U.S Bank FlexPerk Reserve Cards: $500 Lounge Credit, Up To 4.5x+ FlexPoints & 20,000 Point Bonus

This post is part of our series on weird credit cards. Every Wednesday we let you know about a new credit card that you might not have heard about before. You can view other credit cards in the series here. I’ve posted this one a little earlier and that’s because we will have two Weird Wednesday posts today (yes, I realize it’s a Thursday).

By now everybody should be familiar with the FlexPerk credit cards offered by U.S bank, they offer a Visa & American Express version. These cards are interesting because FlexPoints can be worth up to 2¢ each when redeeming for flights and 1.5¢ each when redeeming for hotels.

U.S Bank FlexPerk Reserve Credit Cards

There are two FlexPerk credit cards that you might not be familiar with, they are: U.S. Bank FlexPerks Reserve American Express Card & FlexPerks Reserve Visa Signature Card.

Visa Version

There isn’t a lot of information about the Visa version of this card. The information page basically states:

  • You can start redeeming for airline flights starting at 20,000 points
  • It has an EMV chip
  • You get free access to some airport lounges, but it’s non specific
  • There are no foreign transaction fees
  • It comes with the ability to redeem for NetJet (starting at only 395,000 points per hour)
  • Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection benefits

American Express Version

Fortunately there is a lot more information about the American Express version of the card.

  • Earns at the following rates:
    • 3x points on charitable donations
    • 2x points on air, gas or grocery purchases, whichever you spend the most in each month
    • 1x point on all other purchases
  • Annual fee of $299 is waived the first year
  • Sign up bonus of 20,000 points when you spend $3,500 or more within the first four months of account opening
  • 50% Monthly Relationship Bonus
  • Annual bonus of 20,000 points when you spend $60,000 or more in a Cardmember year
  • $500 Airport Lounge Access each year (this is a one time reimbursement for a lounge membership. Cannot be used to purchase day passes for individual lounges)
  • EMV chip & no foreign transaction fees
  • Luxury concierge service
  • Regus Businessworld Preferred Membership
  • Preferred rates with BostonCoach
  • National Car Rental Benefits:  Free Weekend Day (2-day rental w/Saturday required), up to 25% discount on car rentals and Emerald Club privileges
  • CONNECT from American Express

us bank flexperks

The relationship bonus seems particularly interesting, the fine print says that you must be a client of “Private Client Reserve” and you earn a 50% bonus on all points earned, less any refunds. This means that the card would actually earn at the following rate:

  • 4.5x points on charitable donations
  • 3x points on air, gas or grocery purchases, whichever you spend the most in each month
  • 1.5x point on all other purchases

If you got the maximum value out of your points (and that is unlikely) this card would earn the following rates in cash back terms:

  • 9% cash back on charitable donations
  • 6% cash back points on air, gas or grocery purchases, whichever you spend the most in each month
  • 3% cash back on all other purchases

Which would make it best in show for all of those categories and that’s before also taking into account the 20,000 point bonus after $60,000 in spend. Although obviously these calculations are kind of silly, because you’re not going to get the full value out of your points and you’re going to run out of paid flights to redeem your points for.

Eligibility

To be eligible for these cards you need to be a client of U.S Bank Private Client Reserve. I’ll let their about page explain who is eligible:

The Private Client Reserve is part of U.S. Bank Wealth Management, serving clients with
$3 million or more in net worth.

Final Thoughts

Having three million in net worth is probably achievable for a lot of people, the problem is U.S Bank probably wants to also manage all or if not most of that money. If you’re already part of private client reserve then I’d consider these cards, but for the majority of people (myself included) these aren’t an option.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

5 Comments
newest
oldest most voted

Jason
Jason (@guest_74701)
February 12, 2015 19:34

Flexperks is def overlooked by lots of people, I’ve redeemed 120k. It’s interesting to see US Bank building a line of cards around their single currency. Hopefully they will follow Citi and try to introduce some transfer partners.

Frequent Miler
Frequent Miler (@guest_74590)
February 12, 2015 14:38

This is really interesting. I was thinking of seeing what it would take to become a Private Client (maybe they don’t really require 3 million…) for that great relationship bonus, but when I read the fine print of the offer I found that I read it differently. I think you’ll only get half a point bonus per dollar spent regardless of category bonuses. If so, the earning rates would be:

3.5x points on charitable donations
2.5x points on air, gas or grocery purchases, whichever you spend the most in each month
1.5x point on all other purchases

Those are still very good earning rates for FlexPoints, but maybe not enough to jump through hoops for the relationship bonus. That said, I still find the card intriguing. I’m wondering if any lounge memberships come with valuable perks besides getting into a lounge?…

HenryGeorge
HenryGeorge (@guest_89319)
March 17, 2015 15:59

Did you hear back on this?