WTF - Subaru Credit Card question

First off - I have not yet called Subaru/Mastercard on this...

 

I just got my statement. I spent $1400 in the last month on this Credit Card. Nothing was a big item that got returned, these were purchases all over the place.

 

How many rewards points did I earn? $0.21.

 

That's right, 21 cents.

 

Wtf? This has never happened to me before on this card. Anyone have any ideas? I'd like to go into this phone call with information if anyone has experienced this before.

 

Joe

They may have changed the criterion for points rewards.

 

On my AMEX, I get a different amount of cash back for different purchases (5% for "every-day" purchases, and 1.5% for everything else).

 

Saddly, most of my big ticket items aren't in the 5% category. Still, 1.5% is enough that I use my card for everything and just pay it off every month.

That happened on my citicard. But my rewards would equate to a .015% point system.

Oh, and all citi did was remove the 5% earnings on restaurants/gas/etc.

i thought the subaru mastercard gave 3% for any kind of purchase? (least thats whats showing up on my statements) anyone else can chime in if im wrong...

^ yeah...mine is the Subaru Mastercard from Chase. I get 3% back as subie bucks.

I applied for a Subie card earlier this year and I got rejected because I apparently applied for too many new credit cards recently...

You might have hit the "up to $500 per year" limit. It happened to me 2 months ago, and I still haven't gotten uncapped. (we moved last summer so had some major expenses run through it.)

Hmm, yeah. I thought it had been a year since I first started accruing points last year, but I now realize I'm likely to be ahead of time by about a month or two.

 

That sucks, since I would've accumulated almost 10% of the yearly points allowance.

I'm using the Subaru Chase card since Feb, but it's a PIA- they issued the card with a fairly low credit limit- nowhere near the credit limits I have for the other cards.

 

I typically put most of my monthly expenses on a card and pay them off each month. I've resorted to making a payment every two weeks to stay under the credit limit and get the benefits of the reward. In the next statement, I should get the final $200 subie bucks and then I can kick this POS to the curb. (Although I'm thinking about getting my wife signed up for one and getting another set of rewards.) I can use the subie bucks since I need an new timing belt sometime this year.

we have two Subaru bucks cards from Chase - first is on my name and the second is on my wife's name (primary card holder is what i am talking about). Now these two are the same EXCEPT for Subaru bucks accrual period - mine has a 12 months period that resets on December 31st of a calender year so I can start accruing Subaru bucks (and pennies ) on January 1st, my wife's has a rolling 12 months window - which means we can't accrue any Subaru bucks until 12 months pass since we capped the $500 last time. Discovered this by surprise also, when one huge balance brought in some change as happened to OP ...

 

So beware, and plan accordingly. That said, Subaru Master Card is still one of the best out there if you have a Subie in the garage. we have two and we rake in $1000 a year in Subie bucks I know a guy who's got 4 of them

Silly question...

 

So lets say I make a $200 purchase and in the next few days before I'm billed I pay it off. Do I earn subie bucks off the $200 even though I paid it off before I was billed?

a lot of times you have to wait until you statement passes through before you pay. Otherwise your points/cashback/rebate w.e. won't go through. I use another Citi card, but if I pay it before my statement posts, I never get the reward points.

Two cars, two cards. Eff the airlines and their frequent flyer miles.

funny u should say that because i was thinking about getting a miles card.

a lot of times you have to wait until you statement passes through before you pay. Otherwise your points/cashback/rebate w.e. won't go through. I use another Citi card, but if I pay it before my statement posts, I never get the reward points.

 

I believe the Subie Bucks are calculated on total purchases during the billing cycle - it does not matter if you pay the balance before your statement comes. This is easy to check on your statement--

Two cars, two cards. Eff the airlines and their frequent flyer miles.

 

 

Same here. Have about $800 of Subaru bucks now and will get 200-300 more before the year ends.

I believe the Subie Bucks are calculated on total purchases during the billing cycle - it does not matter if you pay the balance before your statement comes. This is easy to check on your statement--

 

 

They've taken some amount from my Subie bucks balance when I had a return on some Home Depot stuff worth of ~$200. The return happened right after the statement closed so the next one showed Subie bucks balance adjusted accordingly.

 

Also worth knowing that the user agreement varies on Subaru credit cards issued by Chase at different times. We have one opened on my name ~5 years back and it has $500 Subie bucks limit for a calendar year (Jan 1st through Dec 31st). The second card was opened on my wife's name ~3 years ago and it has $500 Subie bucks limit for a year long period - so you can't accrue more than $500 in any given 12 months time frame.

Did anyone else have their APR jacked up earlier this year? Mine went from 7.9% to 14.9%. I made 1 late payment in the ~5 years I've had the card, but that was a couple years ago. It's not because of my credit, I check my FICO score a few times a year and it hasn't changed. Even tried "if you don't lower my APR I'll close the account" but that didn't help.

Did anyone else have their APR jacked up earlier this year? Mine went from 7.9% to 14.9%. I made 1 late payment in the ~5 years I've had the card, but that was a couple years ago. It's not because of my credit, I check my FICO score a few times a year and it hasn't changed. Even tried "if you don't lower my APR I'll close the account" but that didn't help.

 

Our two Subaru cards jumped to 16.99 without any late payments. Lickily I always pay in full/on time.

 

Earning $1000/year for last five cards.

chiming in from a banking industry viewpoint.... please don't flame

 

one - rates went up across the board because the fed rate dropped so much and looks like it's going to stay. i.e. your prime +3% card was issued 5 years ago when prime was 12% making it a 15% card... prime dropped to 3.25, the card is now 6.25%. The rates were raised industry wide to compensate for the drastic swing in prime, however new credit card legislation has changed, so going forward your old balance will stay at whatever rate it was when accrued and changes to the rate only affect new balances (even when it's your fault, i.e. pay late, miss a payment). Believe it or not, banking and CC are a FOR PROFIT industry and need to make a buck to offer all these great rewards. Now if you pay it off every month, who cares what the interest is. And if you do care about interest, do not get a rewards card.

 

As for earning the points, I've found that Chase tends to accrue your points at point of sale, irregardless of when you pay it off, but as mentioned if you return something you will then be adjusted for the return, so it is possible you had a large return the same month.

 

But it seems moreso that you have met your cap of $500, especially if you routinely spend $1400/mo

 

To the comment about such a low limit on one card compared to the high limit on others... this is again in response to recent legislation and consumer feedback. If you have 5 cards with $10,000 limits then chances are you are over exposed... so now when you apply for a new card, the bank may think you are good candidate, but giving you another $10,000 in credit is a bit risky, so they offer you a small line. If you want a large line on one card, close or ask that the other lines be lowered so that your total available credit is lower. Banks look at total available credit (used or not) when calculating debt to income, because you could easily go out tomorrow and run up (using prior example) $50k in debt....