This post is part of our series called “Weird Wednesdays” where every Wednesday we look at unknown or little known credit cards that might be useful. You can view more posts in the series here. I know it’s a Thursday, but I got a little sidetracked yesterday. We also posted something earlier today in this series: U.S Bank FlexPerks Reserve.
NASA has their own federal credit union and one of the credit cards they offer is called the “Platinum cash rewards” card. This card earns up to 2% cash back, but unfortunately you do not earn this 2% rate straight away. It’s tiered based on how much you’ve spent:
- First $1,000 in spend earns 1% back
- $1,001-$2,000 in spend earns 1.2% cash back
- Any spend over $2,000 earns 2% cash back
Now there are two cards that earn 2% cash back on all purchases (Citi’s Double Cash card & the American Express Fidelity card) but there used to be a few reasons as to why this card was worth a look. They used to only do a soft pull for joining the credit union and another soft pull when you applied for the card, most people are now reporting that they received a hard pull for both. They offered large credit limits (usually in the $10,000-$20,000 range) and it was relatively easy to get approved even if you had a lot of negative items on your credit report (they wanted 24 months of on time history).
Unfortunately it now looks like this shipped has sailed and it’s more negative than positives with this card.
Contents
Card Negatives
- Cashback is awarded on an annual basis. This basically makes it worthless if you’re trying to manufacture credit card spend for cash back.
- They require extra paperwork. This seems to vary from person to person, here are some of the things they have been requesting
- Recent utility bill
- Copy of a drivers license
- Notarized copy of your SS
- Getting approved is difficult. They will usually deny you for too many recent inquiries and any negative items will also lead to denial.
- You might not receive the card you want. Even if you are approved, you might not be
Final Thoughts
This card used to be a good option for those with bad credit that were in the rebuilding stages, it allowed them access to a credit card with a good rewards program and decent credit limits. Unfortunately NASA FCU has tightened the clamps and it’s now much more difficult to get this card and also results in a hard pull.
Because of this I would be hesitant to recommend this card to anybody, if you already have a Citi card that is going unused then I’d recommend downgrading it to the Citi Doublecash card, if you’re going to apply for a new card you could try getting a sign up bonus on that card or go for the American Express Fidelity which comes with a $50 bonus.
If you know any unknown or little known credit cards that you’d like me to cover, please let me know in the comments or by sending me an e-mail.
View Comments (5)
It looks like this card has changed to a flat 1.5% back.
I'm not sure if my post dissappeared, but I will try it again:
Can you explain the rewards program again? I'm confused if you just need to meet the $2,000 annually, and then after that is 2% for the rest of the year (or 12 billing cycles). Or if they apply this cashback rate formula to each individual purchase?
Thanks,
Andres
I'm confused about the rewards rules. Is this card similar to the Fidelity Visa in which you get 1.5% cashback on the first $15,000 during a "year" (in Fidelity Visa's case a year is defined as 12 billing cycles), and 2% cashback on any spend over 15k during the year?
Or, do they calculate the cashback using that recipe for each transaction individually?
For example: if I buy $10,000, the first 1k gets 1%, the next 1k gets 1.2%, and the next 8k gets 2%. Then if I make another $10,000 purchase, do I get 2% in all of the purchase, or they do the same 1% 1.2% & 2% game in the second transaction?
Hopefully it is like the Fidelity Visa and it is 2% after you have passed the $2,000 spend per year :) If so, I might consider this credit card.
It's like the Fidelity.
It's a good card. It's issued by NASA FCU themselves, so no big bank, no arbitration agreement, and you talk to actual human beings rather than press-1-to-press-1-to-press-1 hell. Also, even though it's not a Visa Signature, it has most of the perks of a signature, including purchase protection, warranty, etc.
It's also still a good card for building credit. It's just you should probably use the secured version, which still gives you the 1%-to-2% cash back thing.
I've had this card for more than 6 months. It has been a painful management experience. The card can't be paid via bill pay. Want to pay it early? You can' t with a regular check, they hold it until right before the due date. Only payment online works. And instead of payouts twice a year, it's only once a year. I am looking at the cap One spark card as a replacement, because this card is too time consuming to manage. Ps asked for a very moderate credit increase. Was a hard pull, and was denied for reasons having nothing to do with income. Haven't been denied for a card or loan in 30 years.