22 Things Everybody Should Know About U.S. Bank Credit Cards

US Bank doesn’t have the the most enticing credit card offerings, but they do have a few credit cards worth applying for. Before doing so (or if you already have one of their credit cards) there are a few (

  1. Before applying for any US Bank credit cards, you freeze your SageStream & ARS credit reports. US Bank checks these reports, but it doesn’t seem to help in the approval process at all, just another reason to deny you. Although you will need to have these unfrozen when you sign up for a US Bank checking account (they sometimes offer promotional bonuses, don’t need to be unfrozen if applying in branch).
  2. (Not currently able to check pre-approvals for US Bank) US Bank allows you to view your pre-approved offers before applying. This can be useful for people that don’t have great credit, just remember that this doesn’t guarantee pre-approval.
  3. There is at least one data point of US Bank merging multiple inquiries in the same day into a single hard pull. That being said, US Bank is quite difficult to get approved with.
  4. There is no hard limit to the amount of US Bank credit cards you can hold. But keep in mind that the more cards you have with them, the more difficult it is to get approved.
  5. If you are denied for a credit card with US Bank, make sure you call their reconsideration department. You won’t always get approved, but it’s worth a call anyway. If you haven’t called reconsideration before, read these tips first.
  6. US Bank won’t agree to pull a different credit report if you have the one they want to use frozen. You can’t eve  give them a PIN to access the frozen report.
  7. It’s possible to churn US Bank credit cards. Just keep in mind they are such sticklers when it comes to approval.
  8. US Bank reports your credit utilization based on what it is on the 1st of each month. This is useful to know if you need to reduce your credit utilization for FICO score purposes.
  9. You can also change your statement closing date. It might make sense to change it to just before the end of the month, that way you’ll always show a low balance (as mentioned above).
  10. When it comes to credit limits, US Bank is quite weird. They will usually do a soft pull when using the online form or via phone but this is no longer always the case. For reallocations, they don’t seem to offer them anymore
  11. If US Bank increases the sign up bonus of one of their cards that you’ve recently applied for, they should match it. US Bank don’t mess with their sign up bonuses often, so we don’t have a lot of data on them but it’s worth a try.
  12. If you cancel your card within 30 days of the annual fee posting, they’ll refund it for you. Can be useful if you forget to cancel the card before the annual fee hits.
  13. You can’t product change between brands (e.g Club Carlson to Cash+). If you do want to downgrade a US Bank branded card, then the Cash+ card is likely to be your best option with your choice of 5% categories (even if most of the good ones are gone).
  14. US Bank offers a referral program. If you want to refer one of your friends to one of their cards, then you can get a bonus of up to 10,000 points per referral.
  15. When meeting minimum spend requirements, the clock starts when your card is approved.
  16. Spend on authorized user accounts doesn’t count for minimum spend requirements. Only spend on the primary card counts.
  17. US Bank will usually waive the annual fee on FlexPerks cards when calling retention. Actually they’ll just give you enough points to offset the annual fee, but same difference really (actually a little better since you could pay the AF in cash and then use the points to get more than that value in travel redemption).
  18. It’s not possible to get sign up bonuses paid out earlier than expected. So make sure you apply with plenty of time before you want to redeem those points/miles.
  19. US Bank waives the fees on their checking account if you have one of their credit cards. This is useful when they are offering a sign up bonus on those accounts. Personal credit cards will waive the fees on personal accounts and business credit cards will waive the fee on business accounts.
  20. US Bank doesn’t report business credit cards to the personal credit bureaus which is useful for keeping your credit report cleaner.
  21. You cannot check your application status with U.S. Bank online, instead you must call them on (800) 947-1444.
  22. If you have auto-pay set up with U.S. bank they will pay the full statement balance if you make a partial payment, we’re unsure what they will do if you make the full payment.

You can view other posts in this series by clicking the links below.

