New Fidelity Credit Card

[Chuckanut]

When I applied for the Chase Sapphire card they did it over the phone with a free credit check and my OK to unfreeze our account. I don't know how they managed this but I was impressed. Another card company forced me to unfreeze on my own.

IIRC, they checked my account with Experian and I was able to go online to the freeze/thaw site and get a one time use code number that I gave to the CC company. This avoided having to do a thaw and refreeze.

 

[athena53]

If they automatically switch over cards for everybody, I would think that would not generate a 'hard' hit on the credit report. Right?

I'm more concerned about it showing as a brand-new card instead of one that's been open since July, 2014. Cards with a long history are better for your score, which is why I've been hanging onto the Marriott Visa.

 

[audreyh1]

IIRC, they checked my account with Experience and I was able to go online to the freeze/thaw site and get a one time use code number that I gave to the CC company. This avoided having to do a thaw and refreeze.

Don't you hate the auto spell corrector. They shouldn't correct capitalized words in the middle of sentences.

 

[MRG]

Too funny - I had a chat session w/ a Fidelity rep about a month ago complaining about FIA Card Services.

As a current Fidelity Amex holder, I applaud the change. FIA is horrible.

FIA, would be an excellent acronym for their service(forum rules suggest I should not spell it out).

I love my 2% but their fraud detection is the pits. I just received my 4th replacement card for 2015!

The card number that Home Depot handed out, FIA refuses to un-associate that number with my current CC account. So every few months that old number gets used and FIA and I go round and round. So even if I lose that cards starting date to me it's a trade up, to get rid of the imbeciles.

 

[Cobra9777]

...Unclear to me if the current Fidelity Visa will be improved by the change to 2% cash back from the first dollar spent from it's current 2% after $15,000 spending, 1.5% up to $15k...

I have both the 2% AMEX and the 1.5% VISA. I doubt they'll change the old 1.5% VISA, which is administered by FIA. I think they'll just replace the FIA AMEX with the new 2% VISA administered by US Bank, with same T&Cs. I'll close down the old VISA since it's only purpose was for use at merchants who don't accept AMEX.

$50 - that has always been the min redemption for Fidelity AMEX. I have automatic redemptions, and some months skip because the threshold wasn't met.

I'm embarrassed to say we hit the threshold every month.

 

[audreyh1]

I have been frustrated with the FIA alerts. I can't set up a "card not present" alert, for "amount over $X" for example, something that would quickly flag a pending charge that I didn't make.

I had a couple of >$800 charges from Victoria Secret recently, and I just happened to check the credit card online for an unrelated issue and saw them still pending. FIA Card Services took care of it, cancelled card, sent new ones, etc., but if it had been BofA I would have received an immediate email about the charge and taken action.

Bank of America has a really extensive set of credit card alerts, and I use them heavily.

 

[Chuckanut]

Don't you hate the auto spell corrector. They shouldn't correct capitalized words in the middle of sentences.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Experience is now Experian.

 

[Chuckanut]

I'm more concerned about it showing as a brand-new card instead of one that's been open since July, 2014. Cards with a long history are better for your score, which is why I've been hanging onto the Marriott Visa.

Good point.

My Costco Amex is my second longest running CC. So, I hope they let me keep it as such when Costco switches to Visa. But, I have heard that we must all reapply. I hope not.

 

[Chuckanut]

I have been frustrated with the FIA alerts. I can't set up a "card not present" alert, for "amount over $X" for example, something that would quickly flag a pending charge that I didn't make.

Agree. I wanted to setup a "your payment is due soon' alert after I missed one by a day due to a family event that occupied my time and my attention.

No go. Could not do it.

It did put it on my computer's calendar, but still it seems that in this day and age an email advising a imminent payment date cannot be that hard to implement.

 

[Cobra9777]

I've also had questionable experience with FIA. The website functionality is primitive by today's standards. But they've also been very proactive about alerting me to fraud. I think I'm on my 4th card now. Two of those resulted from the Target and Home Depot breaches. The other two were from their system correctly flagging suspicious activity. In any case, I'm looking forward to moving on with the new Fidelity VISA, although I have no experience with US Bank.

