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Proponent FCU Visa Card: 2.5% on all spending with no annual fee (NJ and NC only)

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Here’s a card I haven’t heard of before: the Visa Signature card from Proponent Federal Credit Union. The card advertises 2X rewards when you spend over $1,000 per month:

The card seems to have no annual fee. A little googling took me to this document, and the no annual fee language seems to apply to both of the credit cards offered by Proponent.

The marketing language says 2X, so where does the 2.5% come from. If you look at the award catalog you’ll find you can get travel discounts at the rate of 1.25 cents per point. Other rewards are one cent per point.

Membership is limited to employees of a number of companies in North Carolina and New Jersey and their family members (which includes parents and grandparents). You can find the list of eligible employers here. There doesn’t seem to be any geography-based membership.

All in all, this isn’t that riveting given other options out there, but it’s always nice to know about another 2% card with no annual fee.

BP Visa credit card may be worth a look

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It’s been a rough start to the year and lucrative points/miles/cashback opportunities are few and far between. Which is why today I’m writing about the BP Visa, a credit card that hasn’t been covered too much but which has an interesting sign-up promotion.

I first wrote about this card a few years ago back when it was issued by Chase. The good news is that this card is no longer issued by Chase, so no worries about Chase’s stringent new credit policy. The better news is that the sign-up promotion is actually a little bit better than when I first wrote about it.

So what’s this sign-up promotion? It’s not bad, but it’s not amazing, either. It’s along the lines of the Marathon credit card deal: a good deal for some of you, not worth the effort for the rest. BP is offering a 25 cents per gallon rebate per $100 spent on all spending during the first 90 days that you have the card (it used to be 60 days). That works out to be 5% in gas rewards… but only if you have a tank that holds 20 gallons or more, since that’s what you need to maximize the value from gas discounts.

I don’t have a car with a 20-gallon gas tank, but there’s one other redemption option available: statement credits. We need to read the terms and conditions for an explanation of how this works:

You can choose to redeem your Rewards in the form of a statement credit on your Card Account. If you choose this option, the total amount of your earned Rewards will be multiplied by 15 and the product will be applied as a credit to your Card Account. For example, if you have earned $0.10 (ten cents) off per gallon in Rewards, you can choose to have $1.50 applied as a credit.

So if you multiply that 25 cents per gallon rebate by 15, you get $3.75 per hundred dollars spent, or 3.75%. And that’s on all spending (except for competing gas stations) for 90 days.

One downside: this card is now issued by Synchrony, which is not known for generous credit lines. They’ve always started out my wife and me with a line of around $1,000 or so. On the positive side, we were recently able to get a respectable credit line increase on another Synchrony card. Would this be possible as a new applicant? I have no idea.

bp visa credit card

Least secure credit card ever? A functional credit card made out of cardboard and VHS tape

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Some of you have metal credit cards, but have you ever thought about giving cardboard a try? Check this out:

It seems sketchy to make your own credit card, given that such activity is often the domain of fraudsters, but I don’t see how it’s fraud if you’re making a copy for your own account. There’s even a legitimate business that makes customized metal versions of credit cards you own. This is the same thing, just a lot more low budget. Obviously, I am not a lawyer and it’s hard to breathe these days without violating a federal law, so who knows.

I imagine creative, artsy-craftsy, do-it-yourself types could come up with some more interesting materials to make credit cards out of. Balsa wood maybe? Leather? Or maybe rubber: bounce credit cards, not checks!

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Saverocity is Journalistic in Nature, please obtain Professional Representation prior to attempting anything discussed herein. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.