deals are cyclical and NOTHING stays alive forever. so no point “guarding” something that doesnt even belong to any given in-crowd.
Completely agree with Adam, don’t blame yourself for any deal gone wrong. They are bound to die. It just depends on how big scale is it? The bigger the corporate giant we are using for our benefit, lesser the chances of deal go longer as their loss may be minor to their profit. The smaller the company, the faster the will find out about any loss they may be doing. Although you should definitely restrict some very very sensitive information. In overall, your blog has been very responsible and honest. Since I came into this area of credit cards and benefits, I have gone through various blogs in starting, eventually I am reading only 2-3 blogs only which I find responsible and yours is the best. So don’t get pull down by some selfish trolls. They can’t be as nicer human being as you in terms of sharing with others.
Yeah, it seems that small companies are bigger deal-breakers in terms of publicizing this sort of stuff. Thanks.
I don’t know about that, killing the deal with a DoC post I mean. This loophole has been discussed on FT and most likely at other places too. Before and after you wrote about it. Though it does show that MS related topics need a qualified audience, Evolve has rid itself from hundreds or thousands customers over the last couple months who they were losing money on. Sooner or later that loophole would’ve become obvious to them. Just think about the numbers going through that alley. Only a question of time.
It was irresponsible to blog, but spoon feeding this stuff via newsletter isn’t necessarily the solution. Some things should just be left for people to figure out or discover on their own.
We’re not necessarily going to send everything via newsletter either. There are plenty of deals that we haven’t posted/published on the website or newsletter because they are too fragile.
Drat, Sure enough, the US Bank MCs are actually enforcing the 3% fee.
The only use I see for Evolve now is that it counts as a debit card usage for accounts that offer incentives or tier rates based on number of swipes. Occasionally they can pay some bills quicker than some other sources.
I still love your posts though. No worries! 😀