Introduction:
So when it comes to credit cards, there are a ton of different directions you can go: Chase, Amex, Capital One, and even more.
But what usually happens is people, myself included, end up getting all the credit cards with those different issuers but overlook some of what I consider to be the best sleepers within the game.
Believe it or not, U.S. Bank has some of the best products within the game. No, this is not sponsored. I made a video talking about my credit card tier list, and in that, I talked about why U.S. Bank was good.
It turns out a lot of you guys didn’t even know about them either. Upon further research, it turns out not a lot of people have ever even made videos talking about the U.S. Bank credit cards.
This Blog here is going to be probably one of the most educational ones for anyone who doesn’t know much about U.S. Bank credit cards.
Why US Bank is so good ?
So let’s start out with what actually got me excited about U.S. Bank in the first place. One of the first things you’ll notice about them is that they have really good reward rates with their cards.
Let’s take, for example, the Altitude Go card, where you can get 4X, and they call this FlexPerks points, back on dining, takeout, and restaurant delivery. You get 2X back on groceries, streaming services, gas, and EV charging, and then 1X back on everything else, on top of a welcome bonus and other benefits.
If we compare that card to the American Express Gold Card, which I consider to be still one of my top three credit cards for the last four or five years, you’ll see that they have some pretty similar benefits.
But with that, the American Express Gold Card is what I consider to be a higher mid-tier card, whereas this card with U.S. Bank is an entry-level, no-annual-fee card.
So yeah, you’re getting similar benefits to a product that you would have paid $250 a year to hold all for zero dollars.
What are the points worth ?
One thing to note about American Express is that their Membership Reward Points give you flexibility in transferring them to get even higher value.
But with, I’m sure what you guys have heard for the first time, FlexPerks, are these even worth anything? Well, you’d be surprised. With the proper redemption, you can get up to 1.7 cents or even more for the points that you earn, which is still very competitive to what you get with Chase Ultimate Reward Points or even American Express Membership Points.
What I really like about the U.S. Bank ecosystem is the fact that they also allow you to target a lot of different spending categories. Pretty much, if you’re able to get an arsenal of different products that they have, you can hit a wide variety. Just think of like, instead of a little sniper, you’ve got just a big shotgun or even just a big fishing net. Alright, maybe that’s a better example.
You’ve got a big fishing net to hit a lot of different spending categories where they all work in conjunction with one another because they are within the same bank.
Pros of US Bank:
As a further example, look at the Shopper Cash Rewards Card, which gets you 6% cash back on the first $1,500 each quarter with two retailers of choice.
You also get 3% cash back on the first $1,500 each quarter in one everyday category of your choice, as well as 1.5% cashback on everything else.
Now, in a card where you’re earning 6% cash back, or a card where you’re able to choose, or you’re getting 3% cash back on, you’d think you’d have to at least pay like a $95 annual fee. But that again comes at you with no annual fee at all.
What I’d compare this to is a card like the Capital One SavorOne card or even the Chase Freedom Flex, because those cards really are great, but the cashback you earn is still limited to just a few categories.
With the U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards Card, what I really like about it is just the fact that you can customize it to fill out the categories of how you spend your money.
Even with all that, we still haven’t even talked about a U.S. Bank card with an annual fee, and that’s because their comparable cards are still way cheaper than a lot of the other competitors.
We already talked about the Amex Gold with a $250 annual fee compared to the zero-dollar annual fee to the U.S. Bank Altitude Go card, but there are some other products.
The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve is their elite tier offering, pretty comparable to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the Amex Platinum, or even the Capital One Venture X card.
Now, while all of these elite tier credit cards with some of these other issuers are still rather high, the Altitude Reserve comes at a whopping just $400 a year.
And look, guys, I know that annual fees are also a big barrier for a lot of people with higher tier credit cards, so being able to save even just a little bit of that every single year could still be a great option for a lot of people.
Cons of US Bank:
Now guys, I like to keep it real on this blog. Although there are a lot of great points that we’re going to go over even further with U.S. Bank, there are still a few things on why they’re not the absolute best within the industry.
Now, I wouldn’t necessarily call these cons or complete downsides. It’s just how this bank tends to operate and things that you should know about.
So, first of all, U.S. Bank is a very conservative lender. Their modeling for how much credit they give you relies on the amount of rotating credit that you have with them already and how you decide to spend it.
Basically, it just means that they tend to be pretty picky about giving out their money, and ideally, you’ll want to have a relationship already established with them in order to get approved easier for some of their cards.
Now you might be wondering, “Well Brian, how do I establish a relationship if I don’t have any cards with them in the first place?” This is where one of their branches might come in handy. Well, first of all, they have a lot of branches.
If they don’t have any branches in your local area, you can just go ahead and sign up for a free banking product, show them that you are a responsible lender, and over time this can definitely boost your odds of getting a credit card eventually down the road.
