USAA offer the Limitless card that offers 2.5% cash back (if you have a $1,000 monthly direct deposit into your USAA checking account). Making it one of the best cards for non bonused spend. The card is in a pilot program and they are slowly adding more states, it’s now also available in AR, CT, FL, ND, MN. A full list of the states it’s available in is as follows:
- AL, AR, AZ, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MI, MN, ND, NM, NV, NY, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX and WA
You can read our full review of this card here. You can read more about USAA credit cards in general here.
Hat tip to reader Jimmy.
I have a question in regards to the direct deposit or ACH qualification of a $1K a month. If I ACH in $1K but ACH out a $1k in the same month does that still qualify? I’m guessing either it does because they just look at incoming, or it doesn’t because they look at net ACH $ in at the end of the month.
Thanks
Matt
few bits of info for you guys…
1,000 deposited a month has to be from a bankroll check or another bank you can’t move “usaa money”. CSR wasn’t sure about credit cards but she was positive that if I push 1,000 into that account from another bank it is perfecty fine
its a hard pull on your credit
if you cancel the card in a month you lose the rewards you’ve accrued during that month unless
One card per person
That’s good news about the transfer from “another bank” counts. So, that makes this more appealing. Personally, that means I would just start doing my bill pays from there and if I have a surplus just move it back out, or invest it with them.
CC’s are (almost) always a hard pull, or are you talking about the Checking account? Usually there isn’t a HP for checking, unless you opt-in for overdraft protection.
No AF – so no rush to cancel.
Since there is limitless rewards, why would you want more than one? There isn’t a signup bonus, so having multiples is useless to most.
I can’t wait for this card to come to my state! For the folks who don’t understand why 2.5% is so much better than 2.0% here’s how it works out for me. I’m a landlord. I pay $1000s in property taxes every year. Most of the tax authorities in my jurisdictions take credit cards but have a fee in the 2.25%-2.5% range. My accountant says I can legit book the fee as a business expense and not consider any personal card rebates as income. I’m not willing to take a “loss” here but I am definitely willing to “break even” for a 2.5% rebate on a 2.5% fee. I will then be able to turn the 2.5% on property taxes into both a 2.5% reduction of taxable income + a 2.5% tax free refund. That’s a lot of steak dinners…
I havent used USAA’s debit or credit cards in years. USAA is my main banking tool for checking, savings and insurance.
Same, which is the only reason I’m debating this.
I don’t see the issue. I have their auto insurance, investment, and a savings acct. They are just like any other credit card co. They send you a separate bill – you pay it. Online login is all the same. I had one card with them less than 2 years ago. Everything went well, but I opted to close it just because I was weeding out my wallet at the time. They offered to PC me at the time but I declined. In my experience, they give out a higher credit limit than other CC co’s, but I am a longtime member w/ exc. credit.
Considering how a linked checking account with $12k/year in direct deposits is a prerequisite, really not worth the hassle unless you’re already a committed banking ucstomer. Plus, the cash redemption value of a USAA point is < $0.01.
What’s the current over/under for when they nerf this?
yea, i think this is clearly a customer acquisition scheme similar to the santander $20/month bonus. Makes you wonder how much you are going to be able to benefit from the extra 0.5%. Just for some figures, if a standard credit card bonus is worth say $500, you’d have to spend 100k on this card to get a marginal return (above the typical 2%) equal to that kind of bonus money.
Most “standard” credit card bonuses are not worth $500 – usually only the travel cards, that require mega-spend or MS cheats for the average person to achieve, and then, take trips to use those points to go places to spend more money. Most people are not churners. This would make a great “everything not in a 3-5% category”, or those that don’t want to keep up with categories. Some people don’t even bother with CC rewards, so 2.5% return could be huge. But, it all depends on your finances and ability to pay in full each month to make almost any CC offer worthwhile.
Is it worth making them your DD destination is the biggest hangup for myself. It might take away from my bank bonus churning. I see there is only one DP for what USAA counts as a DD – Navy Federal. For those that have this card and have a work-around for the DD to get full 2.5%, please provide feedback to Doc.
That, and they may change the terms whenever they see fit. My bet would be about 6 months after roll-out is completely nationwide. By that time they should have a good idea if it has been profitable overall to gain CC business, take some of Citi D/C and other 1.5 & 2%’s customers, and take in more DD’s. As announced, it’s a pilot program, a.k.a. a feasibility study or experimental trial, and will change or end at some point.
All you need to do is ACH push the $1000 every month.
I have an ACH push to send roughly my monthly CC bill every month… Then if i charged more than that.. i just top off the bill pay with a pull of the rest.
Yep…ACH’ing through PP works
I disagree, I think you can get $500 of value out of a lot of bank account bonus (alaska 30k is close to that value, most chase, amex, citi bonuses are at or exceed that value for me). Regardless, say $250 per credit card bonus. That’s still $50,000 spend to equal a $250 marginal gain over the standard 2% card. Maximizing the return on your everyday spend is desirable, but for most people an extra 0.5% is not gonna be that much of a game-changer (especially when you consider the opportunity cost of passing on another signup bonus somewhere else).
That may be true, for you. For me, I would just end up with a bunch of miles or points that I then have to plan to use, or cash out for piss-poor gift cards that sit around or I sell at a reduced rate. Tell me how an Alaska points are going to do me any good if I don’t take any trips but once or twice a year, and usually don’t fly when I go. And even if I did fly, I live on the east coast near smaller airports where I am 99% sure Alaska doesn’t fly. If I am misinformed, please enlighten me.
I am not saying there isn’t value in CC sign-up bonuses, but MOST people don’t hunt for CC bonuses and value stability. Most people don’t like to take credit hits for new accounts. Personally my everyday spend usually does go toward a min. spend right now, but my in-between new card spend is going on a 1.5% card. I would gladly trade my Chase F/U card in for this one. I never went after Citi D/C because it doesn’t offer a sign-up bonus, and Fidelity 2% card is going to be a pain in the ass with having to keep open yet another brokerage account and $50 min. redemptions. Anyway, there comes a point where it is better to just stick with a primary card for the majority of your purchases and not accumulate so many new CC accounts/inquires, and I think I am on that verge.
I think worst case scenario on this card is that they lower this card down to 1.5% eventually, or keep the 2.5% and charge an AF… but I doubt they will, because they already offer a 1.25% flat rate card last time I checked.
Any military girl out there wants to marry me? I really want this card! I am also willing to relocate from CA to your respective state!
military boy works too!
Now that’s dedication.