# AGR Credit Card



## Exvalley (Feb 10, 2021)

I've always been partial to the Marriott Bonvoy card, but I am seriously considering switching to the AGR card.

Right now the promotion for opening the annual-fee card is 20,000 points.. Is that the best people have seen or should I hold out and wait?

Also, can you drop down to the no-fee card? The perks of the annual fee card don't really seem worth it to me, but the extra points for the opening bonus definitely are.


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## me_little_me (Feb 10, 2021)

I got the higher card for two years then put in for the no-fee one and canceled the pay one and collected bonuses on both.

But beware, unlike Chase who provides the Marriott card (and who used to be the Amtrak card provider), BoA, IMHO, is just sleazy and slimy so I only use it any more for Amtrak expenses unless they have a special deal. Two Christmases ago, they had a great two month targeted special on points for spending but last Christmas, they made the rules so vague that I was afraid to use it because of that and for the one, known legitimate expense (electronics at Walmart) they cheated me out of the bonus.
Every time I use their card, I have to take a shower to wash off the sleaze.


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## PaTrainFan (Feb 10, 2021)

me_little_me said:


> I got the higher card for two years then put in for the no-fee one and canceled the pay one and collected bonuses on both.
> 
> But beware, unlike Chase who provides the Marriott card (and who used to be the Amtrak card provider), BoA, IMHO, is just sleazy and slimy so I only use it any more for Amtrak expenses unless they have a special deal. Two Christmases ago, they had a great two month targeted special on points for spending but last Christmas, they made the rules so vague that I was afraid to use it because of that and for the one, known legitimate expense (electronics at Walmart) they cheated me out of the bonus.
> Every time I use their card, I have to take a shower to wash off the sleaze.



I have the AGR World Card now, but have been thinking of doing what you did: opening the other card for the bonus points. I presume that is kosher? They dont care if you have two AGR cards, I presume. I charge everything on the card and pay it off every month to gain as many points as possible. I have nevr had an issue with it. I don't need more than one card, but 12,000 extra points would be great.


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## Bob Dylan (Feb 10, 2021)

PaTrainFan said:


> I have the AGR World Card now, but have been thinking of doing what you did: opening the other card for the bonus points. I presume that is kosher? They dont care if you have two AGR cards, I presume. I charge everything on the card and pay it off every month to gain as many points as possible. I have nevr had an issue with it. I don't need more than one card, but 12,000 extra points would be great.


Lots of us have done that since BOA took over from CHASE.


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## PaTrainFan (May 5, 2021)

I wonder about this game: has anyone ever cancelled one of the cards, only to reapply months later to get the bonus points? I am guessing that wouldn't fly, but I have both cards and only use one.


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## MARC Rider (May 5, 2021)

I've had the World card for at least 4 years, and I've never had any problems with service from BOA. I pay my balance in full every month, and do all my banking through their website. Last month, I bought some furniture online and blew way past my credit limit, and they didn't blink, but just let me keep using the card. (I just paid most of that back with the latest bill.) They seem to be pretty good about security; every time I've made a large or unusual purchase, I get a text asking me if I really made that purchase. Once they cancelled my card because of a security breach, but they replaced it pretty quickly. (That's one reason I have 2 credit cars -- if one gets cancelled, I still have the other to work with.)

I mainly got it for the TQP bonus points -- you get 1,000 TQP for every $5,000 you spend, up to 4,000 TQP. This makes it a lot easier for me to qualify for Select Plus, as I can make it by only having to spend $3,000 a year on Amtrak travel instead of $5,000 a year. The extra points don't hurt either. I will also appreciate the "no foreign transaction fees" if they ever open up the borders and let us travel outside the US again (and if I feel comfortable doing so.)


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## City of Miami (May 5, 2021)

me_little_me said:


> Iunless they have a special deal.


There is a promotion now which drew me in. For May and June 2% cash back on all purchases. That's potentially 5% when your agr points are considered. You have to register with a long code which i received in snail mail offer.


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## jebr (May 5, 2021)

City of Miami said:


> There is a promotion now which drew me in. For May and June 2% cash back on all purchases. That's potentially 5% when your agr points are considered. You have to register with a long code which i received in snail mail offer.



I got the same one. Given some frustrations with BoA and my skepticism that things will ever work perfectly with them, I'm only using the card for spend that I can't get 4% or better on with other cards, and I'm not switching any of my recurring transactions over to it for the two months that the promo is active. It still covers a lot (I can pay rent by credit card for a low fee and even pre-pay it a bit, and my car insurance renewal is coming up as well) but I still consider 4+% cash back better than 1 AGR point and potentially 2% cash back if the promo works as advertised.