 

[nwsteve]

Once I learned FIA was owned by Bank America, any interest in their products disappeared. I experienced such incredible incompetence with BOA, I have compulsively avoided anything associated with them. Given the comments here and BOA performance during the 2008 financial debacles, I find my concerns to be validated on a regular basis.
Nwsteve

 

[mathjak107]

I have been frustrated with the FIA alerts. I can't set up a "card not present" alert, for "amount over $X" for example, something that would quickly flag a pending charge that I didn't make.

I had a couple of >$800 charges from Victoria Secret recently, and I just happened to check the credit card online for an unrelated issue and saw them still pending. FIA Card Services took care of it, cancelled card, sent new ones, etc., but if it had been BofA I would have received an immediate email about the charge and taken action.

Bank of America has a really extensive set of credit card alerts, and I use them heavily.

we just purchased tickets to disney on line and fia called us immediately to confirm the transaction .

i get payment due alerts through fidelity full view on my cards .

 

[audreyh1]

Once I learned FIA was owned by Bank America, any interest in their products disappeared. I experienced such incredible incompetence with BOA, I have compulsively avoided anything associated with them. Given the comments here and BOA performance during the 2008 financial debacles, I find my concerns to be validated on a regular basis.
Nwsteve

Except my experience with BofA credit cards has been exemplary - on fraud handling as well as alerts and online experience. I only have their no-fee, good rewards, one of which is no foreign transaction fee cards of course.

Yet FIA card services has been way frustrating and limited compared to the BofA cards.

 

[audreyh1]

we just purchased tickets to disney on line and fia called us immediately to confirm the transaction .

i get payment due alerts through fidelity full view on my cards .

They couldn't explain why I didn't get a call after my card was denied. They tried the excuse of being "after hours" but it was 6pm. I had received calls in the past after a card denial, and it was usually because I didn't have a travel notice on file. This time I had a travel notice, yet still denial, no call about that, and no catching two back-to-back fraudulent charges from two days prior. Something has changed.

I get payment due alerts - that's the least of the alerts I require. Monitoring CC activity is a lot easier when you can get alerts on card not present transactions and card charge above $X.

 

[bUU]

I have been frustrated with the FIA alerts. I can't set up a "card not present" alert, for "amount over $X" for example, something that would quickly flag a pending charge that I didn't make.

Do we know what alerts are available with this new credit card?

Currently, we have an Amazon.com VISA (3% back at Amazon.com; 2% at gas stations, restaurants and drugstores; 1% on other purchases), an AMEX Blue Cash Everyday (3% back at supermarkets; 2% at gas stations; 1% on other purchases), and a Discover Card (5% cashback for one category per quarter; 5% at drugstore.com through Discover Deals; 1% on other purchases).

I'm thinking of changing things up a bit, adding this new Fidelity VISA (2% back on everything?) and an Amazon.com Store Card (5% back at Amazon.com), and effectively replacing (or closing?) the Amazon.com VISA account. I'd still use the AMEX at supermarkets (it is actually convenient for budgeting to have all the transactions for our most common purchase stacked up in one account with no other purchases), and take advantage of whatever the Discover Card 5% cashback category is and to address my spouse's drugstore.com addiction, but use the new card for everything else.

I don't see a downside. Am I missing something?

 

[Senator]

I'm thinking of changing things up a bit, adding this new Fidelity VISA (2% back on everything?) and an Amazon.com Store Card (5% back at Amazon.com), and effectively replacing (or closing?) the Amazon.com VISA account. I'd still use the AMEX at supermarkets (it is actually convenient for budgeting to have all the transactions for our most common purchase stacked up in one account with no other purchases), and take advantage of whatever the Discover Card 5% cashback category is and to address my spouse's drugstore.com addiction, but use the new card for everything else.

I don't see a downside. Am I missing something?

Keep the Amazon.com store card set up on-line, then put it away in a drawer. Do not close the Amazon Visa card, as it could impact your credit by closing it. just put it in a drawer.

I am also going to consolidate my cards. After I charge my rental car (5%) this month, I am leaving my USB Cash Plus card at home. I have it set up for auto-pay for Cell Phone purchases (5%). Other than that, the categories are ones I seldom use.

Then, gas is all at 5% discount with my Sam's club card. I carry the Sam's card anyway. It also has 3% discount at Restaurants. I always also use gas coupons (on Tuesday for double cents off) and restaurants and

The Fidelity card will be used for everything else. I have a Chase card that is good for 3% off at Home Improvement stores, but it has limits, etc. I hate to get big charges and them be denied rebates due to some arbitrary quarterly limit. I also do not want to carry too many cards. Two is enough in my wallet.

