Fifth Third has released two new credit cards, the Truly Simple card and the TRIO credit card. In this quick review we will be taking a look at the TRIO Credit Card.
The Basics
- Earn a sign up bonus of 10,000 Real Life Rewards bonus (worth $100) when you spend $1,000 within 90 days of opening your account
- No annual fee
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3% cash back at restaurants
- 2% cash back on gas and at grocery and drug stores, up to $1,500 spend per quarter in these combined purchase categories
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
- 0% Introductory APR on balance transfers for the first 12 billing cycles
- No foreign transaction fees
- Cell Phone Protection (must pay your monthly wireless cellular telephone bills each month)
- Mastercard world benefits
Application Information
We don’t know what credit bureau Fifth Third pulls for their credit cards or any credit limit data (although I suspect credit limtis in excess of $5,000 due to it being a Mastercard World card). You do need to live in one of the following states to qualify:Â OH, KY, GA, FL, NC, IL, MI, WI, IN, WV
Our Verdict
A $100 sign up bonus isn’t great, there are definitely better cash sign up bonuses available. It doesn’t earn at a bad rate on restaurant purchases, but you’d be better off putting all other purchases onto a card that earns 2% cash back or more. Overall this isn’t a terrible card, but it’s not a good card either. There are much better options out there so I’d recommend avoiding signing up for this one.
I received a targeted email for this card:
Subj: Don’t miss 5% cash back on gym memberships and more.
Shop, spend and earn 5% cash back at:¹
Wholesale Clubs
Gym/Fitness Club Memberships
Movie Theaters
No activation necessary! This special 5% cash back offer is available to you until March 31, 2022.
1. PROMOTIONAL REWARDS POINTS: Earn additional promotional Rewards Points up to a combined total of 5 Rewards Points for each $1 spent on all qualified Wholesale Clubs, Gym/Fitness Club Memberships and Movie Theater purchases made between February 1, 2022 and March 31, 2022. Points awarded with this offer are subject to a maximum of 2,500 additional promotional Rewards Points.
The offer only applies to the account ending in the last 4 digits referenced on this letter and is not transferrable to another Fifth Third Credit Card.
I had been keeping the card alive just to expand my relationship with 5/3rd since I am out of state, but not really working anymore. Last summer they sent me a similar email for 5% on travel, with a 7,500 point cap.
Honestly I applied to this card just to get a 0% apr balance transfer… 12 days after all that, I get balance transfer offers from all of my CC’s.
Anyway, something happened that shouldn’t have happened. I got the $100 bonus even though I did balance transfers. It has been 4 months since then. I’m happy I got free money… And they pulled my TU
I got the 35,000 pts/$350 bonus for $1500 spend in early May. Applied and approved for a $3k limit. Only previous 5/3 relationship was a checking account in 2015 which I did for the bonus and then shut down. Hit the spend and paid off by May 30th. The bonus hit on 6/15/17. I received the exact $350 offer again and applied for a second card. Was approved for a $15k limit this time(go figure). I hit the spend on 7/7/17. I will update if the bonus hits again. I got the offer a 3rd time and I’m holding that offer until I see what happens with this one.
update: second 35000 pts posted 8/18/17.
DP – Targeted: I just received an offer in the mail for a $350 bonus with $1,500 spend in 90 days. I took the $200 checking bonus last month. I also have received two sales calls from my local 5/3 branch in the last two weeks.
I applied because a $350 bonus with no AF is fairly juicy.
On application it didn’t say “approval” but it did say to look out for the card in the next week.
Did u get any details. I applied and just received thankyou message. How do we track? It was preapproved offer and I applied immediately but no message about approval..only thank you message hope all positive.
Yes – it showed up in my online banking yesterday with a 10k CL. I still haven’t received anything via email or an official message of approval.
I received a “pre-approved” mail offer for $350 (35k points) back after spending $500 in 90 days. Also 0% APR for 12 months. My significant other also received the same thing today. Each offer has a unique id to apply with. We recently opened checking accounts with them for the bonus.
Wow, I just got an offer but only $150. I wonder what makes the difference. Planning to close my current checking account with them tomorrow so we’ll see if they try harder with future targeted marketing.
Maybe I should have included that we already closed the checking accounts as well. Opened in March and closed in April. I hadn’t considered them making larger offers to get customers back. Also, we live in NC.
You might be in luck on the next go around!
I just applied for the Truly Simple, Instant Approval CL $15,000. In FLA, think they pulled TU. I get instant alerts from EX and I didn’t get an alert. 55k income stable job, 716 TU Vantage score from Credit Karma.
I’m shocked at the CL.
Oh btw, I just got shot down for Barclaycard Ring, instant denial. I went belly up on then in 2009 with a Virgin America card $3000, does not show on cr, I guess they have a long memory. I applied for the Ring Card first, and applied for Fifth Third Truly Simple just to see if I’d hit a brick wall with new accounts recently. Obviously not.
Does anyone know if there is a minimum redemption amount to be able to apply the cash back to your account statement?
Got a mailing today that my sock drawer “Real Life Rewards” card is being converted to TRIO. The only improvement is the 3% for restaurants and the adding of drug stores to the 2% categories, but I may actually use it now for restaurants
Can you send me a pic? [email protected], thank you.
5/3 is sending out targeted mail offers for the Trio card with $150 introductory bonus for $500 spending. I suspect it’s not all that “targeted” because everyone in our household got it…
In IL, Sep 2016 opened a 5/3 rewards card for a $150 bonus (direct mail targeted offer). Pulled Transunion.