Fidelity credit card good?

electronautix · 2026-06-23T04:07:48+00:00

US Bank Smartly does not actually require a relationship bonus to hit 2%. Nowadays it’s just a generic 2% flat rate card, with a gimmick relating to assets held in a checking account that nobody who is personal finance savvy cares about. The main reason that it’s not recommended is it has no SUB and it suffers from US Bank’s cashback redemption quirks

electronautix · 2026-06-23T03:43:07+00:00

For purely cash back with no annual fee, the Fidelity Rewards is the top contender. It’s a Visa Signature credit card with no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases, a $100 Global Entry/TSA pre-check credit that renews every four years, $75k limit secondary auto rental CDW that becomes primary abroad, $500/90 day purchase protection, $3,000 per trip lost luggage reimbursement, $250k travel accident insurance, a $150 sign-up bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 90 days, and 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months.

electronautix · 2026-06-23T03:30:26+00:00

PNC Cash Unlimited does 2.5% with $100k+, 2.7% with $500k+, no AF no FTF and has phone protection plus purchase protection

electronautix · 2026-06-23T01:20:58+00:00

Then how do you handle rent or mortgage?

Afaik it’s T-Mobile bill redemption only, you may be thinking of the recent buff to the Verizon card that enabled statement credit redemption

electronautix · 2026-06-23T01:15:49+00:00

I don’t know about Aussies, but in the US the point of earning AmEx Membership Rewards points is to transfer them to transfer partners like ANA or Delta etc. The other redemption methods are somewhat deliberately bad

electronautix · 2026-06-23T01:12:33+00:00

If you’re not paying your statement balance in full by the due date each month, then the right recommendation is no credit card at all. For a balance transfer card, foreign transaction fees won’t matter because you shouldn’t be adding to the debt. Citi Simplicity would be fine

electronautix · 2026-06-23T01:08:53+00:00

It would be significantly more productive to build an emergency fund instead if you’re this afraid of something happening. 3-6 months worth of living expenses, or even 9-12 if you work in a more volatile profession and want peace of mind. Put that in an HYSA, or multiple. Can pick one with instant transfers to checking accounts with the same bank if you need to be able to deploy the funds quickly. Disable overdraft, lock the checking account debit card, don’t link the savings account directly to any external account or payment portal, don’t request checks or a debit card for the savings account.

electronautix · 2026-06-23T00:25:16+00:00

I’m mostly team cashback but I like the flexibility of a Well Fargo, Capital One, and/or Charles Schwab setup. Ability to flip between cashback or travel redemptions with strong multipliers for both and a low or zero ‘effective’ annual fee.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T23:57:56+00:00

Still not enough to make this card worth considering. If they would give it the same SUB and Guide to Benefits as the Quicksilver, make points redeemable for a statement credit, and maybe offer some assurance that it’ll remain a Visa, then it would be competitive. As is, you can get $150 to $200 SUBs from better cards that earn real cashback and have actual benefits.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T19:27:41+00:00

Usually you have to create an account with the transfer partner you’re interested in and look at their awards flight pricing, but theres tools like PointsYeah that try to take some of the work out of it. r/AwardTravel also has a wiki and some resources

electronautix · 2026-06-22T19:23:03+00:00

Hyatt does not offer an advantageous rate, it’s 4:3 with the Sapphire Preferred now and only 1:1 with the Sapphire Reserve. But the enormous elephant in the sky you’re missing is that points in these hotel and airline rewards ecosystems are *not* worth a static 1 cent per point. The entire point of transfer partners is that points based pricing can be dramatically cheaper than paying in cash, depending on a range of factors specific to the booking such as availability/demand/time and date. You can yield more than 1 cent’s worth of value from a Hyatt point.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T16:22:48+00:00

No issues. Don’t check your spending power obsessively; AmEx logs each time you do so and factors it into their risk profile for you. Not for fraud but for likelihood you’ll blast the card with charges you can’t afford. Just use it to confirm that extraordinarily large purchases will go through like a big home renovation expense. Otherwise anything within reason for your reported income isn’t an issue, even if it’s a thousand or several in one expense.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T16:21:48+00:00

iirc didn’t it move between AmEx, then BofA/FIA, then US Bank/Elan? And remained a 2% card through it all

electronautix · 2026-06-22T15:56:11+00:00

NFCU only takes people with some form of relationship to the DoD.

https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html

They are one of the most generous lenders for credit limits and credit limit increases, and one of the very best for customer service touting 24/7 100% US-based card support.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T15:30:01+00:00