 

[Lsbcal]

...
I'm thinking of changing things up a bit, adding this new Fidelity VISA (2% back on everything?) and an Amazon.com Store Card (5% back at Amazon.com), and effectively replacing (or closing?) the Amazon.com VISA account....

Drat, now you've gone and tempted me. I have the Amazon.com VISA and it's autopayed through our Chase account. But that 5% card is hard to ignore.

 

[bUU]

If a Chase customer is tempted, a Fidelity customer would be crazy not to consider the switch.

 

[Lsbcal]

For our protection we have security freezes in place with the credit agencies. I'm finding that applying for this card with a security freeze in place (with the 3 rating agencies) is not so easy. Apparently Elan Financial is the Fidelity source for the cards. When you apply, they could use any one of the 3 agencies.

An Elan rep (at 1.800.523.5354) suggested this:
1) lift the freeze on one service (TransUnion, or Experian, or Equifax)
2) fill out the application and submit. 33% chance of success.
3) if your credit check does not go through then maybe call Elan Underwriting at 1.800.364.9648
4) Hope that you do not have to lift with the other 2 credit agencies

Then to get the 2% money back you need a Fidelity account like the Cash Management account.

Seems like a hassle.

Has anyone successfully navigated this yet with security freezes on their accounts?

 

[foxfirev5]

For our protection we have security freezes in place with the credit agencies. I'm finding that applying for this card with a security freeze in place (with the 3 rating agencies) is not so easy. Apparently Elan Financial is the Fidelity source for the cards. When you apply, they could use any one of the 3 agencies.

An Elan rep (at 1.800.523.5354) suggested this:
1) lift the freeze on one service (TransUnion, or Experian, or Equifax)
2) fill out the application and submit. 33% chance of success.
3) if your credit check does not go through then maybe call Elan Underwriting at 1.800.364.9648
4) Hope that you do not have to lift with the other 2 credit agencies

Then to get the 2% money back you need a Fidelity account like the Cash Management account.

Seems like a hassle.

Has anyone successfully navigated this yet with security freezes on their accounts?

I haven't tried it, but I'm rapidly losing interest in the credit card. I just spent the last 6 months getting a cash flow plan in place using Fidelity cash management and their cc. Now I think I'll simplify and just w/d a lump sum and deposit it in an online bank transferring monthly to my local bank, just like my paycheck today. Besides that I really don't want the hassle of charging everything on a card to get a rebate. I really believe that most people will spend considerably less when they have to shell out actual dollars for each purchase. So maybe Fido is doing me a favor.

 

[bingybear]

I think the my fido card (and other major cards) show up on all 3 credit bureaus, so my guess is all would need unfrozen. Technically you should not need a complete unfreeze. I believe you can temporarily unfreeze for a specified company and a specific time frame.

I would expect that they will need to add a new account which would need the unfreeze unless fidelity is the one actually doing the credit reporting. I think they will have to close the old account an open up a new one, not just change the card numbers.

 

[foxfirev5]

I think the my fido card (and other major cards) show up on all 3 credit bureaus, so my guess is all would need unfrozen. Technically you should not need a complete unfreeze. I believe you can temporarily unfreeze for a specified company and a specific time frame.

I would expect that they will need to add a new account which would need the unfreeze unless fidelity is the one actually doing the credit reporting. I think they will have to close the old account an open up a new one, not just change the card numbers.

It's up to Fido to determine if they want my business or not. Simple

 

[bUU]

Expecting applicants to unfreeze their credit when applying for a credit card seems very reasonable, given that freezing of credit is, among other things, intended to block unauthorized folks from obtaining credit in someone else's name.

 

[gauss]

To avoid playing "Credit Bureau Roulette" and trying to guess which bureaus(s) a card issuer uses, I just applied without thawing and was subsequently rejected.

After receiving the rejection, I called the number on the rejection notice and inquired about the problem. They told me the bureau that they use. I then thawed and then called them back. They were then able to approve me on the spot during the phone call.

My example was using the Barclays Arrivial+ card. YMMV.

-gauss

 

[bingybear]

I talked with fidelity and the new card administrator. They say they should be able to do the change using the old card info and the history will remain. So it doesn't look like new credit, but existing credit.