[ 2021 ] What Credit Card rewards do you get for paying your maintenance fees?

[DRIless]

Well, you've got me beat by 7 years - I've only been a member for 41 years....

I opened a North Island FCU account in 1968. My first ship was homeported at NAS North Island in Coronado. Changed to NFCU in 1974 because is was way more convenient than NICFU.

I think I'm on 50 years with NFCU.
They've introduced a new Flagship Premier Visa Signature® card with 4X travel including MFs and 10X travel as a bonus for the first 90days up to 15,000points. It also has 3X on restaurants $100 flight credit annually, TSA credit, and a overseas data plan benefit.

The kicker is if you 'upgrade' your Flagship Rewards Visa Signature® card that has 3X travel including MFs and you carry a balance on that card, the new cards lowest interest charge is 2+% higher AND you can't go back to Rewards, it's not offered with the new card's introduction. Another big gotcha is that the 'everything else' category drops from 2X to 1X.

MIND GAMES from NFCU trying to get you to upgrade to a card that if you use it for everything else and carry any balance you'll be paying more.

The new card w/o upgrading has a 50,000point bonus with a $4000 spend in the first 90days.
I'm thinking of going the new card route to Premier, closing the Rewards card, and getting their 2X everything Cash Rewards card.
My travel spend on MFs is quite large.

 

[chapjim]

I looked at the new card but haven't decided how to go. 4X on travel would be nice. Wyndham MF is over $1,500/moth plus annual HVC, HGVC, and ROCB fees. However, NFCU hasn't been calling HVC and HGVC MFs travel, just purchases.

Merchandise rewards don't seem to be as attractive as they used to be. Old folks like us don't need kitchen appliances, power tools, jewelry, etc. I guess it's cash cards or deposits to an account.

If I do anything, it will probably be just what you suggest.

 

[JWM2021]

I have the BOA premium rewards and get an automatic 75% bump due to our relationship. 3.5 cents per dollar on all dining and travel, 2.6 cents per dollar on all other spendings.

I have several of BOAs "3-2-1" cards, 2 of which are normally pointed at travel so with the relationship bonus, we get 5.25% back on travel (in addition to several other categories)

 

[DRIless]

NFCU hasn't been calling HVC and HGVC MFs travel, just purchases.

Sounds like a (lack of) planning thing but NFCU is saying Travel is typically coded as airline, hotel, car rental, bus lines, taxis, cruise lines, time shares, parking, rideshare, and transit. You should be able to get them to accommodate as the words time shares are part of their definition!!!

 

[Floridaman76]

Sounds like a (lack of) planning thing but NFCU is saying Travel is typically coded as airline, hotel, car rental, bus lines, taxis, cruise lines, time shares, parking, rideshare, and transit. You should be able to get them to accommodate as the words time shares are part of their definition!!!

I'm going on a cruise in December and my final payment was due in September. I waited till the last day and paid it with my Discover Card which this month was offering 5% cash back on travel. They didn't code this cruise for travel, so I have to call them to try to get it fixed, that's the only reason I even used that card...

The cruise got coded as "entertainment"

 

[chapjim]

Sounds like a (lack of) planning thing but NFCU is saying Travel is typically coded as airline, hotel, car rental, bus lines, taxis, cruise lines, time shares, parking, rideshare, and transit. You should be able to get them to accommodate as the words time shares are part of their definition!!!

Right after this exchange, I applied on-line for the Flagship Premier Visa Signature® card and was turned down!! I've been with Navy Fed since 1974, have a FICO score of 834, and haven't been charged a fee on a credit card balance for decades. So, I was a little puzzled at the rejection.

We were out running around today and my wife had a couple of checks to deposit so I asked one of the member service reps what was up. Turns out the reason was I already had more than three credit cards, plus a debit card. One of the cards was a NFCU MasterCard that I used to use to pay Wyndham maintenance fees but I hadn't used since back in 2024 when I started using a VISA for those payments. Forgot I even had the card, which was in a drawer until I ran it through the shredder this afternoon.

After taking care of that, I asked about why Wyndham maintenance fees were coded as Travel yet Hilton's were coded as Purchase. The rep said Navy Fed just takes the coding provided by the company that reports the transaction. Navy Fed has no way of changing Purchase to Travel.

 

[DRIless]

Right after this exchange, I applied on-line for the Flagship Premier Visa Signature® card and was turned down!! I've been with Navy Fed since 1974, have a FICO score of 834, and haven't been charged a fee on a credit card balance for decades. So, I was a little puzzled at the rejection.

We were out running around today and my wife had a couple of checks to deposit so I asked one of the member service reps what was up. Turns out the reason was I already had more than three credit cards, plus a debit card. One of the cards was a NFCU MasterCard that I used to use to pay Wyndham maintenance fees but I hadn't used since back in 2024 when I started using a VISA for those payments. Forgot I even had the card, which was in a drawer until I ran it through the shredder this afternoon.

After taking care of that, I asked about why Wyndham maintenance fees were coded as Travel yet Hilton's were coded as Purchase. The rep said Navy Fed just takes the coding provided by the company that reports the transaction. Navy Fed has no way of changing Purchase to Travel.

So, guess I'll just be happy keeping the Hilton CC for the Hilton MFs and hotel stays, that's really all I use it for.