Update 11/13/24: U.S. Bank is now accepting product changes to this product.
Update 11/11/24: Card is now live, here is the link
Update 10/31/24: Landing page says the card will be metal.
Update 10/13/24: U.S. Bank has confirmed there will be no cap on the 4%. Hat tip to reader John D
Update 10/6/24: Card will have 3% foreign transaction fee. Also 0% APR on purchases for 12 months. Also 0% APR for 12 months on balance transfers done in the first 60 days (3% standard BT fee). The 0% APR on purchases for 12 months is interesting and makes for a ‘signup bonus’ of sorts for someone willing to carry a balance on a personal card.
Update 9/17/24: a reader heard from a bank source that the release date is slated for October 21, 2024.
Update 9/8/24: Reports are that the card will have no annual fee and will have no welcome bonus.
Original Post 9/3/24:
U.S. Bank is set to launch the Smartly Visa Signature card and this will earn up to 4% back on all purchases. Card details as follows:
- Earn 2% cash back on all purchases
- Earn up to an additional 2% cash back when paired with a U.S. Bank smartly savings account.
- Earn 2.5% total cash back when you have a qualifying balance of $5,000 – $49,999
- Earn 3% total cash back when you have a qualifying balance of $50,000 – $99,999
- Earn 4% total cash back when you have a qualifying balance of $100,000+
There are a few things that are unclear such as whether there is an annual fee, is there a cap on the additional up to 2% cash back and if there will be a sign up bonus or not. The Smartly account itself earns 4.1% APY when you also have a Smartly checking account and a balance of $25,000+ so this is competitive with the best high yield savings accounts. You can also have the money in their investment account to qualify. This has the potential to be big, worth signing up for the wait list in case they offer a better than normal sign up bonus for those that do.
I received my card today. It weighs 0.6 ounces. In comparison, my Chase Prime Visa metal card weighs 0.4 ounces. I wish US Bank (and other metal card banks) would give us a choice on whether to have the metal versus plastic, for those that want to have as light a wallet as possible and/or who carry multiple credit cards in a preferred slim wallet.
I think the card is unnecessarily heavy.
Just called the US Bank brokerage customer support and asked them to list the criteria for not getting the $50 annual brokerage fee. They were: Be a US Bank employee, have the brokerage account be an IRA account with 100k+, or have combined household assets of 250k. I specifically asked if having 100k in a normal brokerage would waive the fee and they said no it would not.
This lines up with what’s on their website, but there are a couple redditors telling everyone that they were told $100k in a brokerage waives the fee. I don’t doubt they were told that, but their customer service is notoriously inconsistent from rep to rep, and it seems likely a lot of people are going to get hit with a fee in a year they don’t expect.
Thanks for the update. Some below say $100k in a usb self directed brokerage ira does not qualify, it has to be in a “US Bank-side ira”. any word on that?
Anyone received their card yet? Mine said shipped on 11/15 with expected arrival on 11/18 (suprisingly), but has not been received yet.
Zack M, my situation is exactly like yours. Mine says shipped 11/15, expected 11/18. No delivery yet, and today’s mail has been delivered.
Same exact thing here. Still nothing.
Mine says the same thing. I am hoping to receive it by tomorrow. Ships via regular USPS so might take 5-7 business days to receive.
My USPS Informed Delivery Digest shows a plain white envelope…looks like it’s arriving today!
No Visa card arrived in today’s mail for me. A US Bank rep told me if the card has not arrived by Monday’s mail, I can request 2-day rush replacement to have card delivered Wed. T-Day Eve. I only called today regarding the second $450 checking SUB they mistakenly applied to my acct. They gladly took their duplicate bonus money back, of course.
So you called the bank to report that you got a duplicate bonus?
False alarm. It was just the cardmember agreement 🙁
TS, thanks for the update. The rep today told me her system shows my card was shipped on Wed. 11/13. I’m skeptical it really went out that day.
Nothing here yet either. I did get the cardholder agreement by mail the other day, but no card yet.
Received mine today along with cardmember agreement in 2 separate envelope
A few commenters on Reddit are suggesting US Bank reps are saying 100k in *any* brokerage account type waives the fee (rather than 100k for IRAs and 250k for others). If anyone can get this in writing or otherwise confirmed, that would be great, I have trust issues with their phone reps and can see this just being a few people getting the same wrong info from the same misinformed rep.
someone in the bogleheads thread said they ACAT’d $100k worth of ETF shares from their broker to USB and the next day their USB smartly bonus level moved to the 4% level. I don’t think they said whether it was an ira or not though.