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## City of Miami (May 5, 2021)

jebr said:


> but I still consider 4+% cash back better than 1 AGR point and potentially 2% cash back if the promo works as advertised.


I only get 1.5% cash back on the Capital One card I abandoned B of A and agr for. I never had any particular problem with B of A but now I wish I'd taken a screenshot of the confirmation of registration.


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## jebr (May 5, 2021)

City of Miami said:


> I only get 1.5% cash back on the Capital One card I abandoned B of A and agr for. I never had any particular problem with B of A but now I wish I'd taken a screenshot of the confirmation of registration.



Yeah, I have approximately a zillion cards that I try and keep track of to maximize the cash back I get. If you're wanting to just deal with one credit card and travel on Amtrak enough to use the points (which you seem to do) the BoA AGR card is pretty good.


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## PaTrainFan (May 5, 2021)

jebr said:


> I got the same one. Given some frustrations with BoA and my skepticism that things will ever work perfectly with them, I'm only using the card for spend that I can't get 4% or better on with other cards, and I'm not switching any of my recurring transactions over to it for the two months that the promo is active. It still covers a lot (I can pay rent by credit card for a low fee and even pre-pay it a bit, and my car insurance renewal is coming up as well) but I still consider 4+% cash back better than 1 AGR point and potentially 2% cash back if the promo works as advertised.



I never received this pomo and when I called B of A the CSR claimed ignorance on it. But that's no surprise; a couple of months ago I was given information on another promo that I later found out was incorrect. Sometimes these are targeted offers, however.


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## me_little_me (May 5, 2021)

City of Miami said:


> There is a promotion now which drew me in. For May and June 2% cash back on all purchases. That's potentially 5% when your agr points are considered. You have to register with a long code which i received in snail mail offer.


I just recently booked our trip to Colorado. THe only use of my card in six months. I did not get the offer. 

My wife has not used her card for six months. She got the offer.

We both have our own card because we each were able to get the bonus.


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## daybeers (May 6, 2021)

City of Miami said:


> There is a promotion now which drew me in. For May and June 2% cash back on all purchases. That's potentially 5% when your agr points are considered. You have to register with a long code which i received in snail mail offer.


I’ve been a World card holder for two or three years now I believe and I didn’t get the offer. Going to switch to the no fee card once the annual period ends in September as I feel a flat percentage cash back card would give me more value (I’m young and can’t afford sleepers mostly).


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## Michigan Mom (May 11, 2021)

Because I am the slowest person you will ever meet... it's taken a while, too long of a while, but I am now looking closely at what my AGR card really brings for using it. It didn't used to be this way, it is far more expensive to redeem points for travel, than it is to just pay for the travel. One point per dollar of purchases, combined with what the redemption values are now, is extremely poor value. I told you, I'm slow. For the future, the plan is, use that card to pay for Amtrak purchases, yes. Everything else, no. They don't make it worth it.


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## bratkinson (May 11, 2021)

WARNING to all current BofA credit card holders: They've come up with a 'new' payment screen popup that shows all your CCs with them (they've bought the companies that had 2 of mine, plus my 2 AGR cards). When making an online payment, if you're not careful, it will default the payment date to 'payment due date' rather than 'today'. I didn't realize it until I looked at my checking account balance the next day and found the payments hadn't cleared. Payments on my Chase and Citibank cards cleared as normal.

So, I called the number on the back of the card (reaching an agent was the most difficult I've ever encountered) and had a long discussion with a totally confused agent on the other end of the phone about "Where'd my payment go? Here's the confirmation numbers!" She not only had no clue, but also indicated that she has no screen in which to enter a confirmation number and see where it is!

I then tried to describe 'present value'/'future value' of money with her and she was completely clueless. 35 years ago, I was half of a team for a major programming project at a regional bank that would automatically advise our largest customers the total amount, to the penny, of checks that were going to 'clear' that day by 8AM! That way, they could call us or other friendly banks and get a one-day certificate of deposit for 10s of millions of dollars they had 'left over'. The amount of interest they'd earn, even calculated on a daily rate to 5 decimal places, was still sizable. Obviously, the wiz kids at BofA have little to no interest in getting my money in their bank TODAY and making money on it.

It took a call the next day when the agent I talked with told me how to view 'pending' payments (what a convoluted mess to get there!) There were my 2 payments. One would be paid on the 7th and the other on the 10th. So, on the 8th, I checked my bank account and the first one got paid already, but for $350 LESS than I had entered!! So I quickly made an extra payment to clear the balance for the missing amount before the billing cycle on the 9th.

