Amtrak GR Mastercard from Chase

[the_traveler]

Even if your bill closes on say the 10th, the interest shown on the bill is computed to the 10th. But if you pay it in full - including the interest computed to the 10th - on the 15th, then there are 5 days of Internet that you did not pay. And that is why there is interest on the next month's bill! And every credit card, not just Chase, does this!

 

[me_little_me]

Even if your bill closes on say the 10th, the interest shown on the bill is computed to the 10th. But if you pay it in full - including the interest computed to the 10th - on the 15th, then there are 5 days of Internet that you did not pay. And that is why there is interest on the next month's bill! And every credit card, not just Chase, does this!

Wait!

Say I borrow $100 from you and have to pay it back on the 1st of July w/o interest. I fail to pay it all back so you say I owe the remainder plus interest and fees and have to pay it by August 1. I do so. Then you tell me I owe more interest because I accrued even more interest between July 1 and August 1?

So on August 1, you send me a new bill with interest from July 1 until August 1. I pay it by August 5. On September 1, you send me yet another bill for the interest from August 1 until August 5. I pay that on September 5 then you ...

I am still washing!

 

[the_traveler]

What I'm saying is that Chase (or any credit card company) prints the statement on the 10th (or whenever) and computes the interest that you owe until that date. Then they mail it to you and you do not receive it In the mail until a few days later (say the 15th). So there is a few days (in this example 5 days) of uncomputed, and unpaid, interest!

 

[gatelouse]

Holders of the "original" Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card will remember that it was run by MBNA, which specialized in affinity credit cards. Never had a problem with MBNA.

Then Bank of America bought out MBNA, and the AGR credit card was briefly discontinued until a new bank, which turns out to be Chase, was selected to offer the AGR credit card. Good thing, because I won't do business with the current Bank of America.

Chase has been perfectly reasonable for me. They're not your hometown bank, but for a big national financial firm, you can get plenty worse.

I'm a bit surprised that the credit card requires no annual fee to this day. I have to imagine this is at AGR's request; most of the other travel affinity cards have one. Though I'd be open to a second AGR card that offers additional perks (Club access, bonus points, upgrade certs, more point transfer opportunities, etc.) in exchange for an annual fee. Since Chase would purchase these benefits from AGR, Amtrak could benefit if enough people are interested.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

1. My personal customer service experiences with Chase have been pretty good so far. I've only had a couple issues and they were resolved to my satisfaction. However...

2. That doesn't change the fact that today's credit card contracts are allowed to make loans with rates and fees that were once the domain of loan sharks and mafioso. There is no situation I'm aware of where actually using their revolving credit line for its stated purpose makes any financial sense at all. None. Ever. If you don't pay off your entire debt every single month you're going to get shafted, even if it's entirely beyond your control. Every credit card is a gamble that you play every single month. Just because you won "free" points 99 months in a row doesn't mean you won't slip up and get burned on the 100th month. Once you make even a single mistake things starting going down hill mighty fast. Unless you're able to immediately settle your unpaid debts you're going to be ruing the day you ever signed on the dotted line. Credit card companies can tip each other off to any late payments through the credit reporting agencies and thus bring even more punitive rates and fees to the table for accounts that have never lapsed themselves. Don't believe it? Try reading the fine print in your most recent credit card contract.

3. Don't forget that "too big to fail" JP Morgan Chase required a sudden "investment" of $25,000,000,000 courtesy of the American taxpayer. This same "too big to care" company recently pissed away between two and four billion dollars on a single trade. Do you think they're going to care if they're penalized with an after-the-fact government imposed penalty that numbers in the millions? Of course not. Regardless of if you think Chase is right for your own finances, I think we can all agree that Chase is probably not that good for the country's finances as a whole. At least I hope we can.

If you want to do business with Chase that's certainly your decision, but please don't do it because of some false equivalency rubbish about every bank being equally bad or some Pollyanna nonsense about customer service overriding basic financial math.

 

[user 1215]

One thing I don't like about the card is the $95 annual fee. Do you get AGR points for that annual fee?

 

[Texan Eagle]

One thing I don't like about the card is the $95 annual fee. Do you get AGR points for that annual fee?

Um what? Chase AGR credit card does not have any annual fee. Did you opt for Chase Sapphire Preferred card that was giving some 50,000 points that can be moved to various airlines (and Amtrak?)

 

[user 1215]

I applied and was accepted today to so I could apply to travel this weekend. Only 12k points, and yes - no fee first year, $95 subsequent years. If this isn't typical, and I know it may seem to defeat the purpose, I will plan to cancel by this time next year after using it and paying off.

 

[Bob Dylan]

One thing I don't like about the card is the $95 annual fee. Do you get AGR points for that annual fee?

***?? Is this something new, there has never been an annual fee for the Chase AGR MC, did you perhaps have less than Tier I Credit or apply for a different card or is Chase planning on Surprising all of us when our Cards renew?? :angry2:

 

[Devil's Advocate]

There are at least two cards in play every time you apply for the Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard. The first is a "World" card and the second is a "Platinum" card if you're not approved for the World card. This may be why VF received different terms compared to others.

