A few readers have mentioned that the U.S. Bank Cash+ card has added a new 5% cashback rate on prepaid air, hotel, and car reservations booked directly in the Rewards Travel Center. This is not part of the quarterly categories – it’s a separate 5% earn rate with no limit. Useful if you can get the same rates and deals through the U.S. Bank portal.
Hat tip to readers Lance B. and others
Bumping old post ….
Just got the email notice to select categories for the next quarter. In that process, they showed that one of my highest spend categories for the last quarter was Department Stores. I got curious because I don’t shop at department stores.
I went back trough my entries in Quicken and the only amount I could find that matched was a single purchase on eBay.
Seems USBank codes eBay as a department store for one of the 5% choices.
My experiences with the US Bank travel portal, and their staff, is that the rules/terms are slightly worse than when dealing with same Chase or Citi travel portal. For most people it would not matter, but if you need to book something on the fly in a hurry/short notice/that night, it can matter.
It’s all the same tech platform, same staff, different front ends with subtle different rules for each bank
Do you mean issues with changes/cancellations?
my one and only cancellation with US Bank for a hotel went pretty smoothly; there was as snowstorm that had shut a highway so we could not reach destination. their agent called hotel and got them to agree to cancel. hotel probably sold the room to someone else immediately afterward so i doubt they even had the potential of being out of pocket.
Not that I see. Those cards don’t seem to have access to US Bank’s travel portal. And a couple cards I checked make no mention of the 5% travel category.
I received the following email for my Workers Credit Union Elan Max Cash Preferred card on 1/27/22
Earn 5% Cash Back
on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked directly in the Rewards Center.¹
BOOK YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE
New travel benefit!
Book your next trip through the Rewards Center and earn 5% Cash Back on prepaid hotels and car rentals purchased with your Workers Credit Union Visa Signature® Max Cash Preferred Card.
Hotels
Find the perfect location to stay from over 230,000 hotels and resorts worldwide.
Cars
Hit the road with all major car rental brands in nearly every country.
Cash back is earned on eligible Net Purchases. Net Purchases are purchases minus credits and returns. Not all transactions are eligible to earn cash back, such as Advances, Balance Transfers, and Convenience Checks. Account must be open and in good standing to earn and redeem cash back and benefits. You may not redeem cash back, and you will immediately lose all your cash back, if your Account is closed to future transactions (including, but not limited to, Program misuse, failure to pay, bankruptcy, or death). Refer to our Program Rules for additional information. The Rewards Program is subject to change.
1 You will earn one (1%) cash back for every $1 in eligible Net Purchases. In addition, you will earn four (4%) additional cash back for every $1 in eligible Net Purchases spent on prepaid car and hotel reservations in the online Rewards Center using your rewards credit card. Prepaid car and hotel reservations in the Rewards Center are not classified as travel category merchant transactions and are only eligible for additional cash back in the prepaid car and hotel reservation category. Please allow 1-2 statement billing cycles for bonus cash back to appear on the credit card statement. Refer to the Rewards Center for full details.
So maybe they haven’t updated the pages for apps yet. Good to know it is using the same underlying system though.