UNFCU is a credit union with limited membership (mostly restricted to workers/volunteers of the United Nations, but a full list of eligibility can be viewed here). They offer three credit cards, but the Visa Elite card is what we’ll be focusing on for this review. Let’s take a look:
- Annual fee of $50, not waived for the first year
- Card earns:
- 2x points on all restaurant & grocery purchases
- 1x points on all purchases (can be redeemed for cash at 1:1¢, minimum redemption is $100, rates are worse for gift card and other redemptions)
- No foreign transaction fees
- 0% introductory APR on purchases & balance transfers for first six months
- Chip & PIN enabled
- Priority Pass Select membership with your first five visits being free (unclear if this is annually or once off)
- Concierge Service
- Lost luggage insurance of up to USD 3,000
- Travel accident insurance of up to USD 500,000
- Complimentary trip interruption and cancellation insurance
- Identity theft protection
- Credit life protection up to USD 20,000 per member
- Credit limit of up to $100,000
Our Verdict
The 5 priority passes could be interesting if they are issued annually and you don’t already have lounge access with another card, there is also some different insurances for travel that people might find useful. I can’t see it making sense to use this card on a regular basis, as there are cards that earn at a higher rate for restaurant, grocery & every day purchases as well.
Thanks to @Sooterbc for suggesting we review this card, we’re trying to review a new card every day for a month, if you have one you’d like reviewed let us know on Twitter.
This is the worst credit card I ever had. Priority Pass was the main attraction. Authorized user won’t get the free pass unless they travel with primary card holder. Even after waiting for an year after opening the checking account and jumping through their stupid bureaucratic delays, I finally got it approved with 5K limit. 5K limit for a travel card???? What a joke?. Since I paid $50 as annual fee for an year, I will ride it out and close it. Worst card I ever had–stay away
How easy is it to join them? How did you guys join?
This reviewer is wrong, the “verdict” is misleading. He either doesn’t know or is trying to bury the fact that Priority Pass Select, which comes with this card is good for Five Free Lounge visits each and every year … and that after that, successive visits withing the same year are at just $27 each (and just $27 for guests).
What are you talking about? I specifically call out the fact that there is only 5 priority pass passes.
One important feature of this card is that it is “true chip+PIN” in that it defaults to PIN in all cases. I use my UNFCU card in Europe and it functions just like the cards issued by the European banks. My other chip+PIN cards (issued by US financial institutions) default to signature even though they have a PIN.
Wow that was fast, here is a “complete” list of all credit cards if you don’t have it already. You can just start rouletting them!
http://www.indexcreditcards.com/creditcardlist.html