It should give 4% but the question is if the $50 annual brokerage fee will apply
A $900-total sign-up bonus appeared in my new US Bank checking account this morning, which I opened last Monday when I opened the Visa card. That was fast, and I wasn’t even aware there would be a SUB. Of course, the $900 is taxable.
midas89, what were the terms or steps for the $900 bonus that you completed? even if you were not aware.
Jeff, after I surprisingly received the unexpected alerts that two $450 interest payments had posted to my checking acct. this morning (they refer to the SUBs as interest payments since it is taxable), I did research and read online that until Dec. 30th, US Bank is offering $450 bonus for creating new checking acct, and completing qualifying activities, which includes signing up for Bill Pay and installing the mobile app; and then another $450 if one makes at least two qualifying deposits of at least a total of $8,000 or more.
When I had signed up for Smartly Visa, I attempted to open a checking acct. at the same time. I was rejected online twice. I then called US Bank sales dept and asked if the rep could manually do it for me and take my application for the checking acct. over the phone. The rep never mentioned anything about the possible SUB I might earn.
midas89, how did you open your checking account? Through one of the links that places the promo code on your account or just the generic “Open Account”?
Do you have a link to the offer for $450 for qualifying activities? I can only find the $450 offer for $8,000 in direct deposit online.
Thanks!
b., I answered exactly how I had to get my checking acct opened in a reply comment above. Kindly read up so I don’t have to insert a repeat here. Thank you.
Here’s a link that details the offer:
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/us-bank-promotions-bonus/
The $900 one is business checking account. Smartly is $400.
Good Cow, I opened a personal checking account, and I got the $900-total bonus. They gave me two $450 payments. I did not open up a business checking account.
If you go to the link I provided above at Forbes, you will see it says “Earn up to $450 when you open a new U.S. Bank Smartly Checking account and complete qualifying activities.” I opened up a Smartly Personal Checking acct. on the same day I was approved for the Smartly Visa and Smartly Savings acct.
there is no link that verifies that two $450 payments for one personal checking account is possible. I think you got lucky.
John A, maybe you are right. Maybe the bank made a mistake and put in two separate $450 deposits by mistake instead of just one. And maybe they will eventually catch it and take one back. This US Bank link suggests I should have only received one $450 bonus.
https://www.usbank.com/splash/checking/2024-all-market-checking-offer.html
What is a $900 bonus?
So I was able to PCed my cash+ to smartly visa. However, my smartly savings application was declined. Called the application number twice but was asked to wait 7-10 business days for the rejection letter. Anyone running into the same issue and knows how to get the savings account approved?
This card is useless if I don’t get the 2% boost.
Same boat.
Did you request them to reapply over the phone. Some people reapplied on the phone and were approved. I’m planning to call them tomorrow and check if they can reapply.
Good tip. Were you able to get approved over the phone? I’ll find some time to reapply over the phone.
Their saving account has such:
A Bank Smartly Savings account is a relationship savings account with competitive rates that grow as your balances grow.
The monthly maintenance fee is $5 and is waived if an account owner is the owner of a qualifying product (Bank Smartly Checking account, Safe Debit account, or Bank Smartly Visa Card), or if one of the account owners is a minor (age 17 or younger).
The minimum balance for opening a Bank Smartly Savings account is $25.
Does that mean even without a checking account, having this card itself would wavei the monthly fee of the saving account, do i read it right?
Yes, having the Smartly credit card is sufficient to waive the Smartly Savings maintenance fee. Do note however, without the checking account you will not get the higher savings rates or the 100 free investment trades.
Actually, re-reading now it seems they updated their site. They will give higher rate with just the Smartly credit card.
Which bureau(s) do they pull?
Mike, for me, they ran Experian. But prior to applying, I called to ask, and was told they can choose any of the 3, so I chose to temporarily unfreeze all 3 just in case.
TU for me, may be state-based
What’s US bank product change rule? Do you have to have a card for 12 months before you can product change?
I had Altitude Connect for less than a year and was told no product change options.
If anyone product changed from UAR, did you notice if the FTF is still 3% or not?