Then, to add insult to injury, I got a snail-mail letter from them on Saturday indicating: "We were unable to find a record of receiving payments for $nnnn.nn (my 'lost' payment amount) dated April 28, 2021. If you haven't already done so, please submit a replacement payment to avoid any fees or interest charges." AND THIS IS A BANK I SHOULD DO BUSINESS WITH?????

It's a good thing I checked yesterday, the 10th, to ensure my extra payment was processed. But...to my horror, the payment for the second credit card HAD BEEN CANCELLED on the 7th!!! I quickly put THAT back in and hopefully, they won't ding my credit rating for being 'late'! That now shows on my bank account.

Perhaps they are thinking they are being 'nice' to the customer to let them keep the money until the due date. Back when everyone wrote checks to make payments, I never wrote a check until I knew the money was in the bank to cover it. I never 'kite'd checks like my first wife did (that's one of the reasons we divorced after only 9 months!) When I pay a bill online, I know the money is in my account when I pay it.

I'll take a wild guess that leaving the money in the payors' checking account until due date will, in the end, cause countless NSF (insufficient funds) for the unwary. While in the ATM line, I've often seen people get their balance, then make a withdrawl. If they see the not-yet-taken-CC-payment money, they'll think they can take some of it out as cash today. So, I guess, BofA is smarter than I thought, if the foolish, unwary CC customers also have their checking/savings accounts at BofA...think of all that overdraft fee money they'll be making!!

So, beware all you BofA AGR credit card holders. Their screwed up computer systems may screw up YOUR payments, too!!!


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## Bob Dylan (May 12, 2021)

Michigan Mom said:


> Because I am the slowest person you will ever meet... it's taken a while, too long of a while, but I am now looking closely at what my AGR card really brings for using it. It didn't used to be this way, it is far more expensive to redeem points for travel, than it is to just pay for the travel. One point per dollar of purchases, combined with what the redemption values are now, is extremely poor value. I told you, I'm slow. For the future, the plan is, use that card to pay for Amtrak purchases, yes. Everything else, no. They don't make it worth it.


Lots of us dropped the World Card for the Platinum MC instead of paying the Annual Fee!

Cash back is probably a better deal unless you ride regularly ( like people on the NEC) on Amtrak and spend Lots of $$$ on Travel!


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## Michigan Mom (May 12, 2021)

So, beware all you BofA AGR credit card holders. Their screwed up computer systems may screw up YOUR payments, too!!!

[apologies for my messing up the quote feature...]


Curious, is this using the smartphone app? I've been using the antiquated desktop version and just verified, it hasn't changed the format for payments. You select either the card balance, statement balance that most recently calculated, or specify amount. You then select the "deliver by" date - which defaults to today, until after a certain time of day, it would default to the next business day. You can also select a different date off the calendar but I never do. That's it for steps. If you had these issues trying to get banking accomplished with an app I am never, ever getting that app.


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## me_little_me (May 12, 2021)

I've said for years that you can't trust BoA any longer than you can throw them.


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## Amtrakfflyer (May 13, 2021)

Canceled the $79 dollar card about 6 months ago switched it to the free one. Yesterday I get a specific invitation to get the $79 card again with another 20,000 bonus points and $250 cash back if I charge only $1000 in first 90 days. Probably too good a deal to pass up. I see this as acknowledging the card is having issues keeping and adding cardholders.


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## jebr (May 13, 2021)

Amtrakfflyer said:


> Canceled the $79 dollar card about 6 months ago switched it to the free one. Yesterday I get a specific invitation to get the $79 card again with another 20,000 bonus points and $250 cash back if I charge only $1000 in first 90 days. Probably too good a deal to pass up. I see this as acknowledging the card is having issues keeping and adding cardholders.



It might also be targeting people who downgraded during the pandemic - with things opening up and people traveling more, they may figure that they can get people to upgrade again with a bit of a push, hopefully keeping the card after the first year when travel is back to normal (and people want to keep those extra benefits of the $79 card again.)


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## AmtrakBlue (May 13, 2021)

Amtrakfflyer said:


> Canceled the $79 dollar card about 6 months ago switched it to the free one. Yesterday I get a specific invitation to get the $79 card again with another 20,000 bonus points and $250 cash back if I charge only $1000 in first 90 days. Probably too good a deal to pass up. I see this as acknowledging the card is having issues keeping and adding cardholders.


I have both cards and I got that promo, so I'm sure they didn't send it to you because you canceled yours.


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## daybeers (May 13, 2021)

I have the World card and they still emailed the promo. Will probably change to the free card in September when the year is up.


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## Bob Dylan (May 13, 2021)

AmtrakBlue said:


> I have both cards and I got that promo, so I'm sure they didn't send it to you because you canceled yours.


I did the same thing, and I got the offer too! I'll pass!


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