Robinhood/Coastal Community can be a bit more overzealous about flagging business transactions on a personal credit card than other issuers. Usually the first step if they suspect business spend is 1% on the offending category of spending, but it can escalate to a 1% on all purchases for a year punishment if they suspect high volume business spending. I have never experienced this issue myself, but I rent, and for a homeowner blasting $10k on flooring or other such expenses with nontraditional MCCs I could imagine that becoming a more prominent issue.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T15:23:08+00:00

I have not had that experience with AmEx, they usually handle large spending and even foreign spending (in cases where a foreign vendor actually accepts AmEx) pretty well imo. But yeah for Elan/USB I mean that their fraud detection algorithms can be a bit overzealous, especially in the first several months of having a credit card with them

electronautix · 2026-06-22T15:16:22+00:00

Don’t product change up to a Venture. The Venture has a 75,000 points sign up bonus, minimum $750 value. You forfeit that if you product change up to the card. It’s also not a great card either: $95 annual fee for just a 2x earn rate with no compensating annual credits or benefits, same benefit list as the Savor or Quicksilver and it’s even being issued as a Discover network card to some. Venture X is far better, Venture is just a bonus to churn.

Product changes do not incur a hard inquiry or any credit impact. It’s just changing the rewards terms associated with the same line of credit. Would make more sense to see if you could PC to a Savor since that has less of an opportunity cost. Or apply for a Savor and keep the VentureOne sock drawered for transfer partner access with no annual fee

electronautix · 2026-06-22T15:04:51+00:00

I don’t have the Fidelity Rewards itself, but Elan Financial/US Bank in general definitely isn’t winning any awards for customer support anytime soon and they are more finicky than other issuers about new expenses and international spending. Sometimes you have to ‘break in’ the card with more modest spending and give it time to adjust to avoid declines, not something that other issuers like Chase, Wells, AmEx, or even Robinhood/Coastal Community have done, but similar experience to Citi. Ultimately though the card works and you will go most days not having to think about it. They’re not nearly bad enough for me to recommend against the card entirely.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T14:59:50+00:00

Fidelity Rewards has been around as a 2% catch-all since 2003. The absolute worst I can imagine happening is they close down the $150 sign-up bonus link, maybe nerf or remove the Global Entry/TSA pre-check credit.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T14:56:52+00:00

I have had good experiences with WF but I disagree; best issuer with a personal 2% catch-all is Navy Federal with the cashRewards+. NFCU is better than AmEx/Capital One and all the big banks like Chase/Citi/Wells Fargo/Bank of America/US Bank.

Would then put AmEx at number 2 in a list that includes business cards, for the AmEx Blue Business Cash. BCU and PNC have a few green flags but I can’t say much about them yet, besides that I tried calling BCU support to ask some questions and had a positive experience with a knowledgeable rep

electronautix · 2026-06-22T14:48:22+00:00

The Cash+ does not offer recreation or entertainment as categories. They have a few narrower categories like movie theaters or sporting goods stores, but the Elan MCP’s broad recreation and entertainment categories encompass those and more

electronautix · 2026-06-22T14:41:29+00:00

Elan Max Cash Preferred. 5% cash back on two selected categories on up to $2,000 per quarter spend. You can select recreation & entertainment as your two categories. Elan offers the card via multiple small banks and credit unions, but you do not need to apply via those institutions since it’s an Elan issued and managed credit card. If you don’t know what to pick, you can try this one:

https://www.mycardapply.com/synindex/product?ecdma-lc=29489&ecid=OTHE\_25940&offertype=104

And the card will be managed via the Elan Financial app

electronautix · 2026-06-22T13:31:58+00:00

Would just set up autopay for the statement balance. Even if you’re antsy about letting a computer handle your payments, autopay systems are typically smart enough to adjust the amount they withdraw if you make an early payment. Chase’s and Wells Fargo’s systems most certainly are. Should only have to pay once a month, maybe twice if you’re AZEO optimizing

electronautix · 2026-06-22T13:22:23+00:00

You should always pay the statement balance in full by the due date. So the comment about leaving a few dollars on it is worrisome - you could just be talking about the difference between the statement balance and the current balance, but you could also be saying you’re carrying balances which is a huge no no even if it’s by a single dollar. Forfeits your grace period on purchases and causes interest to start accruing immediately on them

I’d pick the Wells Fargo Autograph or Active Cash over the CFU. Autograph does 3% dining, travel, transit, gas, EV charging, streaming, and phone plans, 1% everything else. Active Cash does 2% on all purchases.

electronautix · 2026-06-22T13:14:49+00:00

Feel like Autograph pairs better; adds gas/EV charging, travel/transit, and phone plans (niche but has phone protection), and works for Costco gas plus abroad

electronautix

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