One of the best tips and tricks that you can master in order to get good relationships with some of the banks is to start out just with one of their beginner products that cost you no money to hold.
Sign up for it, get a checking account, leave that account funded, and then over time apply for one of their beginner credit cards and then move up the ladder.
This is exactly what I’ve done with an issuer like JPMorgan Chase, where first I got the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, then I got the Chase Freedom card, and then this was before the Chase Freedom Flex.
I eventually got that credit card down the road. I had opened a bank account, then got their Platinum Business Checking account, and once I started making some money, I got their Private Client bank account.
From there, they offered me a quarter-million-dollar line of credit that I can use for my business at any point at any time.
On top of that, they’ve also offered me a lot of things like wealth advisory. One of their big boy bank managers has constantly been in contact with me over the past few years and getting me to go out to their DC location and even more.
Now, in order for me to get to the point where I’m at now—private client bank accounts, having my own advisors, and if I ever need a customer support rep, I don’t actually have to go through the customer support line.
I have a person who’s the manager of the customer reps that I can call directly.
This all started from me building up my relationship, showing them that I am a worthy customer, and then over time, they just reached out to me with some of these offers that allowed me to get higher-tier status with them.
More specifically with U.S. Bank, I would also reframe it in a different way. Don’t think of them as a conservative lender but just think about them as a bank that wants to reduce the amount of risk that they would have involved if you came on.
So whether it’s funding an account or proving what’s on your application, these small things can help them realize that you’re not a high-risk borrower and you should also be increasing your chances of getting approved for any one of their products.
Even more importantly than that, we talk a lot about how you can get approved for any credit card, and the way you can do this is by working against the algorithm and working with a real human.
This is through the reconsideration line to plead your case in case you ever do get denied.
Aside from that, U.S. Bank also tends to give out lower credit limits, especially on a lot of their beginner cards.
This ties in with what I mentioned earlier with them being a conservative lender because they first want to monitor how you use their credit and if you’re able to pay it back before then extending you even larger limits down the road.
On the other hand, here’s what’s crazy: someone got approved for only a $500 credit limit despite having much higher limits on other cards.
So what they did was call the reconsideration line, and they were told to apply for a credit limit increase, and when they did that, they got approved for a limit of $10,000. So the whole point to make is even if you are able to do that, never be afraid to call some of these banks.
It doesn’t matter if it’s with U.S. Bank or any other issuer; go ahead and try because the worst that can happen is for them to say no. Now, out of all those things that I mentioned about U.S. Bank, the one and only thing that I have a critique on is the fact that their FlexPerks actually don’t have any transfer partners.
Now, although you can’t transfer it out, on the positive note, their points allow you to get better redemption rates through their own travel portal, where I’ve seen 1.7 cents per point being a common redemption.
So, basically what this means is, if you aren’t too big into traveling, this card actually might not even be terrible.
If you like to focus on cashback or just getting easy qualified redemptions, using their portal is simple, it’s straightforward, and you could do it.
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Tier 0 – Secured Card:
Alright, so at this point, let’s go over their star order credit cards, working our way up to some of their best credit cards and the sequence of how I would apply for them.
So, first of all, you have the Altitude Go Secured Credit Card, which has a credit limit between $300 and $5,000. With this card, you’ll get 4X FlexPerks points back on dining, takeout, and restaurant delivery.
You get 3X points at grocery stores, grocery delivery services, streaming services, gas stations, EV charging, and then you also get a $15 annual credit on streaming services like Netflix and Spotify. On top of that, there’s also a Cash+ Secured Visa Credit Card that they offer, where you get 5% cashback on up to $2,000 quarterly in two categories of your choice, which is really nice flexibility.
Freedom America U.S. Bank also got 2% cashback on one category of your choice and 1% cashback on all other eligible purchases.
So, with these secured credit cards, as most guys should know, secured credit cards are meant for absolute beginners, people who may have no credit score or have really shot-up credit.
And with not the best credit score, you’re actually getting a ton of benefits because, if you look at the traditional secured credit cards and what they offer, it is nothing compared to what you’d be getting with some of U.S. Bank’s products. Before, I’d always mention a different product for having a good starter secured card, but after doing a bit more research on U.S. Bank, I realized that this might be even the best secured credit card to exist out on the market.
The thing with secured credit cards is that you need to put a deposit down on that card in order to use it, but eventually, it can turn into an unsecured card, which is then just a regular credit card.
- Tier 1 – Starter Card:
Now, moving forward, we have a few other cards we need to mention. So, Altitude Go Visa Card and then the Cash+ Card. Both of these cards offer really good benefits, but the points can also be redeemed for travel.
So, if that’s something you value, I’d recommend starting with the Altitude lineup.
