The Offer
Direct link to offer (various banks offer this)
- Elan Financial is now offering a Visa Infinite Reserve Rewards+ Card. Card comes with a 50,000 point bonus after $4,500 in spend within the first 90 days
Card Details
- $390 annual fee
- $100 travel credit
- Up to $240 in credits for eligible sports & fitness, personal care, entertainment & streaming services, and dining
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 6X points on travel booked through the Rewards Center
- 2X points on all other eligible purchasesÂ
- Priority Pass membership
- TSA/Global entry credit
Our Verdict
Similar to the Max Cash Preferred card that is also offered by Elan to various banks. Card isn’t worth getting due to the annual fee.
Hat tip to reader Paul D
Does the Priority Pass on this card come with Restaurant credit?
Trash
Legit came here to say the same!
There’s only about a dozen Visa Infinite card issuers out there. As a Visa Infinite, it has the same level of protections as the CSR. Throw in Priority Pass. If someone were to capture all of the credits/coupons to mostly offset its annual fee and was looking for straight cash back, it might work for some people.
Not 100% true. For example trip cancellation insurance is much better on CSR ($10k per trip vs $2.5k per trip Visa Infinite only)
Travel protections are NOT the same plus even the CSR’s aren’t really worth much. Travel protections are a hugely overrated benefit.
Depends if you have to use it. It may be an overrated benefit to choose a card but if you end up having to use it, it comes in handy.
Granted they are lower, but can be a big deal. Flight delayed 24 hours due to weather, missed the first night of non-refundable $500 hotel. Protections give you $500 after 10 emails of paperwork tennis. Bigger benefit than an extra 5% on $10k of spending. Same with purchase protection.
Yeah how often are flights delayed 24 hours AND you have a $500 of non-refundable hotel? I’ve had these kinds of protections on cards for a decade plus, fly all the time and have never been in a situation where I could have used them. Either the delay doesn’t qualify, the airline is paying to put me up or I don’t have significant expenses for that delay. I would bet even people keenly aware of travel benefits average less than $50 annually out of them, with most getting nothing ever.
Extended warranty is where it’s at for me. Loads of products just aren’t made to last that long under regular use and so blindly adding two years to any warranty often pays off.
I’m averaging $240/yr, only took two claims in five years. Have also been paid out for delayed baggage, an overnight trip delay, and several return protection.
I was in a situation last year where the benefits would have come into play, but once they told me I had to have a letter from the airline stating why the plane was delayed it became clear to me that I’d rather eat the $150 hotel cost and save my time.
Anyone know if they waive the annual fee for active duty military?
Better to call them to confirm. Why merely trust what anybody here says? PS I am not military, but I do work at one of the big banks. I have never worked in card services . Just smarter to hear them confirm they comply with the rules and regulations than have somebody on the internet say one way or the other.
Elan issues all the US Bank personal cards (which USB waves the AFs on). But I suspect MLA/SCRA is a Bank’s policy. Not a card issuer’s policy (Amex not withstanding). You’d have to reach out to the bank that ends up using this Elan card to find out.
Yes they do.
Huh. I thought that was a legal requirement, not an optional nice thing that banks/issuers did
SCRA Requires several waivers for service members but also a lot of credit card companies go above and beyond by waiving annual fees.
Legal requirement is capped fees, not waived. Banks don’t want to mess with claims of “What’s 6% of the $7000 this guy spent this year, minus the total of all other fees, now lower the annual fee…” and just waive it.
The $240 credit was given as $20 monthly credit, including $5 sports and fitness, $5 personal care, $5 entertainment and streaming, and $5 dining~
What a coupon book!
The sports and fitness one is especially bad. Personal care isn’t that great either..
Not a lot of cards with a gyms category, and lots of people spending $$$ on gyms. The Travel Rewards+ offers 4% at gyms, too.
Attempt at finding value: If you get a haircut, go to the gym or pharmacy, eat out, and pay to stream monthly, plus use the travel credit, that’s $50/yr for a flat 2% card with premium protections and 8 Priority Pass visits. Could compliment an Amex Plat+Gold setup that’s only getting 1x on misc and doesn’t have PP dining access.
Its not a Gym category for the infinite. You only get 2x on the purchase and receive a $5 statement credit per month for it (You already paid for it in the annual fee). The travel rewards might be a good card for one year and downgrade.
Atleast they can learn a thing or two from amex
Clawbacks?
What’s with issuers/banks trying to get into the premium card market, aka big 4 bank points, with shitty products, SuB, and basic vanilla crap points? Like US Bank & WF couldn’t do it, what made these no names try? lmao. 50k points for 4.5k spend… like did they even do market research? Those points better xfer 1:3 to AA or something.
My guess is that this is mostly for people who aren’t into the CC game and don’t do any research to see what their alternatives are outside of their local bank. So when they see all these benefits for the first time then they just go for it. And I assume it doesn’t cost much for the banks to offer Elan cards since Elan manages all of the points/rewards for them
George is right, it’s a defensive product meant to keep customers from going elsewhere
Elan Financial is basically the same as US Bank
1. Most people are financially illiterate.
2. Most people DO NOT get products outside of their home bank/credit union.
3. Elan (and their bank/credit union partners) can upsell the card to these folks and get extra profits in the form of annual fees and increased swipe fees due to the card being a Visa Infinite card.
When I saw Elan Financial and Reserve in the title I was assuming it was an Elan version of the Reserve at US bank…. I couldn’t be more dissapointed…..
Also looks like they put a card that would be the “Altitude Connect” equivalent for Elan with entertainment and recreation added into the 4x category and they changed the 2x category that was limited to 1.5x everywhere. There is also no streaming credit.
Any DP on what the PP membership level (e.g., includes restaurants?) is and guest policy?
This is likely the only thing that matters on this card
The US bank card with 4 PP visits can be used at restaurants, so there’s at least a chance this would work. I couldn’t find anything about restaurants or guests when researching it though
But doesn’t the Atltitude Reserve only offer PP for the first year? If that’s true, the card is not very useful.
Uh no. USBAR Priority Pass is renewed each year.
The PP site says this card is limited to 8 free visits per year, but no other info https://prioritypass.com/reserverewardsvs.
Thanks, G:)