Conference 7.286::dcu

    The annual fee was dropped some time ago. Also, there is now one rate
    (10.9%) - it doesn't depend on your balance anymore. Come on down!

    re: .0, .1
    
    How about a DCU Visa with an insane rate (like 19.8% or something), but
    that pays you back 1% of your transactions in cash each month, in the
    form of a credit to your balance?  I would jump on that in a second,
    and drop my other cards.  Chase and GE Rewards both have cards that pay
    1%+ back, it would be nice if DCU could offer that option as well.  It
    must more than pay for itself, since the big guys can do it.  We need a
    nice incentive to those of us who don't keep CC balances, which makes
    the rate irrelevant.
    
    	Steve

The cashback from GE Rewards Mastercard goes like this:

First $2,000 charged per year: 0.5% cashback
Second $2,000                  1.0% cashback
Third $2,000                   1.5% cashback
6,000 - 10,000                 2.0% cashback

They advertise these rates as beating the Discover card cashback rates,
and they certainly do. This is cold hard cash - not coupons, rebates
towards purchases of a particular product etc.

I don't see the point in using our DCU credit card unless it can 
match or beat this.

And for people who carry a balance, I believe even lower rates are
available elsewhere (check with a couple of banks based in Arkansas).
 
- Ganesh.

Re .2 and .3

Have you told this to DCU?  Please send some e-mail, specifically that you
are interested in Visa card cash rebates, and it keeps you from using the 
DCU Visa card.

Elaine

    It seems there are two general types of cardholders out here.
    
    1) Those who pay in full each month and don't give a flip about the
    interest rate.  It's the benefits associated with the card (rebate $s,
    FF miles, gasoline, etc.) that attract this group.
    
    2) Those who carry a balance most of the time.  These people tend to be
    interest rate/fee sensitive.
    
    Perhaps DCU should consider two kinds of cards, one for each of the
    above types of customer.
    
    Bob

    
    How can DCU offer incentives for non-balance carrying members with
    no interest rate 'revenue' to back it up.
    
    It's gotta be an across the board card change from what I can see.
    The whole reason for incentives is to get folks to carry their 
    balances on YOUR card.
    
    If they provide incentives for the folks who never pay any interest
    I would think the balance carrying members would have to make up for
    the cost of those incentives with a slightly higher interest rate.
    
    If DCU WERE to do that, and lost lots of interest paying customers 
    that would make the dcu visa card a certain flop from a financial
    perspective.  They'd have just given away a bushel of incentives and
    lost interest payers to boot.
    
    then again, what do I know about running a credit union.  8^}
    
    --bert
    

    re: .6
    
    DCU does make some income on transaction fees the merchant pays each
    time you use a credit card.
    
    Bob

    The cash-back cards that I've seen all have an annual fee.  For one
    of them I worked it out that I'd make a few bucks a year if I charged 
    over $6000, or something like that.
    
    No, thanks.  I like my financial transactions simple.  This strikes
    me as the 90's version of green stamps.  
    
    	Enjoy,
    	Larry

    RE: <<< Note 976.8 by WRKSYS::SEILER "Larry Seiler" >>>
        
    >>>The cash-back cards that I've seen all have an annual fee.  For one
    >>>of them I worked it out that I'd make a few bucks a year if I charged 
    >>>over $6000, or something like that.
    
    This is definitely not true.  
    
       - Discover card has no annual fee.
       - I have a Visa card through Seafirst bank that has no annual fee
         and offers an acroos the board 1% rebate.
    
    Steve
    

Larry,

Re: .8,  the GE Rewards card has no fee.

Here's the game.  Banks and credit union all get about 1% back 
as interchange income.  So - you charge $10,000, the issuing institution
get $100.  On top of that,  it gets to charge interest on the
balance which is where the real money is.

There tends to be two types of instiutions - ones that offer
FF miles/rebates and ones that offer low interest rates.

You will find that institutions that offer low interest rates will
not offer rebates/FF miles and vice versa.

Re: the GE Card

> First $2,000 charged per year: 0.5% cashback
> Second $2,000                  1.0% cashback
> Third $2,000                   1.5% cashback
> 6,000 - 10,000                 2.0% cashback

This comes to 1.4% per year if you charge the max of 10K.
If all their customers charged 10K and not pay their HIGH interest,
they'd be out of business.

The DCU is working on a program to reward its cardholders. Stay tuned.


Gim

>       - Discover card has no annual fee.

	True, but...

	Discover has outragous interest rates and a 2-cycle average daily
balance as I recall.  I still use it, mind you, but I'm very careful to mail
the check way in advance.

	The "super" Discover card (with rebates to 1.5% or 2%) has an annual
fee if you want cash back. (Also has two other options, neither of which
interested me but which don't carry an annual fee.)


					--Doug

Assuming I charge $10,000 and my early morning math is correct:
  GE				Discover Private Issue
  0-2K	0.5%	=	$10	0-1K	0.25%	=	$  2.50
  2-4K	1.0	=	 20     1-2K	0.5	=	   5.00
  4-6K  1.5	=	 30	2-3K	0.75	=	   7.50  
  6-10K 2.0	=	 80     3-5K	1.0	=	  20
			----    5-10K   2.0	=	 100 
			$140				----
							$135

The DPI card fee has always been waved for us.
The fact that lots of places don't take Discover, however, is enough of an
added differentiator to make the switch worth it. Got an 800# for the GE card
folk (while we wait to see what DCU comes up with...)?

						Trace

>The fact that lots of places don't take Discover, however, is enough of an
>added differentiator to make the switch worth it.

There are a couple of places that don't take any credit cards other than
Discover: Sam's Club and Costco.

  Wrote in that I was looking for a cash rebate. It was nice that they called
me to respond, but the reply was Scorecard. I tossed that as soon as I saw it -
if I recall if you charge some not-insignificant amount you can get a portable
tape player. Charge more and it's other items I'm not particularly interested
in. No offense meant, but "insert 'yawn' here."
  One of the down sides to the GE Rewards card is that the rebate's only good
on the 1st $10,000/year that you charge. After that you get nothing.  We tend to
charge a lot of stuff and go well over $10K/year, but I'll gladly take the cash
instead. We did over $10K last year at places that didn't take Discover. Our GE
application went in the mail yesterday.
  I keep the DCU Visa in our safe deposit box and will be happy to start using
it if/when DCU can match competitors in this space.

						Trace

Re: .14

I understand why the author of .14 is going with the GE Reward card. 
It's the rational thing to do for credit card holders who can pay
off the balance completely each month.

But the GE Reward card is a money loser (for GE) with customers who pay
their bills every month.  It is for that reason that there is a limit of
10K.  GE makes up for it by charging 18% on accounts that have a
balance.  (I was aware of the GE Reward prior to joining the DCU board
and did look into it.  See my note 608.138)

Rather than increase the credit interest rate to 18% and offer cash
rebates, DCU is going with the Scorecard program and straight foward
low interest rates for accounts with balances. As a result
the DCU's VISA balance continues to grow.

Gim