Here with the Altitude Go Visa Card, you’ll get 4X FlexPoints back on dining, takeout, and restaurant delivery. You get 3X points on grocery stores, grocery delivery, streaming services, gas stations, EV charging, and 1X back on everything else.
You also get the $15 annual credit. So, this is the unsecured version, and unlike that product, you also get a welcome bonus offer of 20,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days.
On top of that, you get a 0% APR offer on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months too.
The Cash+ Card pretty much has all the benefits that we talked about in the secured version. We also have it on the screen here where you can see it, where you can also get a $200 welcome bonus after you spend $1,000 in the first three months.
This card also has a welcome bonus offer of $200 if you spend $1,000 in the first four months, and you can also get an even longer 0% APR period with this card at 15 months.
No annual fee, point flexibility, and a pretty solid issuer—I don’t think you can go wrong with even considering these to be a new set of beginner starter cards to get started with.
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Tier 2 – Mid Tier Card:
Now, the next tier of cards we have three different options for you to choose from. This is the collection of mid-tier cards.
So, first of all, you have the Shopper Cash Rewards Card, which offers 6% cashback on up to $1,500 quarterly at two retailers of your choice.
You get 3% cashback on up to $1,500 in one category of your choice, and 1.5% cashback on everything else. This card also has a welcome bonus offer of $250 after you spend $2,000 in the first 120 days, or about four months.
This card also gives you no annual fee for the first year, but after that, you then pay a $95 annual fee. Now, this card is pretty unique, in my opinion, where I think it competes as one of the best catch-all credit cards, especially if you tend to shop at the same place.
The other thing to be mindful of is that you have to pre-select your category and stores before the quarter starts so that you don’t miss out on the rewards.
Up next is the U.S. Bank FlexPerks Gold AMEX Card. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s cool. This might actually be a little bit of a surprise to you, and yes, credit card issuers sometimes work together.
So, it’s like Amex and U.S. Bank just came together and had a baby. This is because you can find this product on American Express’s website, and it’s actually pretty incredible with some of the benefits they offer.
You get 5X on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked directly through the FlexPerks Reward Center. You get 3X on dining and takeout services, and you get 2X on airlines and gas stations.
On top of that, you get 30,000 FlexPoints as a welcome bonus offer after spending $2,000 within four months of account opening. Now, these rewards are comparably very similar to the Altitude Go Card, but the 2X back on airlines is where you’re gonna find a bit more utility.
And as an additional offering, last but not least, they have the Altitude Connect Visa Card, which is one where you get the same 5X on prepaid hotels and rental cars.
You get 4X points on travel, gas station, EV charging, 2X points on grocery stores, grocery delivery, dining, and then 1X back on everything else.
Instead of a $15 annual streaming credit, on top of that, you’ll get a $30 credit for annual streaming service purchases. Very similar to what we mentioned, but what I love about this card is that you get a pretty strong welcome bonus offer.
It’s going to be more than double of what we mentioned before, where you get 50,000 bonus points after spending the same amount, $2,000, in the first 120 days. On top of that, with this card, you get airport lounge access, you get TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, and a $100 savings credit reimbursement.
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Tier 3 – Elite Tier Card:
Now, with those few credit cards, because of all the great benefits you’re getting from the travel protection and the cell phone protection, it seems like it’s an elite-tier card.
But it’s not. You actually have even more ultra-bougie elite-tier credit cards, which is their final product, which I would say is like their boss, you know, Super Saiyan Blue product, which is the Altitude Reserve Card.
Alright, so guys, this card is insane, and I don’t say that or toss that around loosely for no reason. Let me tell you why.
You get 5X points on hotels and rental cars booked through the FlexPerks portal. It’s not bad, but you get 3X back on travel. But you get 3X also back on mobile wallet purchases. Mobile wallet purchases, yes.
So, this means if you link your U.S. Bank card to Apple Pay or Apple Wallet, whatever you want to call it, or Android Google Pay, and you use that when you go shopping, you’re going to be getting 3X back on your purchase.
I thought this was crazy, so I had to verify this information over on Reddit, and yes, this is true. As long as you use your phone to pay, it’s gonna code as 3X. So, think about all the times where you shop at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Lululemon, like all these retail stores that actually don’t give you a multiplier back—you’re getting 3X.
That’s crazy. That is huge. That is probably one of the most slept-on categories that you can get.
Look, I don’t know about you guys, but nowadays I tend to use my Apple Pay for nearly everything, and I rarely carry my wallet around me unless I need to.
So, I just think that’s such a great benefit right there. On top of that, you’re getting a pretty solid welcome bonus offer: 50,000 points after you spend $4,500 within the first 90 days, or about $1,500 a month for the first three months if you want to break it up into how much you have to spend.
You gotta spend a decent amount for this, and instead of four months, you got three months. But fifty thousand points is still rather easy for most people to get if you’re spending.
Well that’s for today, See you in the next blog…