When I first moved to the United States many moons ago, I opened a bank account and a credit card account with BofA. When I quickly realized that they would charge me a fee for everything from withdrawing money from ATMs to just having a pulse I quickly fired them and moved on to SunTrust who have heretofore treated me pretty well.
Shortly after starting to deal with SunTrust I got a credit card with them and life went on. After several years the BofA card lapsed and that account closed.
Not too long ago, at Clark Howard’s suggestion, I looked for some kind of financial rewards card. I’m pretty basic financially, if I don’t understand a financial product I’m really not interested in it. So those bizarre air miles cards or “redeem for prizes” Discover cards held no interest for me. Along came Charles Schwab with a financial rewards card that offered 2% cash back on everything. They actually offered more back on some special items but I’m not wasting my time trying to keep up with that nonsense.
Charles Schwab eventually decided that they no longer wanted that portfolio and sold it to… you guessed it, BofA. BofA promptly eviscerated the card benefits and made the card uninteresting to me.
Meanwhile SunTrust had sold its credit card portfolio to… you guessed it, BofA. Now I’m waiting to see what they do to this card because it’s the only card I own that does not charge a foreign transaction fee premium (3% is the norm I think). So I like to use it when traveling.
Meanwhile SunTrust has begun soliciting me, they seem curious to know why I wouldn’t want a SunTrust Credit card.
So, to look at me I’m apparently some kind of BofA fanboy because I trust them with so much of my credit business.
Time to look for some good Credit cards again. Let me know if you know of any that offer understandable rewards…
I don’t know about down there, but here, Costco offers an American Express card with 2% back (3% on some stuff). They also have gas stations that sell about 5% cheaper, so the gas savings will cover the membership costs.
@King – I’d really have to think before doing the Amex thing. While they’re at least accepted at more places now than they used to be, they usually have some heinous annual fees associated with them or at least the offers I see for their cards usually indicate this.
It’s still true that they are not accepted at as many places as say VISA. I would guess perhaps 10% of the places i’ve tried to use it since I got it in Jan, it has not been accepted. As for the annual fee, here in Canada, the costco one has not fee, but ofcourse, there is the costco membership fee so it’s sort of there. BTW, did you check your local costco for montreal smoked meat?
I have one of each of the major cards. I do not pay an annual fee on any of them. I refuse to do so and do not find any of their so called advanced benefits warrant it in my case. The Amex is accepted in fewer cases, mostly discount malls.
I tend to stick to my MBNA MasterCard though as it has the cash back and you don’t have to wait until the end of the year. They send me a $50 cheque every now and then.
I found the Capital One Cash Credit Card by MasterCard that has no foreign transaction fee Marc. Hopefully that will do or you will be able to find something else that suits your needs.
@Linda – I’ll have to check with Capital One if I find that BofA has completely ruined that card as well. I’m going to wait a bit on the card thing to see where I’m sitting credit-wise after this whole pool project ends.
@King – King, I’m not a member of Costco. I have some friends who have generously offered to take me there but there are none that are really handy so I just haven’t made the effort yet. Besides, NOBODY here knows what I’m talking about when I say “Smoked Meat”. The usual response is.. What kind of smoked meat? Logical but it doesn’t give me much hope that I’ll find what I’m looking for South of the Mason-Dixon line 🙂