Funny Conversations I Have With My Bank

a group of credit cards

My bank called me today. They had a special Visa Signature card offer just for “their best customers.” It was a typical rewards card, but my ears perked up a little bit when I heard her mention you earned 5 points per dollar and it could be redeemed for a variety of things, including cash back.

These cards are usually not a good value compared to cards that directly earn cashback or miles, but at 5 points per dollar, it was worth looking into. She’d already moved on to the general benefits of having a Visa Signature card (like concierge service and having your cell phone replaced up to $600) but I stopped her to ask her about the conversion rate for cashback.

She wasn’t sure, but once I had the card I’d be able to log in and see all my redemption options.

At that point I decided to be very candid. “I’m really into miles and points and I have a lot of credit cards. I’m not really interested in ‘bank name rewards’ unless the cashback percentage is better than what I currently have. So before I would apply, I’d need to know what my return would be.”

“How many credit cards do you have?”

“10” (which actually might not have been true…I might have more)

At that point she tried a different tack. If I already had that many cards, while she was sure I wouldn’t want another, there was no harm in just applying for the card since it had no annual fee and then I’d be able to see all my options.

I’m not really interested in pointless inquiries on my credit, and politely told her so, asking her if she roughly knew the range for cashback percentage. You get 5 points per dollar, so 5% rewards. “Yes, but how many points does it take to equal a dollar in cashback? If I earn 5 points, can I cash that in for 5 cents?” If so, that seemed like an awesome deal since the best cashback card I know is only 2%.

She finally admitted that she didn’t know and I told her that unless I knew the card could provide more than 2% cashback, I wasn’t interested. She offered to look into it and call me back if it was 2% or more.

I wasn’t trying to be rude but those details are important! I think she’d also picked up early on in the conversation that I was probably a little more informed than most of the customers she called about the card. It reminded me of the time American Express called to make sure I was aware of all the ways I could optimize my credit cards.

I’m hoping she will discover the card offers more than 2% cashback on all purchases and then I’ll have something exciting to share with ya’ll!

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2 Comments

  1. It’s probably 500 points per dollar. 10 points per airline miles. Haha.

    This reminds of the Alec Baldwin Capital One commercial touting double miles. Sounds good until you realize that those are not real airline miles…

  2. If the bank if PNC or Keybank, pass–their points are worth about a fifth of a cent each. If it’s Wells Fargo, tell them you want the 5% cash back version, not the 5% points version. If it’s none of the above, I’m really curious about what bank this is. 🙂

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