I wasn’t even aware before today that there is such a thing as a Chrysler credit card–and it turns out there’s a good reason for that.
The card is issued by First National Bank of Omaha, an issuer known (to me, anyway) for having lousy credit card rewards programs. It’s not that it’s a consumer rip-off card or anything–there’s no annual fee and there’s 0% interest on purchases for the first six months.
It’s just that the rewards program is one of those geared toward people who don’t know about credit card rewards. The card earns 3 points per dollar on purchases at a Chrysler dealership, vs. 5% for Toyota / Lexus and as much as 7.5% for BMW. You get 2 points per dollar on travel, and 1% on everything else. And that’s all.
Given that most people don’t spend that much of their budget on travel and Chrysler dealerships, the Chrysler credit card is effectively a 1% card. I don’t know how much the points are worth and the website won’t let me see, but I’m pretty sure they’re not worth more than one cent each. Which makes this a great credit card for FNB but a real dog for any customer who actually uses it what with all the 2% credit cards out there. Instead of this card, you could get the Fidelity Amex or the Citi DoubleCash, of course.
But let’s not forget there’s another card that offers 2% back on all purchases and 5% back on the first $5,000 in purchases every year. That’s right: the GM credit card is a much better deal than this one, despite what this disingenuous comparison chart would have you believe.
So Chrysler credit card users, get thee to Capital One–or anywhere else, really–and upgrade your credit card.
I clicked on the comparison to GM – it cracks me up when they list as one of their features, something completely useless like “Design your own card”. It’s like they expect people to read that and think, “You mean if I get the GM card I can’t design my own?! Well, then screw that, I’m going with the Chrysler card.”
I’m not a fan of the ‘new new’ GM Card… There have been better versions of the card, which fortunately they’ve allowed folks to remain ‘grandfathered’ into.
Original No fee version had 5% up to $10K spending anually, 0% after that. One would need to spend $15,000 on the ‘new new’ card in order to equal what one got from the original one. No vehicle redemption limit on original card, but, earnings do expire 7 years (to the month) in which they were earned. Thus theoretical $4K (not $3.5K) earnings max assuming no other bonuses (which do happen).
‘Old new’ card had 5% on all spending, no earning cap, but, had those horrible vehicle redemption limits. Same 7 year expiry. For those that had high spending and flipped the vehicle every few years (i.e. lease up or something), then it was a fairly good card.
This new one is unfortunately a dud IMO. But, yes, better than this Chrysler thing…
Regardless, one really shouldn’t manufacture on the GM card anyway. They always at least offer a temporary ‘top off’ once a year to about $2K of earnings regardless of reward balance (as long as it’s not zero). One might get topped off to $3K if reward balance above $1500 or so, but, I’ve never seen a top off above $3K (not saying it doesn’t exist, but, merely pointing out that waaaay back before I got into this whole manufacturing stuff, when I actually slowly accumulated on the original card, the top offs stopped happening once I was above $3K).