Also, and I really can't stress this enough, it is not advisable to sign up for the 12,000 points offer. Wait until you receive the 32,000 point offer before signing up and save every page of the process that mentions the point total. If you sign up for the 12,000 point offer you'll then need to spend between ten and twenty thousand dollars of your own money just to catch up to where you would have been if you had waited. Why would you want to do that?

 

[Texan Eagle]

One thing I don't like about the card is the $95 annual fee. Do you get AGR points for that annual fee?

***?? Is this something new, there has never been an annual fee for the Chase AGR MC, did you perhaps have less than Tier I Credit or apply for a different card or is Chase planning on Surprising all of us when our Cards renew?? :angry2:

Seems like a case of false alarm. The AGR credit card page on Chase website clearly states No Annual Fee.

 

[user 1215]

No false alarm. I was degraded to platinum which does carry fees. Notice the asterisk by "No Annual Fees".

I guess I'll just be a good boy, cancel when my year is up and maybe in the future join again under a 32k program.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Seems like a case of false alarm. The AGR credit card page on Chase website clearly states No Annual Fee.

From your very own link...

You will first be considered for a World MasterCard. If you do not qualify for that product, you will automatically be considered for a Platinum MasterCard, which has different rates, fees, benefits, and credit availability.

 

[Texan Eagle]

No false alarm. I was degraded to platinum which does carry fees. Notice the asterisk by "No Annual Fees".

I guess I'll just be a good boy, cancel when my year is up and maybe in the future join again under a 32k program.

This is strange. Generally I have seen the higher-end credit cards have fees (and additional benefits) but the "fallback" credit cards if one does not qualify for the original one are generally free or with lower annual fee than the "prestigious" card. Amtrak card is a rare case where the supposedly higher-end card is free but the fallback card has an annual fee!

Good to know for folks planning to get AGR card in the future.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

As I understand it there are at least five MasterCard levels.

1. Standard MasterCard

2. Gold MasterCard

3. Platinum MasterCard

4. World MasterCard

5. World Elite MasterCard

In this case the secondary card is still considered a premium card by Chase and the annual fee is probably there to pay for things like price protection, third party refunds, insurance liability, etc. which may or may not overlap with the features of the World Card depending on the issuer. I have a Platinum MasterCard through another issuer that does not have any sort of annual fee or even a minimum payment. In any case the $95 charge is still cheap compared to the American Express Platinum card, which costs $450 annually and is not waived for the first year.

 

[Blackwolf]

I have been spending some quality time scouring through all the documents regarding my Platinum AGR MasterCard, and nowhere can I find any indication of an annual fee. I have never paid one, and in the most recent contract agreement, under the reference line of Annual Fee there is $0 listed. I am no legal advisor, but wouldn't Chase be legally obligated to notify at least 30 days in advance of a change in contract where a fee would be instituted? I know American Express does this when ever something major changes in the contract, and so does Capital One. I would regard a new fee as a very large change in contract.

As such, my credit now as to when I first recieved the card has vastly improved (I am very much a Tier 1 credit score holder.) If Chase would decide to charge an annual fee for the Platinum but not for the World, then I would request an upgrade to World in a heartbeat. If Chase, for reasons I'm not remotely aware of, declined to upgrade then I would just cancel my account outright.

 

[amamba]

No false alarm. I was degraded to platinum which does carry fees. Notice the asterisk by "No Annual Fees".

I guess I'll just be a good boy, cancel when my year is up and maybe in the future join again under a 32k program.

You might want to check the terms of the bonus points - I am not sure that you are eligible for the 32K points if you have already had the AGR card from chase.

 

[user 1215]

You're probably right. I didn't know of a 32k program, so I'm hosed no matter what. Best I can hope for is the World card without any fee, even if I don't get to get points again.

Anyone know if Chase can issue cards with RFID?

 

[Blackwolf]

I just finished my phone call with Chase. The agent, Kyle, was somewhat dumbfounded with the talk about there being a tier of AGR credit cards that have a membership fee. When I asked him bluntly if any of the AGR cards (standard MC, Platinum MC, World MC) have a membership fee, he flatly said "No." None of the cards Chase manages for Amtrak have any membership fee, absolutely none. So, either Chase is giving me a load of BS or someone here is getting hosed and needs to call Chase ASAP and figure out what is wrong!!

Membership fees and Credit Card companies have a relationship with the rewards programs who service them; most require a fee to offset the cost of the program across the whole breadth of the members. AGR does not, and it is AGR who would decide if a fee should be charged or not. Chase has no say in the matter, they are just the credit card issuer on behalf of both MasterCard and AGR. Call them the middle-man.

Also, it was clarified: AGR has NO plans for charging a fee. Everyone is safe; those AGR points will still rack up free of charge (except if you hold a balance at the end of your payment period!! :excl: )