If you want to discuss any of this in the comments, please do so. I’d recommend not referring to each item by it’s number, as that changes as we add in more/remove others.
    William Charles
  • On February 4, 2016, 09:00

View Comments (205)

  • For point 16- Spend on authorized user accounts doesn’t count for minimum spend requirements. Only spend on the primary card counts. I have business leverage credit card and I added an authorized user and does that mean the purchases on the AU card won’t qualify for the $7500 spend to get $900 bonus? Never heard of a bank doing that? Can anyone share any datapoints? Thank you

  • Asked for the $750 Biz Lev bonus to be upgraded to match the new $900 in branch offer on a new card that just arrived last week. Chat said no. Branch rep said no. Phone rep said to write a letter and fax or mail in copy of in branch $900 offer. Will post follow up once I have an answer.

  • I learned that once you open a business card with US Bank, the “cashback deals” on your personal card(s) disappear. These are like Amex offers. There’s no way to fix this according to a USB rep. In fact they disappear upon approval, so before I even received the new account card.

    • I wonder if you can get USB to remove the business card from your personal online account, and if that would allow the offers to appear again. (A separate business online account could be made for the business card).

      • Maybe but I doubt it since I never added the card. It showed up before I knew I was approved. The rep said she’d pass on my request to make this work for personal cards even though business are restriction.

        If others want to report this, go to the top left in the app then Help and Services, then Feedback. Also they will likely call you.

      • I had a business checking account with a biz card profile and then acquired a personal card and created another profile, wanting to keep them separate for biz purposes and all of my biz accounts/transactions showed in the personal profile. I spoke with CS and they said there is no way to separate them. I told them that I needed to have the biz separate and they said my only option was to close the personal card. Stupid, I know.

  • US Bank didn't match me to the increased bonus on the Alt Connect, think #11 needs an update

  • Sagestream is now owned by LexisNexis but I seem to still be able to freeze SageStream separately.

    Should I also freeze LexisNexis before applying for a US Bank card?

  • I recently closed my Altitude Reserve card and got the $400 annual fee reversed, but they did not claw back the dining charges I got credited off as part of the annual $325 credit, so in that 30 day window make sure you get some good food first! :D

  • Question regarding #6: I applied for a business card forgetting that my TU report was frozen (most issuers pull EXP for me), so I got the 7-10 day message. Realized my mistake a couple of days later. Verified that there have been no inquiries on any of my reports and thawed my TU. I'd rather have automatic computer review than have to call recon. If I apply again for the same card now that my report is thawed, will I get rejected for a duplicate app? What about another card? (I only applied a few days ago, so no letter yet regarding the inability to pull my report).

  • My favorite DP: when US Bank charged me a FTF fee a USD charge that originated in Mexico. I was on vacation and had the resort process the charge in USD. The rep tried to argue with me that the FTF was valid because the charge originated in Mexico. They really have the worst reps in the industry.

    • That's actually pretty common. The "Dynamic Currency Conversion" is displaying a US Dollar total for you as a convenience, but that's always a terrible deal because it's a bad conversion rate and because the charge originates outside the US, you do get hit with a foreign transaction fee. It isn't a transaction within the United States -- US Bank is correct in charging the fee (but the whole DCC thing is such a scammy practice!).

      https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/dynamic-currency-conversion/

      The solution is to always choose to be charged in the local currency and use a credit card that does not charge foreign transaction fees

  • Apparently there are two stages in their approval process: identity verification then credit underwriting, handled by two different departments. If either of those fail to clear immediately, they will put your application in pending. The phone number to the authentication department is a different number from the "recon" number listed in many places, which leads to their credit underwriting department. If you call the wrong number they will simply reroute you (which is annoying if you dropped and need to be put on hold another time to get rerouted). During verification, they will ask you some questions and send a text message to your registered phone number (for existing account holders). If you pass verification, the applications goes over to underwriting and will be processed automatically. Unless you have a problem with that also, you don't need to speak with the credit person. So if your application goes on hold, don't panic. Call them and answering a few questions might make your application flow faster.

    You might also want to log into your account when applying, because a lot of times when they see you have an existing account (same email, phone number, or social) but not logged in, they will want to verify you.

Leave a Comment